As dual credit participation grows in Illinois, study shows gaps
widening
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[December 29, 2023]
By PETER HANCOCK
Capitol News Illinois
phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD – As the cost of higher education continues to rise in
Illinois and elsewhere, a growing number of students are working to earn
as many college credits as possible while they are still in high school.
But even as the popularity continues to grow for “dual credit” offerings
– courses in which a student earns credit toward both a high school
diploma and a college degree – a new study shows disparities between
racial, economic and geographic groups are also widening.
According to the study, dual credit programs are more prevalent in
districts that serve rural communities and small towns in downstate
Illinois than in suburban and urban districts. They are less prevalent
in districts that serve minority and lower-income students.
And even within individual districts, the study found that white
students and those from more affluent backgrounds were more likely to
enroll in and complete dual credit courses than minority students or
students from lower-income households.
The study was conducted by the Illinois Workforce & Education Research
Collaborative, or IWERC, a research arm of the University of Illinois
System’s Discovery Partners Institute, which works to develop the
state’s high-tech workforce and economy.
Dual credit courses are offered through partnerships between high
schools and postsecondary institutions.
According to the study, a small number of dual credit courses are
offered through public four-year universities, but the overwhelming
majority – about 97 percent – are offered through local community
colleges. As a result, the courses offered in any given high school are
strongly influenced by the policies and programs of the community
college district that overlaps with the high school district.
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Sarah Cashdollar, an IWERC researcher and author of the report, said in
an interview that details of those partnership agreements may help
explain some of the disparities between school districts and between
different geographic areas.
“It is costly to provide dual credit, especially for community
colleges,” she said. “Depending on the partnership, it can also be
costly for the school district. And so there might be variation in terms
of how community college districts have managed those costs.”
Although students typically pay some tuition to enroll in a dual credit
course, Cashdollar said the cost is typically only a fraction of what
students would pay otherwise, which is one of the reasons why dual
credit programs help lower the overall cost of higher education.
In recent years, Illinois lawmakers have taken several steps to make
dual credit programs more accessible and affordable.
Among those actions is the Dual Credit Quality Act, first passed in 2010
and amended several times since then, which requires public colleges and
universities to accept credit from those courses if a standard agreement
is in place. It also requires community colleges to enter into dual
credit agreements with any high school in their district that requests
one.
The Education Workforce Equity Act, passed in 2021, provides that
starting this year, high school students who meet or exceed state
standards on their annual assessments in English language arts, math, or
science may automatically be enrolled the following year in the next
most rigorous level of advanced coursework offered by the school. For
seniors, that must include a dual credit, Advanced Placement, or
International Baccalaureate course.
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Dual credit programs that allow students to earn both high school
and college credit simultaneously are more available in southern
Illinois districts than in other parts of the state. (Credit:
Illinois Workforce & Education Research Collaborative)
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And this year’s state budget includes just over $3 million for community
colleges to help them lower the cost of dual credit programs.
Despite those efforts, however, the study found that while overall
participation in dual credit programs has grown – from 10.2 percent of
high school students in the 2018 school year to 14 percent in 2022 – the
racial and economic disparities in participation rates and completion
rates has widened.
That was due mainly to the fact that participation rates grew more
slowly among students of color and students from lower-income
backgrounds than they did among white and Asian students and students
from more affluent backgrounds.
Cashdollar noted those kinds of achievement gaps are similar to the gaps
that researchers find in other aspects of education, including college
enrollment rates and college completion rates. And because dual credit
programs are, by definition, intended for students who aspire to
continue their education beyond high school, she said the gaps point to
differences in the types of students who are seen as being
college-bound.
She said prior research on the topic has found the biggest predictor for
racial gaps in students enrolled in dual credit was enrollment in
accelerated coursework taken prior to high school.
“So who are those kids who are in the gifted classes? Who are taking
algebra in eighth grade? Who are the kids in the honors program, maybe
at the middle school?” She said. “And it's kind of like, that sets the
wheel in motion in terms of who is then either tracked into these
higher-level courses, who is thinking about themselves as the type of
kid who takes these courses.”
The report recommends the state continue investing in efforts to make
dual credit programs more accessible and affordable but that it focus on
increasing dual credit offerings in districts that currently have the
lowest participation rates, especially urban and suburban districts.
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“Only by attending to these issues of representation can the potential
for (dual credit) coursework to reduce inequities in postsecondary
educational attainment be fulfilled,” the report concludes.
Editor’s note: The IWERC study was funded by a grant from The Joyce
Foundation, a private, nonpartisan philanthropy organization whose
mission is to invest in public policies and strategies to advance racial
equity and economic mobility. The Joyce Foundation provides matching
funds for donations received by Capitol News Illinois during our
end-of-year fundraising campaigns. Capitol News Illinois donors,
including the Joyce Foundation, have no influence over our news coverage
or story selection.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news
service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of
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the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation,
along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation
and Southern Illinois Editorial Association. |