• Background
• Selected Findings
• Prevalence of Courses for Dual Credit and Exam-Based Course Offerings in Regular Public High Schools
• Location and Educational Focus of Courses for Dual Credit
• Characteristics of Courses for Dual Credit
• School Requirements Related to Dual Credit Courses
• References

Dual credit, whereby high school students can earn both high school and postsecondary credits for the same course, is an area in which interest has grown rapidly over the past decade (Bailey and Karp 2003; Clark 2001; Education Commission of the States 2004). However, there has been no existing national source of information on dual credit courses at the high school level. This survey was requested by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education, to provide baseline information regarding the prevalence and characteristics of dual credit courses. This survey also collected information on two types of exam-based courses, Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB). These types of courses provide high school students with another way of bridging K-12 and postsecondary education.

Respondents for this survey were those selected by the school principal as the most knowledgeable about the school's dual credit, AP, and IB courses. This was typically the school's director of guidance counseling. Respondents were provided with a definition and description of dual credit and exam-based courses. For this study, dual credit was defined as a course or program where high school students can earn both high school and postsecondary credits for the same course. Dual credit courses could be located on a high school campus or the campus of a postsecondary institution, or taught through distance education. These courses might include courses with an academic focus, such as English, history, or foreign language, or those with a career and technical/vocational focus, such as computer maintenance technology and automotive technology. Additionally, the dual credit options must be either legislated by the state or have an articulated or other formal written agreement between the high school and the postsecondary institution.

AP courses were defined as courses that follow the content and curricular goals as described in the AP Course Description booklets, developed and published by the College Board. A qualifying score on an AP exam may give the student college credit or advanced standing in a college in the subject area in which the course/exam was taken. IB courses were defined as courses that compose a 2-year liberal arts curriculum that leads to a diploma and meets the requirements established by the International Baccalaureate program. Students taking these courses are in grades 11 and 12 and must meet all requirements and pass examinations in each subject area in order to receive the IB diploma. In some schools, students who are not seeking the IB diploma are allowed to take individual IB courses. AP and IB credit is only given at the discretion of the colleges and therefore occurs after students have applied and been accepted to a college, whereas dual credit courses are actual college courses and the credit is usually recorded on a college transcript from the postsecondary institution.

The survey asked respondents to report on the prevalence and enrollment of dual credit and exam-based courses in their high schools. Additional information was obtained on dual credit courses, including the location and educational focus of these courses, dual credit course characteristics, and school requirements surrounding dual credit courses. The time frame for this survey is the 2002–03 12-month school year. As specified on the front of the questionnaire, this includes courses during the summer of 2002 or the summer of 2003, depending upon how the schools kept their records.

This survey was conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) using the Fast Response Survey System (FRSS). FRSS is designed to administer short, focused, issue-oriented surveys that place minimal burden on respondents and have a quick turnaround from data collection to reporting. Questionnaires for the survey "Dual Credit and Exam-Based Courses" were mailed in fall 2003 to a representative sample of 1,499 regular public secondary schools in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The sample was selected from the 2001-02 NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) Public School Universe file, which was the most current file available at the time of selection. The sampling frame includes 17,059 regular secondary schools. The estimated number of schools in the survey universe decreased to an estimated 16,483 because some of the schools were determined to be ineligible for the FRSS survey during data collection. Data have been weighted to yield national estimates. The unweighted and weighted response rates were both 92 percent. Detailed information about the survey methodology is provided in appendix A of the full report, and the questionnaire can be found in appendix B of the full report.

The primary purpose of this report is to present national estimates. In addition, selected survey findings are presented by the following school characteristics, which are defined in more detail in appendix A of the full report:

• school enrollment size¹ (enrollment of less than 500; 500 to 1,199; 1,200 or more);
• locale (city, urban fringe, town, rural);
• region (Northeast, Southeast, Central, West); and
• percent minority enrollment (less than 6 percent, 6 to 20 percent, 21 to 49 percent, 50 percent or more).

All specific statements of comparison made in this report have been tested for statistical significance through trend analysis tests and t tests and are significant at the 95 percent confidence level. However, only selected findings are presented for each topic in the report. Throughout this report, differences that may appear large (particularly those by school characteristics) may not be statistically significant. This may be due to the relatively large standard errors surrounding the estimates. A detailed description of the statistical tests supporting the survey findings can be found in appendix A of the full report.

The findings in this report are organized as follows:

• prevalence of courses for dual credit and exam-based course offerings in regular public high schools;
• location and educational focus of courses for dual credit;
• characteristics of courses for dual credit; and
• school requirements related to dual credit courses.

