On this page
Most dual enrollment research follows students to four-year universities. This one stays at the community college, where the majority of dual enrollment actually happens. The authors matched 1,232 students who enrolled at a northeast Tennessee community college between 2008 and 2012, comparing those who had taken dual enrollment in high school against those who had not. Dual enrollment students landed in remedial courses far less often and graduated on time far more often.
- Who published it
- Community College Review, 2017
- Authors
- John M. Grubb, Pamela H. Scott, and Donald W. Good
- What it is
- Peer-reviewed study
- Where the data comes from
- Tennessee
What it found
- Dual enrollment students were about 3.4 times less likely to take a remedial course.
- They were about 2.5 times more likely to graduate within two years.
- They were about 1.5 times more likely to graduate within three years.
What it does not show
- One community college in northeast Tennessee, 1,232 students. It cannot speak for other colleges or other states.
- Matching narrows the difference between the two groups, but it cannot rule out that students who chose dual enrollment differed in ways the records never captured.
How the study was done
1,232 students who enrolled at a northeast Tennessee community college between 2008 and 2012 after high school graduation, compared using propensity score matching.
Why this matters to a family
Placement in remedial courses is one of the things that stretches a degree out, so avoiding it is worth more to a family than the credits themselves.
Sources
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Reading the evidence before a decision?
Save this page and it sits on your own My FastTrack page alongside your state's deadlines and the tools. Deciding which of these findings apply to one teen, in one state, aiming at particular colleges, is what a roadmap engagement settles.