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Evaluation of College Credit Plus: Dual Enrollment in Ohio

Harlow, Kristin J.
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1054-1076
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1543312670683351

Abstract Details

2018, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Public Policy and Management.
Higher education has increasing importance to our economic and social well-being. Dual enrollment is a policy tool used to encourage high school students to pursue, persist, and succeed in higher education by smoothing students’ transition from high school to higher education. Although there is a growing literature seeking to measure the impact of dual enrollment on students’ higher education outcomes, it suffers from limited generalizability and a lack of theory to explain its potential impact. Because dual enrollment is growing in popularity with the expectation that it will improve students’ higher education outcomes, this dissertation seeks to both understand dual enrollment’s underlying theory and measure its impact on Ohio’s students. This dissertation explores theories of emerging adulthood, anticipatory socialization, and role rehearsal in framing the possible mechanisms by which dual enrollment may benefit students. I empirically explore the state-wide impact of College Credit Plus, an Ohio law that requires school districts to offer dual enrollment at no charge to students. Using a synthetic comparison group, the impact of College Credit Plus on Ohio students’ higher education enrollment is uncertain, but the impact on persistence in enrollment from year one to year two is larger than an Ohio synthetic comparison state without College Credit Plus. Next this dissertation includes a descriptive analysis of dual enrollment in Ohio. Participation increases steadily until College Credit Plus was enacted, at which point participation increase more quickly. One goal of College Credit Plus is to diversify higher education in Ohio; findings show that dual enrollment participation is lower among underrepresented groups, and the gap is growing. A different strategy is then employed to model dual enrollment outcomes using a fixed effects model of school districts. This model measures the relationship between dual enrollment participation among each graduating cohort, and the rate at which that cohort enrolls in college after graduation, and whether they persist from year one to year two. The fixed effects model allows these outcomes to be modeled controlling for time-invariant characteristics of the school district. The results provide evidence that increasing the dual enrollment participation in a school district does in fact increase the proportion of students subsequently enrolling in higher education, as well as persisting into year two. The results hold up in subsets of districts that have high proportions of economically disadvantaged students and those that have high proportions of Black students. These studies provide compelling evidence that dual enrollment is associated with improved higher education enrollment and persistence. Where underrepresented groups of students participate in dual enrollment, evidence shows it is a successful strategy in improving their higher education outcomes as well.
Joshua Hawley, PhD (Committee Chair)
Amanda Girth, PhD (Committee Member)
Robert Greenbaum, PhD (Committee Member)
158 p.
Public Administration
dual enrollment; policy; higher education; administrative data

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Harlow, K. J. (2018). Evaluation of College Credit Plus: Dual Enrollment in Ohio [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1543312670683351

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Harlow, Kristin. Evaluation of College Credit Plus: Dual Enrollment in Ohio. 2018. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1543312670683351.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Harlow, Kristin. "Evaluation of College Credit Plus: Dual Enrollment in Ohio." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1543312670683351

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1543312670683351
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.