The Future of Dual Enrollment Starts Now

Written by: Amy Williams, NACEP Executive Director

The future of dual enrollment starts now.

It has been about two weeks since we got our first national dataset for the number of dual enrollment students from the US Department of Education’s provisional data release from the Integrated Postsecondary Data System. 

Here’s what I’ve been mulling over since…

This data drop is game-changing. For the first time, we have a national count of students in dual enrollment by institution and disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and gender. Yes, finally. The 2022-2023 academic year data reveals that nearly 2.5 million students participated in dual enrollment. That’s about a million more than previous estimates. So, where did they come from? Did we suddenly spawn a million new dual enrollment students overnight? Nope—it’s all about how we count (probably). First, this data includes the entire academic year, not just the fall semester, which was the format for previous counts. It is very plausible those “extra” students were likely sitting in classrooms all along. Second, our past estimates used age as a proxy for dual enrollment students, this dataset actually counts them. Third, there’s no doubt that dual enrollment is also growing—and rapidly. Yes the numbers are bigger than the earlier estimates, but they are explainable. 

Are the data perfect? Of course not. Let’s be real: anytime a new survey component is added, especially in a field as jargon-filled as ours, there are going to be bumps. If you are at a college and have your program-level data, check it against the IPEDS data. If you are thinking, "how would I do that?" It's actually pretty easy. John Fink over at CCRC built a killer dashboard (seriously, it’s plug-and-play) that lets you dig into the details. Follow this link and select your state, once the map updates you can hover over the circle for your institution or scroll down. Here is quick, 2 minute video tutorial if you want to see these steps in action. If your program’s numbers look off, it might be time to connect with your institution’s IPEDS team and talk about your submission.

This could actually be an underestimate. I will go there…these numbers could be an undercount. In the intervening two weeks we’ve had the data in hand, we have spot checked it with program sizes reported to us in a variety of ways (reporting from programs, state datasets, dashboards, new articles, and other local data). A quick back of the envelope estimate from our spot checks indicates there are at least 30,000 of known dual enrollment students out of this preliminary dataset. We also found extra students reported in IPEDS that were not in the local data, so there is that to consider as well. Time will tell. Consider this another plea to check your program data against what is in IPEDS. 

Why should we care? Because we now have a real baseline—a starting point to track the growth, success, and challenges in dual enrollment at a national level. We’ve spent years relying on estimates and proxies, but now we can track the actual number of students accessing college credit while still in high school. This gives us the opportunity to dig deeper into equity gaps, understand student outcomes, and advocate for policy improvements with solid numbers to back us up. Dual enrollment has moved from being a niche opportunity for a select few to a mainstream part of the high school experience for millions. That’s huge. 

You made this happen!  Let’s not forget: this data exists because of the relentless advocacy from the dual enrollment community—NACEP, its members, and others. This change has been on the NACEP wishlist since at least 2017. Until now, dual enrollment data was a patchwork of different datasets and estimates. We’ve finally moved beyond guessing because our community advocated for change.

Each number is a student. This dataset isn’t just numbers on a page—it’s a powerful tool that will shape the future of dual enrollment. With this data, we can make informed decisions, advocate for better policies, and ensure that more students, especially those from underrepresented groups, have access to these transformative opportunities.  Now is the time to dig in, analyze, and use this information to push dual enrollment to new heights and expand its impact nationwide. 

The future of dual enrollment starts now!