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Dual-Credit Courses and the Road to College: Experimental Evidence from Tennessee

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Every other study on this page compares students who chose dual enrollment with students who did not, which leaves open the possibility that the students were different all along. This one does not have that problem. Working with the Tennessee Department of Education, the authors randomly assigned 103 high schools to offer a new dual-credit advanced algebra course or not. The course changed what students took next: less remedial math, more precalculus and AP math. It did not change whether they went to college at all, though it did pull some of them from two-year colleges toward four-year universities.

Who published it
Annenberg Institute at Brown University, 2019
Authors
Steven W. Hemelt, Nathaniel L. Schwartz, and Susan M. Dynarski
What it is
Peer-reviewed study
Where the data comes from
Tennessee

What it found

  • Students in schools assigned the dual-credit algebra course were less likely to enroll in remedial math and more likely to take precalculus or AP math.
  • Some of those students went on to pass an AP math exam.
  • The course had no detectable effect on overall rates of college enrollment.
  • It did shift where students enrolled, from two-year colleges toward four-year universities, most clearly for students in the middle of the achievement range and those who took it in 11th grade rather than 12th.

What it does not show

  • One course, one subject, one state. Nothing here says what a history or biology course would do.
  • About a quarter of the schools assigned to offer the course had stopped offering it by the second year, which limits what the experiment can prove.

How the study was done

A randomized controlled trial with the Tennessee Department of Education: 103 high schools blocked by region, 53 assigned to offer the dual-credit course and 50 not, across the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years. Later published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

Why this matters to a family

This is the only study on the list that can claim cause, and what it shows is a course reshaping the path through high school more than the decision to go to college.

Sources

Rules change. These were checked September 2026. Confirm the current version with your school before you act on any of it.

About FastTrack Advising

. FastTrack Advising works on dual enrollment and nothing else. We help families choose college courses a high schooler can take now that will still count toward the degree later, we check every course against the transfer rules of the colleges they name, and we stay in the picture through registration so the plan gets used. When the answer for a student is to wait a term, we say that too.

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.

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