Who Was Most Impacted by COVID-19? An Examination of Student Performance in Dual-Enrollment Courses

• In Event: COVID-19 and College Access

Abstract

It is inevitable that the pandemic has decreased students’ opportunity to learn, particularly for students from less privileged backgrounds. The purpose of this study is to estimate the effect of COVID-19 on the academic performance of students in OnRamps, a dual-enrollment program created by UT Austin, and explore sources of heterogeneity in this effect stemming from students’ backgrounds. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we find that students in the 2019-2020 cohort performed better on their final grades than students in previous cohorts. Results from this study are critical for college and university administrators to better understand the extent to which recent high school graduates’ readiness for college-level coursework may have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Authors

• Matt Giani, The University of Texas at Austin

• Jennifer R. Porter, The University of Texas at Austin

• Shruti Khandekar, The University of Texas at Austin