The survey asked whether schools offered dual credit, Advanced Placement, and/or International Baccalaureate courses during the 2002–03 12-month school year. Schools offering such courses were asked to indicate the course enrollment totals during the survey time frame.

Prevalence of dual credit and exam-based courses

• During the 2002–03 12-month school year, most public high schools offered dual credit and/or exam-based courses. Overall, 71 percent of public high schools offered courses for dual credit, 67 percent offered AP courses, and 2 percent offered IB courses.³
• The size of public high schools was positively related to the percentage of schools offering dual credit and/or AP courses. In 2002–03, 63 percent of small schools, 75 percent of medium-sized schools, and 82 percent of large schools offered courses for dual credit. Similarly, 40 percent of small schools, 82 percent of medium-sized schools, and 97 percent of large schools offered AP courses.
• Schools located in cities were less likely than schools located in either towns or urban fringe areas to report offering dual credit courses (65 vs. 79 and 74 percent, respectively). In addition, schools located in rural areas were less likely to offer these types of courses than were schools located in towns (70 vs. 79 percent). Furthermore, schools located in rural areas were the least likely to report offering AP courses at their schools when compared to all other locales (50 vs. 72 to 87 percent), while schools located in urban fringe areas were the most likely to report offering these courses (87 vs. 50 to 77 percent).
• Public high schools in the Central region were the most likely to offer courses for dual credit (80 vs. 58 to 71 percent) and schools in the Northeast were the least likely to do so (58 vs. 69 to 80 percent). The reverse was true with regard to AP courses. Schools in the Central region were the least likely to offer AP courses (54 vs. 69 to 84 percent), and schools in the Northeast were the most likely to do so (84 vs. 54 to 69 percent).
• While schools with the highest minority enrollment were the least likely to offer dual credit courses when compared to schools with lower minority enrollment (58 vs. 72 to 78 percent), schools with the lowest minority enrollment were the least likely to offer AP courses when compared to schools with higher minority enrollment (58 vs. 69 to 75 percent).
• Public high schools reported the total enrollment in dual credit courses, AP courses, and IB courses. In the 12-month 2002–03 school year, there were an estimated 1.2 million enrollments in courses for dual credit, 1.8 million enrollments in AP courses, and 165,000 enrollments in IB courses.⁴ If a student was enrolled in multiple courses, schools were instructed to count the student for each course in which he or she was enrolled. Thus, enrollments may include duplicated counts of students.

In order to provide an overall picture of the ways in which public high schools offer dual credit and exam-based courses, combinations of the two types of dual credit and exam-based courses were examined. These have been grouped as follows: the school offered dual credit courses only; AP courses only; AP and IB courses; AP and dual credit courses; IB and dual credit courses; AP, IB, and dual credit courses; and no exam-based courses or courses for dual credit.

• Thirteen percent of public high schools did not offer any dual credit or exam-based courses during the 2002–03 12-month school year (figure 1). Thirty-six percent offered either dual credit or one of the types of exam-based courses, 50 percent offered a combination of two types of dual credit and exam-based courses, and 2 percent offered all three types of courses (dual credit, AP, and IB).
• Forty-nine percent of public high schools offered both dual credit and AP courses, 20 percent offered only courses for dual credit, 16 percent offered only AP courses, 1 percent offered both courses for dual credit and IB courses, and 2 percent offered a combination of all three types of courses (dual credit, AP, and IB). There were no schools that offered IB courses exclusively.
• A greater proportion of small schools than medium schools did not offer any dual credit or exam-based courses (25 vs. 4 percent). School enrollment size was positively related to the likelihood of offering a combination of both dual credit and AP courses (28 percent for small schools, 61 percent for medium schools, and 74 percent for large schools).
• Public high schools located in rural areas were more likely than high schools in other locales to report that they offered dual credit courses only (32 vs. 7 to 21 percent). However, public high schools located in rural areas were the least likely to report that they offered a combination of both dual credit and AP courses, compared with schools in all other locales (37 vs. 53 to 63 percent). In addition, schools in rural areas were more likely than schools located in either urban fringe areas or towns to not offer any dual credit or exam-based courses (18 vs. 5 and 8 percent, respectively). Furthermore, schools located in cities were more likely than schools located in urban fringe areas to not offer these types of courses (15 vs. 5 percent).
• Schools with the highest minority enrollment were the most likely to indicate that they did not offer any dual credit or exam-based courses. Twenty percent of these schools indicated that they did not offer any dual credit or exam-based courses, compared with 6 to 12 percent of schools with lower minority enrollment.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Fast Response Survey System (FRSS), "Dual Credit and Exam-Based Courses," FRSS 85, 2003.

