Dual enrollment focus of study
A $400,000 federal grant will fund research to help determine the benefits of dual enrollment in Colorado, a growing trend among high school students that officials say boosts academic and real-life skills.
The two-year study will analyze the cost, college outcomes and return on investment of dual enrollment programs statewide. Dual or concurrent enrollment programs allow students to take college courses and receive earned credits while still in high school.
Previous research indicates Colorado teens who participate in dual enrollment programs enroll in college in greater numbers, earn more credits their freshman year, attain higher grade-point averages, stay in school at higher rates and need fewer remedial classes than their peers who do not participate in the programs.
The study, funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, will help determine which dual enrollment programs work best and allow for statewide expansion of those programs, said Kim Hunter Reed, executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education.
“This study will help us identify the hallmarks of successful dual enrollment programs as we look to make them universally available to Colorado students,” Reed said.
In 2009, Colorado passed concurrent enrollment legislation that provided a framework for school districts to enter into agreements with Colorado colleges and universities, enabling students to enroll in college courses tuition-free.
More than 30 percent of Colorado’s 11th- and 12graders participated in some type of dual enrollment program during the 2015-16 school year — an increase of 7.9 percent (or 2,806 students) in total participation over the previous year, according to the Colorado departments of Education and Higher Education.
Nearly 1,500 Colorado students earned some type of post-secondary credential upon graduation from high school that year, officials said.
The study will focus on the dual enrollment relationships between Denver Public Schools and Community College of Denver, Aurora Public Schools and Community College of Aurora, and Salida and Delta County school districts and Western State Colorado University in Gunnison.