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ACT’s most recent Condition of College and Career Readiness report suggests that a sizable population exists of students eligible for dual enrollment programs. This is in part why ACT recently released a set of recommendations that aims to increase the number of high school students in dual enrollment programs.
The recommendations in ACT’s report Using Dual Enrollment to Improve the Educational Outcomes for High School Students shines a light on the challenges these programs are up against and what needs to be done to address them.
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Students shouldn’t have to pay for their dual enrollment courses.
Funding is a big concern for increasing student participation, especially when it comes to low income and first-generation students.
The federal government plans to experiment using Pell grants to fund dual enrollment next fall while a growing number of states, including Maryland and Virginia, have reduced or eliminated tuition to encourage lower-income families to participate.
Another option to consider is industry partnerships that will help offset your costs. The Education Commission of the States has found that several states that are attempting to improve access to dual-enrollment programs have covered costs through public-private partnerships.
Educators should be properly trained to teach dual enrollment courses – and they need sufficient access to such training.
The Higher Learning Commission requires high school teachers of dual credit courses to have a master’s degree (or at least 18 graduate-level credit hours) in the subject they are teaching, which could potentially cause a shortage of educators.
ACT recommends that states develop a teacher improvement fund, or use federal professional development funds available in Title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, to support high school teachers in obtaining the necessary certification for dual enrollment programs.
Students should be prepared to meeting the challenge of dual enrollment coursework and their progress should be regularly monitored to ensure learning objectives are met.
It can be quite overwhelming for high school students to take courses on a college campus, which is why ACT recommends students who take a course on a college campus must be made aware of available academic supports and encouraged to take advantage of them.
Online resource should be available to students who don’t have convenient access to a postsecondary institution.
Especially for students in rural areas, accessibility to post-secondary institutions isn’t always ideal.
While ACT believes online resources can help it also recognizes that bandwidth and connectivity issues should be addressed so that students in these rural areas even have access to such online resources.
You can read the full recommendations here. What do you think — do they do enough?
