Many students take considerably longer than four years to complete a bachelor’s degree, incurring additional costs and delaying their entry into the workforce.
Summary
Dual enrollment, which allows high school students to earn college credit while completing high school requirements, offers a promising way to shorten time-to-degree. For the benefit to be realized, however, the student’s subsequent institution must accept the credits for coursework completed. Likewise, students who take classes at two-year colleges for dual enrollment and later attend a four-year college may lose their credits unless there is an articulation agreement in place to facilitate credit transfer. This paper examines how Georgia’s 2012 statewide articulation agreement affected on-time degree completion for students who took dual enrollment coursework at two-year colleges, including differences by race and dual enrollment course type.
Key Insights
- Articulation implementation has a positive effect on the timely bachelor’s degree completion of dual enrollment participants.
- The policy effect is conditional on race, as Georgia’s articulation agreement had no statistically significant effect for Black students.
- Differences by race do occur, however, based on where students take dual enrollment courses and the types of courses taken.
- States seeking to enhance their graduation rates through dual enrollment may benefit from statewide articulation agreements, but additional support and advising may be needed to help Black students choose dual enrollment courses suited to their goals.