Schools reported whether their students were offered courses for dual credit at three locations: courses taught on the high school campus, courses taught on the campus of a postsecondary institution, and courses taught through distance education technologies. In addition, schools also reported dual credit course enrollment totals, and whether the courses for dual credit taught on a high school or postsecondary campus had an academic focus (such as English, history, or foreign language) or a career and technical/vocational focus (such as computer maintenance technology and automotive technology).

Location of courses

• Overview. Of the 11,700 public high schools that offered courses for dual credit, 61 percent indicated that they offered courses for dual credit taught on a high school campus, 65 percent offered courses for dual credit taught on the campus of a postsecondary institution, and 25 percent offered courses for dual credit taught through distance education technologies.⁵
• High school campus. Schools located in towns reported offering dual credit courses taught on a high school campus more often (73 percent) than did schools located in cities (54 percent), urban fringe areas (59 percent), or rural areas (61 percent). Schools with the highest minority enrollment were the least likely to offer dual credit courses on the high school campus (51 vs. 63 to 64 percent).
• Postsecondary campus. There was a positive relationship between enrollment size and the proportion of schools reporting that their courses for dual credit were taught on the campus of a postsecondary institution (57 percent of small schools, 68 percent of medium schools, and 74 percent of large schools). In addition, schools located in cities and schools in urban fringe areas were both more likely to report that their dual credit courses were taught on the campus of a postsecondary institution than were schools located in rural areas (78 and 70 percent vs. 58 percent). A greater proportion of schools with the highest minority enrollment offered courses for dual credit taught on a campus of a postsecondary institution (76 percent) than did schools with the lowest minority enrollment (59 percent).
• Distance education. For dual credit courses taught through distance education, there was a negative relationship between enrollment size and the likelihood of offering these courses through distance education (35 percent of small schools, 21 percent of medium schools, and 17 percent of large schools). Schools in rural areas and schools in towns were both more likely than either schools in cities or schools in urban fringe areas to offer courses for dual credit through distance education (33 and 29 percent vs. 11 and 18 percent, respectively).
• Enrollment. During the 2002–03 12-month school year, there were approximately 1.2 million enrollments in dual credit courses. Of these, 74 percent (855,000 enrollments) were in courses taught on a high school campus, 23 percent (262,000 enrollments) were in courses taught on the campus of a postsecondary institution, and 4 percent (44,900 enrollments) were in dual credit courses taught through distance education (figure 2).

Schools that reported offering courses for dual credit located on either a high school campus or on the campus of a postsecondary institution were asked to report separately for each location about courses with an academic focus and courses with a career and technical/vocational focus. Schools that offered dual credit courses taught through distance education were not asked to report on the educational focus of their dual credit courses. To examine the extent to which schools offered dual credit courses with an academic or a career and technical/vocational focus across locations, dual credit courses with an academic focus that were taught on a high school campus or on the campus of a postsecondary institution were combined into one category, while dual credit courses with a career and technical/vocational focus, regardless of course location, were combined into a second category.

• Overview. Of the 11,400 schools that offered courses for dual credit that were taught on a high school campus or on the campus of a postsecondary institution, 92 percent indicated that they offered dual credit courses with an academic focus, and 51 percent reported that they offered dual credit courses with a career and technical/vocational focus.
• Academic focus. Schools located in towns were more likely to offer dual credit courses with an academic focus than were schools located in urban fringe areas (96 vs. 90 percent).
• Career and technical/vocational focus. School enrollment size was positively related to the likelihood of offering dual credit courses with a career and technical/vocational focus. In 2002–03, 43 percent of small schools, 52 percent of medium schools, and 61 percent of large schools offered these types of courses. Schools in rural areas were less likely to offer dual credit courses with a career and technical/vocational focus than were schools located in either urban fringe areas or towns (43 vs. 56 and 63 percent, respectively). Schools located in the West (62 percent) were the most likely to report that they offered dual credit courses with a career and technical/vocational focus, while schools in the Northeast (30 percent) were the least likely to do so. Finally, schools with less than 6 percent minority enrollment were less likely than schools with 6 to 49 percent minority enrollment to report that they offered these types of courses.
• Enrollment. During the 2002–03 12-month school year, there were 1.1 million enrollments in dual credit courses taught on a high school campus or the campus of a postsecondary institution. Of these, 64 percent (719,000 enrollments) were in courses with an academic focus, while 36 percent (398,000 enrollments) were in courses with a career and technical/vocational focus (figure 3).

Figure 2. Percentage distribution of enrollment in courses for dual credit, by course location: 2003.

NOTE: Percentages are based on the total 1,162,000 enrollments in dual credit courses. Percentages are based on unrounded numbers. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Fast Response Survey System (FRSS), "Dual Credit and Exam-Based Courses," FRSS 85, 2003.

