This quantitative study examined the impact of Advanced Placement (AP) and Dual Enrollment (DE) on early college academic performance by analyzing and comparing first year and sophomore year persistence rates and grade point averages (GPAs) of four student cohorts who began their education at a large urban research I university in fall 2007. These cohorts of fall 2007 first year and first time college admits comprise students who earned college credits in high school by participation in Credit Based Transition Programs (CBTPs), specifically AP and DE, and students who did not earn college credits during high school. This study has contributed to literature examining the relationship between earning college credits in high school and early college academic performance. CBTPs were created for the benefit of high school students and the K-16 educational system. These programs were specifically created and implemented to introduce students to the rigors of college and ease the academic and social transition from high school to college. Student AP and DE participation increases yearly (The Fifth Annual, 2009; Kleiner & Lewis, 2005) and the first year of college is pivotal in terms of student retention (Astin, 1984; Bailey & Karp, 2003; Bailey, Hughes, & Karp, 2002; Cohen & Brawer, 1996; Coomes & Debard, 2004; Klekotka, 2005; Kuh, 2005; Light, 2001; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005; Plucker, Chien, & Zaman, 2006; Tinto, 1987). These are the two primary impetuses for studying this phenomenon. This study utilized multiple chi-square, Pearson correlation, multiple regression, oneway ANOVA, and ANCOVA statistical analyses. These analyses provided ample data for answering the research questions. The sample comprised four cohorts of first year, first time college, students entering a large urban research institution in fall 2007. 1) students entering with only Advanced Placement (AP) credits ("AP" cohort), 2) students entering with only Dual Enrollment (DE) credits ("DE" cohort), 3) students entering with both AP and DE credits ("AP and DE" cohort), and 4) students entering with no college credits ("Non AP and/or DE" cohort. Statistical analyses presented results showing no statistically significant difference in early college academic performance amongst the cohorts in the study. / Educational Administration

<p dir="ltr">The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) clarified and revised the credentialing standards for concurrent enrollment (CE) instructors of liberal arts courses in 2015 with an implementation date of 2017. With the revised credentialing standards resulting in roughly two out every three CE instructors needing additional graduate level coursework to maintain their CE credentials, HLC created a five-year grace period, followed by multiple extensions, for CE instructors to update their credentials. However, during this period only approximately half of the CE instructors completed the additional coursework. The possible loss of half of the total number of liberal arts CE instructors under HLC accreditation places many CE programs’ sustainability in jeopardy.</p><p dir="ltr">This dissertation encompasses two studies that investigated why CE instructors did or did not complete the additional coursework needed to maintain the CE credentials, a topic that has yet to be explored in research. The first study investigated the issue directly from the CE instructor perspective. The second study on the topic was approached through the lens of CE high school administrators. Principal-agent theory was the theorical framework from which data and findings were viewed and produced. Implications for the CE field, future research angles on the topic, and policy recommendations are offered.</p>

Wytheville Community College implemented the Dual Credit English program in 1988 following the Virginia Community College System's adoption of the Virginia Plan for Dual Enrollment. Essentially, the program allows qualified high school seniors to enroll in the college's freshman-level ENG 111: College Composition I and ENG 112: College Composition II courses while simultaneously completing senior English. The guarantee of college credit for students who earn at least a "C" average and other cost-saving and time-saving features have contributed to the increased popularity of the program in recent years. This institutional study examines multiple facets of the program and determines program strengths and weaknesses. The dissertation provides historical data on the rationale for the program and presents perspectives from various constituencies involved in the program, including community college administrators, high school administrators, community college English faculty, dual credit English faculty, program graduates, and currently enrolled dual credit English students. The study found that both the community college and high schools are committed to providing dual credit English courses that are of comparable quality to the college's regular freshman composition courses. Generally, students and graduates reported a high rate of satisfaction with the program. Students benefit monetarily from the program because the public school systems, not individual students, pay tuition costs. Also, students save time by accumulating college credits while still enrolled in high school and, thus, are often able to complete college degrees in a shorter time frame. Articulation agreements guarantee the transferability of dual credit English courses to most state-supported colleges and universities. The study also discusses relevant administration issues such as curriculum development, placement policies and procedures, faculty selection, and program evaluation. Administrators strongly support the program, pointing out that it helps build student confidence and encourages students to consider higher education opportunities. Faculty perception varies, with community college faculty expressing concerns about student preparation and philosophical issues related to combining senior English with freshman composition. Dual credit English faculty, on the other hand, generally expressed more positive views, noting many of the same benefits students had cited. The final chapter summarizes program successes, identifies concerns, and makes recommendations for improvements in the dual credit English program. / Ed. D.

