Dual Enrollment: Postsecondary/Secondary Partnerships to Prepare Students

The last decade has seen an explosion of interest in dual enrollment. In dual enrollment, high school students are permitted to take college courses and, if they pass them, earn college credit. Sometimes, as in the case of dual credit, students earn both high school and college credit for the same course. More research on how participation in dual enrollment may contribute to students’ smoother secondary-to-postsecondary transitions is needed. In the meantime, dual enrollment serves to encourage engagement among college faculty, collaborating high school teachers and staff, and motivated secondary students who are interested in higher education. Given the national problem with college persistence and completion, the fostering of such relationships can only be regarded as a positive step. This article describes some of the ways in which college faculty teaching dual enrollment courses might interact with high school personnel and their students, and it reviews the challenges and potential benefits of these relationships. This article was published in the Journal of College Science Teaching, July/August 2010.