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This Month's Feature

College Credit in High School: Access and Success for Low-Income and Minority Students

Students benefit academically, developmentally, and economically by taking courses for college credit during high school. Frequently options such as Advanced Placement (AP) courses, International Baccalaureate (IB) programs, and dual-credit partnerships with colleges are only open to “college track” students. However, many schools have developed successful strategies to expand the number of minority students, low-income students, and those without college in their family background who take advantage of these offerings.

Why taking post-secondary credit courses is important

A popular argument against college credit options is “not all students need college.” However, in 2002, 80 percent of 10th-graders nationally said they expected to earn a bachelor’s degree or higher (Roderick, 2006). Most students are aware of the 21st century reality that college attainment is closely tied to economic success. Even students who are headed to work after graduation need college level preparation. The reading, mathematics, critical thinking, and communication skills needed in family wage jobs closely mirror college success skills (ACT, 2006; Peter D. Hart Research Associates/Public Opinion Strategies, 2005). These students may also change careers at some point in their futures, requiring additional schooling.

Challenging courses can focus student learning on the critical thinking and writing skills they’ll need to succeed in college. Research suggests that one of the major reasons that students falter in college is the gap between their high school experiences and college expectations (Conley, Aspengren, Stout, & Veach, 2006). The academic benefits bear fruit in the years following high school, especially for nontraditional students. Participation in college credit options is related to higher rates of college enrollment, persistence, and graduation for minority students (WICHE, 2006). Students who have taken college credit options are more likely to select four-year institutions. About 25 percent of low-income students enroll in such institutions, compared with 3 percent of their peers without college credit (WICHE, 2006).

Developmentally, students who do college level work while still in high school may begin to see themselves as college bound. Exposure to college level curriculum, receiving college recruitment materials, and interaction with high-achieving peers may reinforce this (Hoffman, 2003). Students who experience these challenges within a supportive, personalized high school environment may have greater success than during the more independent college years.

Dual-enrollment programs can shorten the time it takes to earn a college degree, which lowers student costs (Hoffman, 2005). Even students who do not receive college credit (for example, because of low scores on AP exams) may still avoid paying for noncredit remedial courses at the college level (WICHE, 2006).

Growing enrollment of nontraditional students

The good news is that more minority students are enrolling in AP courses than ever before, although there is still a large gap between white and Asian students and other ethnic groups. Minority AP examination taking increased dramatically between 1997 and 2005, by 177 percent for African American students and 213 percent for Latino students (Planty, Provasnik, & Daniel, 2007). In addition, low-income students have increasing access to the comprehensive IB program; about 30 percent of IB schools in the United States receive federal Title I funds (Cech, 2007).

How have schools and districts improved access to college credit options?

Review guidance and advisement practices

Some schools put out the welcome mat to college credit options. “Encourage them to try it,” says Assistant Principal Sue Voight of Forest Grove High School in Oregon. In Forest Grove’s advisories, students and their advisors review ACT PLAN test scores to help students identify areas of strength and figure out which AP courses they should challenge themselves in.

Eliminate prerequisites and other barriers

Cultural and institutional barriers can discourage minority students from taking high-level classes. Institutional barriers can include prerequisite courses, applications, and teacher recommendations. Voight of Forest Grove points out that their AP courses are “open to anyone who wants to try. We don’t penalize them if it doesn’t work out.”

Cultural barriers may be less easy to remove. Anecdotal evidence is common that some students feel discouraged from taking on a challenge. One student in a focus group said counselors discouraged African American AP enrollment. The student reported being told, “‘You want to take an AP class? You shouldn’t. I wouldn’t recommend it’” (WICHE, 2006). Students may also fear heavy workloads, low grades, and scheduling conflicts (WICHE, 2006). Under-represented students may have inconsistent attendance or high mobility, which can also make participation difficult.

Lessen financial barriers

Students from low-income families are the most vulnerable to being left out of college credit options unless direct costs, such as tuition, books, transportation, materials, and exam fees, are covered (WICHE, 2006). Some states have programs to pay tuition for dual-enrollment programs.

Reach out to existing college programs

Many colleges already have programs that invite high school students onto their campuses to take courses, send professors to high schools to teach, or certify high school teachers to teach college-level courses at the high school—all for college credit. Looking into resources in your area can help you to plug into existing programs.

Supports for college credit success

Providing access is just the beginning. Schools that increase success rates for nontraditional students often implement structural, instructional, and cultural changes. Reducing class size, increasing instructional time, and offering the supportive structure of a smaller learning community (SLC) are three common structural adjustments.

In an SLC environment, there can be a tension between offering college credit options and scheduling students and teachers fully in interdisciplinary teams. Some schools offer college credit options in all SLCs. The Academy of Irving in Irving, Texas, provides career-related dual-credit options for students in each of their six academies. Beyond offering AP in each SLC, some schools actually require all students to enroll in a college credit option. In 2005, North Eugene High School in Eugene, Oregon, required all 260 juniors to take a rigorous yearlong AP language and composition class (Williams, 2005). Since these classes were the default for all students, it simplified scheduling. Another example is Early College High Schools, which provide two years of college credit to all students.

Instructional changes within college credit courses can be coupled with instructional changes throughout the school to improve student readiness and success.

