Dual Enrollment: Finding a Balance

Dual credit student numbers have been growing at an exceeding rate. From 2000 to 2017, students enrolled in dual credit has jumped 753% (Texas Higher Education Board, 2018). As more students continue to enroll in dual credit courses and states develop initiatives that encourage dual credit enrollment, the challenge of identifying how many dual credit hours should be taken to ensure student success becomes ever more present. This study determined influential factors of student academic success as well as the relationship between dual credit and first-year GPA. Student records and information utilized in this study were collected through institutional data at West Texas A&M University. Factors of dual credit participation include minimized long-term costs of higher education, faster completion rate, and exposure to college courses. The enrollment of dual credit is beneficial academically to students as long as there is not an excessive amount of hours taken. Varying factors have an impact on retention rates with dual credit as a factor of first-year retention for students at West Texas A&M University. Implications from this study suggest students who enroll in dual credit between 20 and 35 credit hours may have a higher first-year GPA their first year of college. Relevance between retention and dual credit hours is present when students take 19 or more dual credit hours.