Benefits and Disparities
Despite the questions surrounding dual enrollment, many studies suggest that it produces positive results.
“There’s been a really strong track record of evidence,” says John Fink, senior research associate at the Community College Research Center, or CCRC, at Columbia University’s Teachers College. “There have been dozens of studies that have shown different types of dual enrollment across these state contexts have positive effects.”
Students who take college courses in high school are more likely to go to, stick with, and graduate from college, for example. A CCRC study of 200,000 students who took at least one college course in high school found that 88 percent went on to college; most of those had earned associate degrees or transferred to a four-year university within five years.
The newest and most far-reaching study, released in October 2024 by Fink and his CCRC colleagues, followed 400,000 students who began to take dual-enrollment courses in the fall of 2015. It found that 8 in 10 went straight to college after high school, compared to 7 in 10 high school graduates overall; 36 percent earned bachelor’s degrees, compared to 34 percent of students who did not take dual credit; 12 percent completed associate degrees, compared to 9 percent who didn’t take dual-enrollment courses.
The study used National Student Clearinghouse data to track students’ outcomes, providing a nearly comprehensive picture of their enrollment and success in completing degrees. As in virtually all research on the topic, however, the fact that students were not randomly assigned to take dual-enrollment courses makes it impossible to know whether participating students might have been more likely to end up in college anyway.
The extent of dual enrollment’s impact also appears to vary widely, depending on where and how it’s measured.
In Florida, for instance, dual-enrollment students who went on to college were 4.5 percentage points less likely than their classmates to drop out between the first and second semester of their first year. In Illinois, dual enrollment increased a student’s odds of getting a postsecondary credential by 7 percentage points; a national study produced similar results. And in Texas, passing a dual-enrollment course increased the probability that a student would go on to college by 10 to 12 percent, depending on the subject, the UT Austin study found; Texas students who had completed at least one college course in high school were nearly twice as likely to earn a bachelor’s degree within six years than their classmates who hadn’t.
Dual enrollment also appears to reduce how long it takes to graduate from college—and therefore the cost—though by how much also differs dramatically, depending on the number and type of college courses students take in high school. A study of students already enrolled at a large university, released in February 2024 by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, found that dual enrollment had saved students an average of 30 days, which “likely makes no real difference” in the price of college.
It does pay off in other ways, however. The benefit of participating in dual enrollment exceeds its cost by $68,296 per student in Washington State, or by a factor of 17, based on the economic benefits of having a better-educated workforce less likely to require social services, the Washington State Institute for Public Policy has estimated. A separate study by the American Institutes for Research put the lifetime savings at about $58,000 per student, or a benefit-to-cost ratio of 15 to 1.
NACEP says the gains are greatest for the lowest-income dual-enrollment students, who it says are from 10 percent to 30 percent more likely to go on to college than their classmates of similar backgrounds who don’t take college courses while in high school.
But one conclusion is incontrovertible: those students are less likely to have access to dual-enrollment opportunities.
“What we’re seeing is that dual enrollment has a ton of value,” says CHSA’s Alex Perry. “But we’re not maximizing that value for all students.”
White, female, suburban students with parents who have bachelor’s degrees or higher and who also take Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses—students who are already almost certain to go on to college—are overrepresented in dual-enrollment programs. Black, Hispanic, urban, rural, low-income, and first-generation students, who might benefit the most, are underrepresented.
“The challenges are who’s benefiting and who’s being left behind,” Fink says. “It primarily has been a program of privilege and more of a college acceleration strategy” than about equity or access.
White students make up 44 percent of elementary, middle, and high school enrollment nationally, but they account for 52 percent of dual enrollment, the CCRC finds. Meanwhile, Black students comprise 15 percent of the enrollment in grades K–12 but 8 percent of dual enrollment. For Hispanic students, the proportions are 29 percent and 20 percent, respectively. A study in Illinois found that participation in dual enrollment was higher in predominantly white districts and lower in those serving low-income students and in cities. Students of parents who never finished high school are 16 percent less likely to take dual-enrollment classes than students whose parents have bachelor’s degrees and higher, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
A principal reason for these numbers is that high schools serving students in poverty are less likely to offer dual-enrollment courses than other high schools—19 percent less likely, the Government Accountability Office reports. Fewer urban than suburban high schools have it. And small high schools—those serving 200 students or fewer—are 32 percent less likely to offer dual enrollment than high schools with 1,000 or more.
“A lot of the disparity among populations is a consequence of access,” Perry says.
Even among students who do take dual-enrollment classes, there’s a stark divide between those who land in academic classes (English, biology, psychology) and those who end up taking college-level career and occupational subjects such as construction management and HVAC technology, according to that UT Austin study. Higher achievers, women, and white students were more likely to opt for academic courses, while Black and low-income students disproportionately found themselves in career and technical education. “The differences are very stark in terms of who takes those classes,” says Schudde, the study’s co-author. “The demographics are very different.”
There are other concerns stirring just below the surface of this seemingly win-win education policy.
One is the overlap between the dramatic decline in enrollment at community colleges and the rapid growth in the number of high school students taking classes from them, triggering suspicion about the extent to which these colleges are using dual enrollment as a strategy to fill seats.
After all, nearly three-quarters of dual-enrollment students take courses at, or in programs overseen by, community colleges. Without them, the already unprecedented 27 percent decline in enrollment at community colleges from its peak in 2010 to 2022 would have slid to an even worse 36 percent.
The only enrollment category that has grown for community colleges since the 2008 recession consists of students under age 18, according to the American Association of Community Colleges. They made up a fifth of students taking community college courses nationwide in 2022–23; in Idaho and Indiana and at 37 community colleges nationwide, they accounted for more than half. Across all postsecondary institutions, undergraduate enrollment among dual enrollees 17 and younger rose by more than 7 percent in fall 2024 over 2023, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
“Community colleges are hurting for students, so they’re scrounging them wherever they can find them. And this high school market is huge,” Finn says.
