Does Dual Enrollment Influence High School Graduation, College Enrollment, Choice, and Persistence?
Lee, Jungmin; Fernandez, Frank; Ro, Hyun Kyoung; Suh, Hongwook (2022). Research in Higher Education, v63 n5 p825-848 Aug 2022. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1341990
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examining7,857Students, grades12-PS
Practice Guide
Review Details
Reviewed: August 2023
- Practice Guide (findings for Dual Enrollment Program – Lee et al. (2022))
- Quasi-Experimental Design
- Meets WWC standards with reservations because it uses a quasi-experimental design in which the analytic intervention and comparison groups satisfy the baseline equivalence requirement.
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Findings
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Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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College Enrollment |
Dual Enrollment Program – Lee et al. (2022) vs. Business as usual |
1 Year |
Graduated from high school subsample;
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87.30 |
80.10 |
Yes |
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| Show Supplemental Findings | |||||||||
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Enrolled in 4-year college (compared to 2-year or less-than-2-year college) |
Dual Enrollment Program – Lee et al. (2022) vs. Business as usual |
1 Year |
Attended college subsample;
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73.20 |
67.60 |
Yes |
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Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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High School Graduation |
Dual Enrollment Program – Lee et al. (2022) vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
12th graders;
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98.10 |
94.00 |
Yes |
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Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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2nd year college persistence |
Dual Enrollment Program – Lee et al. (2022) vs. Business as usual |
2 Years |
Attended college subsample;
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84.10 |
78.90 |
Yes |
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Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.
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0% English language learners -
Female: 54%
Male: 46% -
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Nebraska
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Race Asian 2% Black 3% Other or unknown 12% White 83% -
Ethnicity Hispanic 9% Not Hispanic or Latino 91% -
Eligible for Free and Reduced Price Lunch Free or reduced price lunch (FRPL) 40% No FRPL 60%
Study Details
Setting
The study focused on students enrolled in 12th grade in 2017-2018 in Nebraska public high schools.
Study sample
All students in Nebraska’s 2018 high school graduating class were eligible for the study. A total of 7,857 students in grade 12 were included in the study. Approximately 54 percent of the students were female, 0.4 percent were identified as English learners, 3 percent were identified as special education students, and 40 percent were eligible for free or reduced price lunch. In terms of their race, 83 percent were White, 2 percent were Asian, 3 percent were African American, and 12 percent were other or unknown race. Nine percent were Hispanic or Latino.
Intervention Group
Dual enrollment programs enable secondary school students to take courses at their high schools and at a local college. These courses are typically taken in a student’s junior or senior years and are typically academically focused. In Nebraska, all public school districts offer dual enrollment courses and dual enrollment courses are offered through high schools (about three-fourths of courses). About three-fourths of higher education institutions offer tuition discounts for dual enrollment courses, with the state offering scholarships to cover tuition and fees for students experiencing economic hardship or receiving federal assistance.
Comparison Group
Students in the comparison group did not take dual enrollment courses.
Support for implementation
Dual enrollment programs within Nebraska are implemented at district/local levels inconsistently. The study does not describe support for implementation.
An indicator of the effect of the intervention, the improvement index can be interpreted as the expected change in percentile rank for an average comparison group student if that student had received the intervention.
For more, please see the WWC Glossary entry for improvement index.
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The sample on which the analysis was conducted.
The group to which the intervention group is compared, which may include a different intervention, business as usual, or no services.
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The number of students included in the analysis.
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The mean score of students in the comparison group.
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Study findings for this report.
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