Elizabeth Glennie

Dual enrollment, also known as dual credit, allows students to take college courses during high school. Studies have shown that dual enrollment has a positive impact on students’ educational attainment. However, dual enrollment is complicated to implement given that it requires a partnership between a high school or district and a postsecondary educational institution. This research brief summarizes lessons learned from an evaluation of three dual enrollment partnerships in New Jersey. The evaluation found that the numbers of dual enrollment course offerings, qualified teachers, and students earning dual credit increased over 2 years. The implementation evaluation identified key components that should be in place for an effective dual enrollment program to succeed.

Dropping out of high school creates barriers to economic self-sufficiency. Career and technical education (CTE) may help students engage with school by showing the connection between school and work. Prior research has shown that high school CTE participation promotes positive academic outcomes including high school graduation. This paper uses a quasi-experimental design to examine the association between certifications and on-time high school graduation. Our findings indicate that certifications exert a meaningful influence on the likelihood of high school graduation, and that the effect is stronger for students who are at risk for dropping out or are economically disadvantaged.

In spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to switch quickly to online learning. Before then, Hawaiʻi had been expanding its dual credit program, in which high school students could take courses that would yield both high school and college credits. These dual credit programs require partnerships between high schools and colleges. RTI International conducted a multi-method analysis to examine the effect of this COVID-19–based transition to online learning on the dual credit, analyzing data from the state longitudinal data system and conducting surveys and focus groups of the University of Hawaiʻi’s instructors, high school coordinators, and high school staff involved with program. From spring 2020 to fall 2020, students took some dual enrollment courses even though offerings and enrollment declined; offerings and enrollment rebounded by spring 2021. The percentage of course-takers earning both high school and college credit remained about the same during this transition. Examining outcomes for student and school subgroups shows that male students struggled more than female students did with enrollment during this transition, and students in rural schools had a steeper decline in the rate of earning both high school and college credits. However, both groups did begin to recover by spring 2021.

Earning industry certifications helps people prepare for jobs in a range of careers. Doing so in secondary school may help students prepare for college as well. Using administrative data on two cohorts of first-time 9th graders in Florida, we examined whether earning a certification was associated with postsecondary enrollment and degree attainment and whether the timing of the certification influenced that relationship. Earning a certification in high school prepared students for success in both 2-year and 4-year colleges. However, the patterns of certifications and college enrollment and degree attainment differed based on when students earned the certification. For early earners the certification was more closely associated with enrollment and attainment at 4-year colleges; for later earners, the certification was closely associated with enrollment and attainment in 2-year colleges.

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Jobs that pay livable wages increasingly call for educational attainment beyond a high school diploma, but many of these jobs do not need a bachelor's degree. By earning industry certifications in high school, students may be better prepared for life after graduation. In 2007, Florida enacted the Career and Professional Education (CAPE) Act, through which schools receive support to give students the opportunity to earn industry certifications while in high school. Once the state enacted this policy, the number of students earning certifications increased dramatically. Using data from the Florida Department of Education’s Education Data Warehouse, we compared college enrollment and degree attainment for certification earners to non-earners. Then, we compared outcomes for earners within each career cluster (such as Architecture & Construction) to the combined results for earners in all other career clusters. Relative to non-earners, certification earners had higher rates of immediate enrollment at 2-year colleges, and higher rates of earning an associate degree. Among certification earners, few career clusters had positive associations with postsecondary outcomes relative to other career clusters.

Early colleges are a new model of schooling in which the high school and college experiences are merged, shortening the total amount of time a student spends in school. This study uses a lottery-based experimental design to examine the impact of the model on longer term outcomes, including attainment of a postsecondary credential and academic performance in 4-year institutions. Results show that a significantly higher proportion of early college students were attaining postsecondary credentials. The results also show that early college students were completing their degrees more rapidly but that their performance in 4-year institutions was still comparable with the control students.