College Students Looking Back: The Impact of Dual Credit Participation on College Success

• In Event: 61.026 - The Productive Tensions of Dual Credit: Reenvisioning Dual Credit Instruction, Postsecondary Readiness, and Success

Abstract

Dual credit (DC) participation has been shown to positively impact students who matriculate to four-year institutions (An, 2013; Giani, Alexander & Reyes, 2014; Karp et al, 2007; Troutman et al, 2018.) This paper addresses the question of how DC could positively impact retention and success by reporting the results of a study that asked students directly how dual credit contributed to their success in later college experiences. This paper is guided by the following research question: How do current (and recently graduated) college students view their past dual credit experiences as contributing to success in college?
Karp (2007) provided information on how dual credit may contribute to success by showing that current dual credit students learn about college through anticipatory socialization and role rehearsal.This paper also utilizes sociocultural theories to understand how learning in DC experiences may contribute to a more informed and successful transition to college, but analyzes current four-year college students’ perspectives as they reflect back on dual credit experiences. I draw upon concepts of college readiness and college student role (Conley, 2007; Karp and Bork, 2012) to explain how DC provides a multi-faceted readiness (as opposed to single numerical measurements) including specific knowledge, understanding of college contexts, and mindsets conducive to learning at post-secondary institutions.
The paper presents conclusions drawn from a larger mixed methods study of dual credit participation and outcomes across The University of Texas System; I utilize a subset of qualitative data: focus group interviews (n=180) and open-ended survey responses (n= 3,129) with currently enrolled or recently graduated college students from eight campuses in the system. In focus groups, students were asked directly about how dual credit impacted successes in college; this information also emerged in survey responses. This data was coded using qualitative coding techniques.
Through analysis of student perspectives I concluded that dual credit allowed students to participate early in the cultural world of college. Depending on the design/extent of their dual credit experiences, this participation took the form of exposure, experience, or even immersion in college. Students reported that through this they developed new academic behaviors and perspectives, such as time management skills, and exposure to the norms and values of college, such as workload and communication expectations. Less often students spoke about disciplinary content/skills as contributing to their later success. Despite seeing dual credit as contributing positively to success, some spoke of DC experiences that were dissimilar from their later college experiences. A small subset of participants described a resulting false sense of confidence implying this socialization could also be negative when the experiences are too dissimilar from later college experiences.
This paper provides an explanation of how DC could contribute positively to students’ later college success by providing them with resources to use in transition, and does so in the context of dual credit’s recent growth. By understanding how dual credit provides a benefit, and when this goes awry, researchers and administrators can better understand what aspects of dual credit experiences to grow or refine.

Author

• Aimee Elizabeth Hendrix Soto, The University of Texas at Austin