Revisiting Dual Credit
A recent DLC blog post—Is dual credit over-hyped?—sure struck a nerve. Quite a few people wrote in to explain why their dual credit programs didn’t exhibit the problems mentioned in the post, and we had a spirited discussion on our monthly Digital Learning Collaborative Executive Committee calls in which members made similar points.
What were the issues raised in the original post? A quick summary: (note that the paragraphs which follow are from a Christenson blog post that served as the jumping off point for the DLC dual credit commentary)
“States throughout the country are pushing dual-credit programs in which high school students take college courses for both college and high school credit.
Their logic is admirable. Learn higher-order concepts. Save time and money toward a degree by earning transferrable college credits while in public school so you don’t accumulate debt.
And yet, because there’s no external validation in place to ensure that students are mastering “college-level” learning, the policy is fraught with problems; and, worse yet, shaky promises to students that could turn out to be misleading at best.
(Snip)
For students who take concurrent college courses under the belief that those credits will help them graduate faster, they may have a rude awakening. That’s because first-time students who transfer lose 43% of their credits on average.”
The main counter argument that we heard from DLC members was, basically, “we’re not making those mistakes.” Jeff Simmons, Superintendent of the Idaho Digital Learning Alliance, laid out his points in a follow-up email.
[Regarding] "there's no external validation to ensure that students are mastering 'college-level' learning..." The external validation we have in our program is that every teacher and every course we offer as Dual Credit has to be approved by the cooperating college or university. Our teachers are vetted to the same standards the college or university would use to vet an adjunct instructor. Our curriculum must also be approved by the cooperating faculty member at the college or university to ensure it meets the same criteria as the course taught at the college or university. Often this includes using the same textbook or a common final assessment. From our perspective, this is the validation necessary to ensure that dual credit courses taught in high school assess students at the same level as those same courses taught at the college or university.
[Regarding the point] "...in many high schools, the neighboring community college trains the high school teachers to deliver the community college course." This is accurate. To create a sustainable pool of dual credit teachers, colleges or universities often offer coursework for certified high school instructors to ensure they have the content knowledge needed to deliver the course. A counter-argument could be that dual credit instruction provided by a certified high school teacher is better than a student's experience directly with the college or university. A high school instructor has a degree in education, a teaching and learning background, AND the knowledge needed to deliver the content. A background in teaching and learning is not a prerequisite for a college or university instructor.
Our State Board of Education also ensured that credits transfer smoothly between in-state public institutions. In addition to coordinating credit transfers with registrars from each college and university (a huge lift), they partnered with IDLA to create Course Transfer. This site helps students see how their credits will transfer between in-state institutions. It is an excellent resource for dual credit students, parents, and high school counselors.
Idaho has created GEM courses. The title refers to core courses that should transfer in-state as is. You can also find a list of those on the CourseTransfer site.
Finally, Jeff shared our discussion with the Idaho State Board of Education, which responded:
The article cites a statistic that first-time students who transfer lose 43% of their credits on average. That statistic is actually not specific to dual credit – it covers all transfers. There is no indication on whether or not dual credits are more likely to be transferred than other credits.
We also heard from Lorna Bryant, Director of Career Solutions for Pearson Virtual Schools, who placed the dual credit discussion in a larger context:
Our focus is to provide students with as many opportunities as we can, as early as we can, to help them be fully prepared to select the post-secondary option that fits their personal journey. Central to that focus is doing away with the notion of an ‘either/or’ path to a successful career i.e. “Either you go to college and earn a degree OR you opt to pursue a path to immediate employment upon graduation.”
Through a partnership with Coursera and Acadeum, we are providing students with multiple opportunities to earn dual credit and benefit from dual enrollment prior to graduating from high school. We know that transferring college credits earned in high school (whether through dual credit or dual enrollment) is not a guarantee, and acceptance of those credits largely depends on the institution that the student chooses to attend. However, colleges are increasingly taking industry content/certificates and embedding them in their own courses, or awarding Credit for Prior Learning - rather than simply determining whether they should award credit for core academic courses.
Also, we are connecting with in-state colleges to secure credit transfer for students who demonstrate eligibility. In addition, we are actively working in the states and with the Connections Academy schools to connect with local businesses to secure and surface opportunities for student internships and mentorships.
We believe that the more viable options we present to students, the more likely they are to learn demonstrable skills (both technical and durable) that will better position them to successfully apply to/attend college, obtain an internship, or get a job. A student that can earn a high school credit, an industry recognized credential, and a few college credits simultaneously is a student with a solid head start on the career path they ultimately choose to pursue.
Other DLC members are offering dual enrollment as well. Edison Learning issued a press release just this week that announced new dual enrollment options:
Students at EdisonLearning partnership schools will be able to select what Dual Enrollment courses, and colleges they prefer, which are the same options offered to the general population. All courses will be provided virtually with college faculty delivering the instruction.
These are just a few of the dual credit/dual enrollment options being offered by DLC members.
The original Christensen post concluded with this statement:
Dual-credit programs in high school are surely well-intentioned. But because there aren’t clear quality standards in place for what they mean, high schools and states that push them risk selling their students a bill of credits that likely lack value.
The response from DLC members, including IDLA, Pearson, and Edison as quoted above, demonstrates that some online schools and providers are stepping in to support strong outcomes even in the absence of national quality standards. Like so much of education, the key is in the quality of implementation.