Dual Enrollment 4.0

One of the biggest questions facing learning leaders in society today is how to create a system of learning that allows for equality in opportunities for students.  There are many ways in which learning leaders can attempt to address this issue. For example, my colleagues who advocate for a fair system of school funding are doing yeoman’s work in trying to adjust a system that is more responsive to a school and community’s needs. Besides the fiscal issues there is also a need to address equality of academic opportunity for students.  There are many facets in this area that need fixed, but the one that I am going to discuss today is equality of opportunity for college credits for high school students.  Specifically, I will discuss dual enrollment.

Dual enrollment is a program where high school students take a college class while still in high school.  This has many obvious benefits.  First and foremost, most dual enrollment credits are significantly cheaper than the credits the same student will take once they are a full time student enrolled in college. Therefore, students that have this opportunity benefit financially over those students that do not have the opportunity.  Dual enrollment models have evolved over time.  I believe the latest iteration of the dual enrollment model offers the greatest promise for poor, isolated underserved students, families and communities.

The first generation dual enrollment model was rather simple, and geographically limited.  In this model, students from high schools close to a college or university could physically take classes at the college or university and receive college and high school credit for that class.  In effect, once they passed the class, they would receive a transcript from the college and get high school credit.  This model was good for those few (very few) students who lived close enough to a college campus and/or could arrange transportation to the campus.  Unfortunately for the VAST majority of students, this model did not offer any significant improvement in academic opportunity.

The second generation of dual enrollment was a slight change from the first generation model.  In the second generation model, college professors would physically (or in some cases virtually) teach students from a high school, in the high school itself.  Again, the class would count toward high school and college credit.  This model attempted to address the lack of opportunity of the first model by having one person travel instead of a large number of students.  There are two significant drawbacks to this system.  First, the matter of geography was not really addressed.  This model still favored students and schools that were located near a college campus.  Second, in this model, if a high school did not have enough students enrolled in the class, then the class would not be offered.  Since the pool of potential students in this model is limited to the high school, most smaller to midsized high schools discovered this flaw in the system.

In the third generation of the dual enrollment model there was a significant change to address the weaknesses of the first two models.  In this model, colleges and universities would certify high school teachers and the curriculum they teach and then count that high school class as a college class.  In other words, the students will be taking the same class that they normally would in their high school schedule, except that the class will also give them college credit. This model largely addressed the problem of geography.  Geography is not a deterrent for students and staff.  In effect, any college or university that chose to do so could partner with any high school located anywhere, to offer a class that would be counted both as a college class and a high school credit.  This allows for flexibility for students, families and schools to offer a certified, high quality class that will allow students to earn a college credit.  The weaknesses in this model for those of us concerned with equality of learning opportunities is that smaller and midsized high schools will still have limited opportunities to offer a class (the pool of students to choose from is too small).  The simple math is that if there is not enough students to offer the class, then the school cannot offer it and the students lose the opportunity to take the class.

The IU8 Dual Enrollment 4.0 Model seeks to address the problem that small and midsized high schools confront by not having enough students to offer a class.  In this latest iteration of the dual enrollment model, classes are decoupled from an individual high school and offered across a broad array of high schools. Thus, the pool of potential students for a class is much larger.  In our model, students take the class in a blended format meeting face to face two or three times a semester and doing the rest of the work in an online format.  The other important aspects of the IU8 model are:

·       IU8 takes care of all of the logistics.  We have the teacher, the curriculum, the learning management system and the agreements with colleges and universities. 

·       The cost is $300.00 per class for a 3 credit course.  We believe strongly that equality of opportunity for learning experiences must not have as a barrier financial cost.  We are not happy even with $300.00 and will look to lower the cost even further in the future. 

The IU8 model of dual enrollment also gives students, families and schools flexibility in how they use the courses.  We believe that the best educational (learning) decisions are made within the context of local circumstances, thus we allow local constituents to decide how they will use the courses.  For example, a school may decide to count the class as a high school credit, or they may not count it as one of their graduation requirements.  Some schools may financially assist students in taking the class, others will not… that is a local decision (as it should be).   Students and families may decide to take the class on their own and get the transcript from the university with little or no involvement from their high school.  We believe this latest iteration of the dual enrollment model gives local schools and communities the most flexibility to customize the learning experience for students.

All models of dual enrollment are being used today to help students navigate their learning environment.  All of the models have their strengths and weaknesses and we believe that dual enrollment 4.0 offers the least amount of barriers for all students across financial and geographical landscapes.