College Dual Enrollment Courses with CTE Emphasis

This approach allows students to take courses at a local college or use online college courses to obtain college credits, get a feel for attending college and build confidence in taking college courses. In addition, when college courses are taken in a career field, it allows high schools to offer their students academic experiences in a field the students believe they may want to enter or major in.

A 2017 study sponsored by the Community College Research Center “tracked more than 200,000 high school students who first took a community college course in fall 2010 for six years, through summer 2016 (five years after high school). Eighty-eight percent of these students continued in college after high school, and most earned a certificate or degree or transferred from a two-year college to a four-year college within five years. What type of college former dual enrollment students attended after high school and how many completed a college credential varied greatly by state, and many states showed big disparities in credential completion rates between lower and higher income students.”

Westminster College’s Early College Program in western Pennsylvania is one example.