Broaden teaching methods in college-credit courses

In many schools, college credit teachers change instruction to enhance student success. When open enrollment was implemented in her AP English class, Joan Kernan Cone, a teacher at El Cerrito High School, in El Cerrito, California, modified her teaching techniques to include more modeling of tasks, thoughtful approaches to creating a collaborative atmosphere, group preparation for national exams, and student leadership of discussions and text choices. Cone used feedback from interviews and surveys of students to improve her approach each year (Cone, 1992).

Mirror college credit skills throughout a rigorous curriculum

To be prepared to succeed in college level courses, students need a rigorous sequence of courses from the beginning of their high school career. Schools can analyze course-taking data to ensure all students are taking the on-grade level courses they need to prepare for college credit options. Some schools, like Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, California, have eliminated below-grade level courses so that all ninth grade students start, at minimum, in the biology, algebra, ninth grade English, and world history classes that put them on track to meet California state college entry requirements and participate in college credit options.

Lower grade courses can scaffold the skills and concepts that will be needed in college level courses. Some schools focus on strong basic skills for ninth- and tenth-graders by double blocking reading and math courses for students who enter behind. Some schools map their lower level course curriculum against AP course offerings so that students acquire the necessary skills and concepts. The Middle Years Program introduces IB to seventh- through tenth-graders by exposing students to interdisciplinary concepts and critical thinking skills.

Eric Hofmann, Associate Director of the College Now program at the City University of New York, says that students need college-like concepts. Says Hoffmann, “The disciplines, as defined in college, are completely different from what students think they are. Students think psychology is about self-knowledge and deviance rather than brain chemistry, cognitive science, and experimental design. A lot of students withdraw from college level courses or don’t do well. So a preparatory course would be a theme-based study of seminal psychological experiments. What were the experimenters looking for? How did they design an experiment to answer their questions?”

Providing a supportive community for nontraditional students

Beyond instructional practices, some schools provide social and emotional supports to nontraditional students. Wakefield High School, in Arlington, Virginia, addressed a low enrollment of African American and Latino males in AP courses through a supportive cohort program. Students participate in weekly lunch meetings with staff coaches, college trips, and trust-building activities. All seniors in the first cohort group enrolled in college following graduation, with the vast majority enrolling in four-year schools (Beitler, 2004).

Professional development

To increase access to college credit options, many more qualified teachers are needed. Most college credit options offer curriculum training to teachers. Teachers may also need training in differentiated instruction to target instructional techniques to the needs of nontraditional students. Teachers collaborating on expanding college credit options may lead to other kinds of professional growth. Eric Hofmann, of College Now, says that one of the biggest advantages of high school teachers teaching college courses is frequent interaction with professors. “Any time we have college and high school teachers come together, we think that we can narrow the gap a little bit between college and high school curriculum and college and high school expectations. High school and college are very different places. We want high school teachers aware of what they are sending kids into. We want college faculty to know where their kids are coming from,” said Hofmann.

Reference List

ACT. (2006). Ready for college and ready for work: Same or different? Iowa City, IA: Author. Retrieved November 29, 2007, from www.act.org/path/policy/pdf/ReadinessBrief.pdf

Beitler, A. (2004). Making this team. Principal Leadership, 5(4), 16-21.

Cech, S.J. (2007, October 31). With world growing smaller, IB gets big. Education Week, 27(10), 22-24.

Cone, J.K. (1992). Untracking Advanced Placement English: Creating opportunity is not enough. Phi Delta Kappan, 73(9), 712-717.

Conley, D.T., Aspengren, K., Stout, O., & Veach, D. (2006). College Board Advanced Placement best practices course study report. Eugene, OR: Educational Policy Improvement Center.

Hoffman, N. (2003). College credit in high school: Increasing college attainment rates for underrepresented students. Change, 35(4), 42-48.

Hoffman, N. (2005). Add and subtract: Dual enrollment as a state strategy to increase postsecondary success for underrepresented students. Boston, MA: Jobs for the Future. Retrieved November 29, 2007, from www.earlycolleges.org/Downloads/Addsubtract.pdf

Peter D. Hart Research Associates/Public Opinion Strategies. (2005). Rising to the challenge: Are high school graduates prepared for college and work? A study of recent high school graduates, college instructors, and employees. Washington, DC: Achieve. Retrieved November 29, 2007, from www.achieve.org/files/pollreport_0.pdf

Planty, M., Provasnik, S., & Daniel, B. (2007). Table SA-3. Average number of Carnegie units earned by high school graduates in various subject areas, by selected characteristics: 1982 and 2004. In High school coursetaking: Findings from The Condition of Education 2007 (pp. 19-20). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved November 29, 2007, from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/2007065.pdf

Roderick, M. (2006, November). Closing the aspiration-attainment gap: Implications for high school reform. A commentary from Chicago. Paper presented at the MDRC High School Reform Conference: Improving High Schools: Putting Knowledge to Work, San Diego, CA. Retrieved November 29, 2007, from www.mdrc.org/publications/427/full.pdf

Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. (2006). Accelerated learning options: Moving the needle on access and success. A study of state and institutional policies and practices. Boulder, CO: Author. Retrieved November 29, 2007, from www.wiche.edu/Policy/Accelerated_Learning/report/ALO.pdf

Williams, A. (2005, September 6). North Eugene to require AP English for all. The Register-Guard, p. A1.