abstract: This dissertation investigates the origins of dual enrollment (DE) writing courses that give students the opportunity to receive college credit for writing in high school. While no previous research dates DE programs to before the 1970s, this dissertation analyzes the development of the self-proclaimed “longest-running” DE program that began at the University of Connecticut in 1955. In this work, I contend that the University of Connecticut’s DE program began as a complacent act that further advanced already privileged (white affluent) students and further marginalized students of color, which extends marginalizing aspects of the origins of the first-year writing requirement. I first establish the historical, social, and political context for the development of DE programs at the University of Connecticut with an overview Brown v. Board of Education, whites’ resistance to integration, and the white complacency of citizens in Connecticut in the 1950s. Using whiteness theory and feminist research methods, archival research conducted at the University of Connecticut focused on the development of DE programs shows an institutional absent presence, that is, there is an absence of reference to Brown, integration, or race of students where it concerns the construction, inception, and operation of the first DE writing courses. And finally, an attempt at a disparate impact analysis of current assessment practices that determine enrollment in DE writing courses highlights access and assessment as a connection between the history and the present state of DE programs and DE composition courses. With the inclusion of DE composition, my dissertation project fills at least some of the identified gap in historical research in Rhetoric and Composition Studies during the 1950s and extends arguments of how white complacency has and continues to influence the field and first-year writing. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2018

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Wyoming, 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Nov. 13, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 102-104).

