"Waiving" Goodbye to Placement Testing: Broadening the Benefits of Dual Enrollment Through Statewide Policy

• In Event: Probing the Pipeline: Admissions and Enrollment With Higher Education

Abstract

Each year more than a million high school students nationally take college dual enrollment (DE) courses, which have been shown to increase college access and success among participants. Yet racial and other equity gaps in DE participation are widespread. In an effort to broaden the benefits of DE, the state of Ohio passed legislation allowing waivers to test-based eligibility requirements—a frequently identified barrier to equitable access—for specific school-college partnerships providing expanded outreach and support for students underrepresented in the state’s DE program. Using statewide administrative data, we find that partnerships that were granted waivers increased access to DE courses for Black and Hispanic high school students, while maintaining similar rates of DE course success and college-going rates pre-policy.

Authors

• Daniel Sparks, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Presenting Author

• John Fink, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah B. Griffin, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Presenting Author

• Aurely Tulloch, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author