Educators may lament the hurdles that the No Child Left Behind Act creates for public schools, but one part of the act is almost universally beloved: emphasis on dual enrollment (DE) programs. In such programs, high school students receive both high school and college credit, a tactic that arguably helps equip the economically disadvantaged and underachieving students for college. Yet even though 38 states, including Virginia, feature dual enrollment classes, there is no way to chart the program’s success.
That’s where Heather Wathington comes in. Last month, UVA’s Curry School of Education (www.curry.edschool.virginia.edu) joined a $9.8 million, federally funded research program that will study the effectiveness of dual enrollment nationwide. Wathington, an assistant professor of education, will head UVA’s section of the five-year study with a grant of $741,000. Local stats suggest good and bad news for access: Albemarle County schools offer 13 courses with Piedmont Virginia Community College (www.pvcc.edu) for the 2006-07 school year, and a recent internal report shows that 60 percent of their graduates took at least one college-level class last year. However, only 4 percent of African-American students took advantage of dual enrollment or Advanced Placement classes.
C-VILLE: Do you have a general idea of what your research will show?
Heather Wathington: We hope that the research will show that dual enrollment is a worthwhile strategy to expand college access for low-skilled and/or average-achieving students. Our research shows that many innovations that target low-skilled students, such as remedial education, benefit them.
What are the possible results of proving the benefits of dual enrollment classes?
Hopefully, more states will adopt policies that allow low-achieving students to take dual enrollment classes, increasing college access for all. Currently, most states have dual enrollment in place for high-achieving students. Eligibility requirements, like high GPA or acceptable score on a standardized test, often bar average students from taking these courses. Virginia, however, allows all students to enroll in dual enrollment courses.
Figures suggest that many minority students do not enroll in dual enrollment classes. Is there a way to encourage participation for economically disadvantaged and minority students?
Better marketing and recruiting to specifically target these populations. Eliminating eligibility requirements might also help increase the availability of dual enrollment courses.