This dissertation examines the history, funding, structure, efficacy, and challenges of dual enrollment programs in English (and more specifically in First-Year Composition, FYC, courses) that provide access to higher education for high school students prior to graduation, as these programs have developed and currently operate in the United States. At the center of this qualitative study is a cross comparison case study designed to reveal the quality and nature of the academic discourse that characterizes two class sections of a first-year composition course in one northern, NJ community college campus as compared with two class sections of (ostensibly) the same course offered in one feeder high school in its dual enrollment program. This inquiry will draw on interviews, course artifacts, classroom discussions, and one essay assignment from each class along with research memos and fieldnotes for data to use in a discourse analysis informed by the practice and theory of Gee (2011) and Moffett (1968, 1982). Through such a discourse analysis, this study aims to reveal the extent to which these classes are conducted in ways that are consistent with the aims and cultural practices of first-year composition courses as they are defined by leading composition theorists, current research, and the policy and best-practice documents of the relevant professional organizations. This cross-comparison case study will also provide insight into how the quality and character of a DE Program in FYC may be linked to the quality and character of the administrative oversight of a college’s DE Programs. Beyond the close analysis of DE courses in FYC in one typical and representative community college this dissertation will also focus on the broader problem of developing, operating and evaluating DE programs in FYC in any college. The most widely respected dual enrollment programs in first-year writing have been guided in their development by their affiliation with various national professional organizations and research centers that have provided policies and standards that apply to DE programs in any field. What has been missing, however, is a set of practical guidelines and principles for practice designed specifically for DE Programs in First Year Composition, and informed by sound theory and current research in the teaching and learning of writing, while also drawing on the experience of exemplary DE Programs in FYI, and whatever wisdom is available from professional organizations and research centers. Many community colleges, where dual enrollment programs are most often located, do not have the resources to seek guidance from professional organizations or conduct their own research into best practices for each of the DE courses they might want to establish. A secondary aim of this dissertation, then, is to fill this gap for DE Programs in First Year Composition by providing a research based, theoretically sound, and practice-oriented set of guidelines and procedures for developing, operating, and assessing dual enrollment programs in First Year Composition for use most particularly in community colleges.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether variations in student achievement in college courses exist between high school students who took the courses as dual enrollment (DE) courses and academically comparable high school students (AIMS scholars) who took the courses upon matriculation to college. Additionally, the researcher explored whether differences exist in DE course grade for students by course environment (online, face-to-face at a high school, or face-to-face at a college.) The researcher used final course grades as determinants of student achievement. The study focused on DE student and AIMS scholar grades in English 111, Biology 101, Math 163, and History 101 courses that were taken between the 2009-2010 and 2013-2014 school years at a community college in Southwest Virginia. The population consisted of 429 AIMS scholars and 2,015 DE students. For this study 3,639 DE student grades and 706 AIMS student grades were used in calculations. The dependent variables in this study were final course grades; the independent variables were DE participation and course delivery environment. Welch’s t tests were used to examine the variations in final grades for DE and non-DE students; ANOVA procedures were used to examine variations in final course grades for DE courses based on delivery environment. The quantitative findings revealed that students who took English 111, Biology 101, Math 163, and History 101 as DE courses performed significantly better than academically comparable peers who had not taken the courses as DE. Additionally, findings indicated that students who took English 111 as a DE course on a college campus performed significantly lower than students who took English 111 as a DE course either online or face-to-face at high school. Similarly, students who took Math 163 as a DE course on a college campus performed significantly lower than students who took the DE course online or face-to-face at a high school. History 101 students who took the course online performed better than students who took the same course face-to-face at a high school. There were no significant differences in student achievement in Biology 101 based on DE course environment.

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant relationship between students who entered a Tennessee university for the first time in the fall of 2014 who had earned either Advanced Placement (AP) or dual enrollment credit and their college readiness and 1-year college retention. College readiness was defined by students’ American College Testing (ACT) sub scores in English, reading, and mathematics. The Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) regulates the minimum sub score for each sub section that a student must obtain to be college ready. College retention was defined by students who enrolled at the university in the fall of 2014 and reenrolled in the fall of 2015 at the same university. The independent variables for this study were AP credits received in AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, AP Statistics, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, and dual enrollment credit received in any course. The dependent variables for this study were college readiness as defined by TBR and fall-to-fall retention. A series of chi-square tests of independence was performed to examine the differences in college readiness and fall-to-fall retention between students who had earned AP or dual enrollment credit and those students who had not. The quantitative findings revealed that there is a significant relationship between students who enroll in their first college year with AP English or math credit or dual enrollment credit and first year retention rates when compared to students who do not reenroll with AP English or math credit or dual enrollment credit. The results indicated there was no difference in students who enrolled with AP English or math credit and students who enrolled with dual enrollment credit regarding their fall-to-fall retention rates. AP English credit increased the likelihood that a student was college ready in both English and reading based on TBR determinations of college readiness. Credit in an AP mathematics course also increased the likelihood that a student was college ready in math based on TBR determinations of college readiness.

Dual credit, which allows students to simultaneously earn high school and college credit for the same course, is widely-implemented across the country. Dual credit is thought to promote student success in higher education. However, there is limited research on whether dual credit courses taken in high school positively influence college-level outcomes. Using Ordinary Least Squares and Logistic analysis to control for student background characteristics, this study examines the relationship between dual credit and student success in college, specifically freshman grade point average and college graduation. The study examines an existing dataset from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board that includes approximately 35,870 students. Results suggest that dual credit positively influences college outcomes. / text

Thesis (M. P. A.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 39-40).