By Linda Scherr, Ph.D.,
To ensure that more New Jerseyans are on a path to family-sustaining careers, that we have an educated, skilled workforce, and that we close equity gaps, New Jersey must implement innovative efforts to help all high school students earn postsecondary credentials or degrees. NJCCC’s strategic vision for community colleges, New Jersey’s Opportunity Agenda: Building Pathways to Equity and Economic Prosperity, calls for expanding and funding dual enrollment to help all high school students achieve college and career success.
Under dual enrollment—also known as concurrent enrollment, dual credit and early college—high school students take college courses and earn both high school and college credit. In the 2022-23 academic year, 39,901 New Jersey high school students were among 2.5 million nationally who participated in dual enrollment. Dual enrollment prepares students to meet the rigor of college and improves college and credential access, affordability and completion.
Strong partnerships between K-12 and the postsecondary institutions that award the credit are key to dual enrollment’s success. Dual enrollment encompasses many program designs, from immersive early college high schools to models where students take one or more college courses at their high school, at the college or online. In the most common model, often called “concurrent enrollment,” students take college courses at their high school, taught by college-approved high school teachers who meet the same minimum qualifications for instructors teaching the course on-campus. In New Jersey, two-thirds of dual enrollment courses are offered through partnerships with our 18 community colleges.
While many early dual enrollment programs targeted high-achieving students, today’s dual enrollment is open to students for both general education and career and technical courses. New Jersey’s community colleges are collaborating with comprehensive and county vocational-technical high schools to offer hundreds of high-quality dual enrollment courses ranging from first semester general education courses in composition, mathematics, science, social sciences, and humanities, to introductory professional and technical courses in applied arts, business, computer science, culinary arts, education, engineering and more.
In addition to academic benefits, dual enrollment enhances high school students’ awareness of college and career pathways and reduces the time and cost of credential and degree completion.
Research from the Community College Research Center at Columbia University consistently demonstrates that dual enrollment students are more likely to graduate high school, enroll in college the semester immediately after high school graduation, persist in college, earn a higher GPA, and complete a college degree or postsecondary credential than nonparticipating peers. In 2022, New Jersey’s Dual Enrollment Study Commission documented the same positive outcomes.
The percentages of New Jersey’s 11th and 12th grade students who are enrolled in at least one dual enrollment course have increased steadily since the 2016-17 school year, but the 2022 Dual Enrollment Study Commission Report identified critical access gaps, in part due to program costs. New Jersey is one of 22 states that does not operate a statewide dual enrollment program and does not provide state funds to cover dual enrollment costs. Many community colleges are working to reduce costs for students by subsidizing dual enrollment tuition, but New Jersey should expand programs such as the Dual Enrollment Pilot Program administered by the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education.
Dual enrollment continues to gain momentum because it improves outcomes in both high school and college. With our deep commitment to dual enrollment, New Jersey’s community colleges are well positioned to establish even closer partnerships with high schools, ensuring all students are aware of the wide range of postsecondary opportunities and resources to support their success and growth.
Dr. Linda Scherr is the Chief Academic Officer for the New Jersey Council of County Colleges (NJCCC). Governed by the presidents and trustees of the state’s 18 community colleges and enshrined in state law, the NJCCC supports New Jersey’s community colleges and the more than 240,000 students they serve annually. Visit njcommunitycolleges.org to learn more.