Dual Enrollment Access and Participation by Locale and Income Level

Dual enrollment programs aim to increase college access and career readiness by allowing high school students to take college courses and earn college credits. Such programs might be particularly important for students who might be less likely to go to college, including students from rural areas and low-income households. This REL Central report details patterns in dual enrollment access and participation in the 2017/18 school year for the REL Central region states (Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming) and for the region overall. These state and regional data are compared with national data to provide context. The report also describes how dual enrollment access and participation varied with school characteristics, including school locale and percentage of students from low-income households. Primary findings included the following: Dual enrollment access and participation were higher in the REL Central region than nationally. Students in rural and city locales tended to have lower dual enrollment access than did their peers in town and suburban locales. In contrast, dual enrollment participation was generally higher for students in rural and town locales than for their peers in city locales. Schools serving higher percentages of students from low-income households had higher dual enrollment access and participation than did schools serving lower percentages of students from low-income households, both in the REL Central region and nationally.