Educational focus by course location

Schools reported the educational focus of the dual credit courses they offered separately for those courses that were located on a high school campus and for those located on the campus of a postsecondary institution.

Courses for dual credit taught on a high school campus

Schools that reported offering dual credit courses taught on their campus indicated whether any of these courses had an academic focus and whether any had a career and technical/vocational focus. Schools could offer both types of courses.

• Overview. Of the schools that offered courses for dual credit taught on a high school campus, 83 percent offered courses that had an academic focus and 49 percent offered courses with a career and technical/vocational focus.
• Academic focus. Of the schools that offered dual credit courses taught at the high school, small schools were more likely than large schools to offer such courses with an academic focus (87 vs. 78 percent).
• Career and technical/vocational focus. School enrollment size was positively related to the likelihood of offering dual credit courses on a high school campus with a career and technical/vocational focus. In 2002–03, 40 percent of small schools, 50 percent of medium schools, and 59 percent of large schools offered these types of courses. Rural schools were less likely than schools in all other locales to offer these dual credit courses on a high school campus (37 vs. 56 to 58 percent). In addition, schools in the West were more likely than those in any other region to offer these dual credit courses on a high school campus (60 vs. 37 to 47 percent).
• Enrollment. During the 2002–03 12-month school year, among dual credit courses taught on high school campuses, there were approximately 513,000 enrollments in dual credit courses with an academic course focus, and 342,000 enrollments in courses with a career and technical/vocational focus. These enrollments represent 46 percent and 31 percent, respectively, of the total enrollments in dual credit courses taught on either a high school campus or at a postsecondary institution (figure 4).

Schools that reported offering dual credit courses taught on the campus of a postsecondary institution indicated whether any of these courses had an academic focus and whether any had a career and technical/vocational focus. Schools could offer both types of courses.

• Overview. Of the schools that offered dual credit courses taught on the campus of a postsecondary institution, 92 percent offered courses with an academic focus and 46 percent offered courses with a career and technical/vocational focus.
• Academic focus. Schools in the Northeast (99 percent) were more likely than schools in the Southeast (90 percent), Central region (90 percent), or the West (92 percent) to report offering dual credit courses with an academic focus on the campus of a postsecondary institution.
• Career and technical/vocational focus. Schools located in towns were more likely than those located in cities or rural areas to offer courses for dual credit with a career and technical/vocational focus on a postsecondary campus (57 vs. 42 percent respectively). Furthermore, schools in the Northeast were less likely than those in other regions to offer these courses on a postsecondary campus (13 percent vs. 48 to 54 percent).
• Enrollment. During the 2002–03 12-month school year, there were 205,000 enrollments in academic dual credit courses that were taught on the campus of a postsecondary institution, and 56,000 enrollments in career and technical/vocational courses that were taught on the campus of a postsecondary institution. These enrollments represent 18 percent and 5 percent, respectively, of the total enrollments in dual credit courses taught on the campus of a high school or postsecondary institution (figure 4).

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Fast Response Survey System (FRSS), "Dual Credit and Exam-Based Courses," FRSS 85, 2003.

Figure 4. Percentage distribution of enrollment in courses for dual credit, by course location and educational focus: 2003


NOTE: Percentages are based on the 1,117,100 enrollments in dual credit courses taught on a high school campus and/or the campus of a postsecondary institution. Percentages are based on unrounded numbers. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Fast Response Survey System (FRSS), "Dual Credit and Exam-Based Courses," FRSS 85, 2003.

Dual credit courses vary greatly with regard to a number of characteristics, including whether (1) they are offered individually ("cafeteria style") or in a sequence of courses, (2) they are taught by high school instructors and/or postsecondary instructors, (3) they serve only public high school students or a mixture of public high school students and postsecondary students, and (4) the postsecondary credit is awarded immediately upon course completion or is held in escrow until after the student graduates from public high school and attends a specific postsecondary institution.

Course structure

In addition to dual credit course location or focus, high schools reported whether students could select courses for dual credit cafeteria style, whereby students selected individual courses from a wide range of courses for which prerequisites were met; and whether students could select the courses for dual credit as part of a sequence, such as a series of courses in a specific content area, such as math, history, nursing, or automotive technology. Respondents could offer these courses both ways.

Sequence of courses

• Among high schools offering dual credit courses on their campus, 53 percent of those offering courses with an academic focus and 72 percent of those offering courses with a career and technical/vocational focus indicated that some or all of these courses were offered as part of a sequence.
• Similarly, among schools offering dual credit courses on the campus of a postsecondary institution, 53 percent of those offering courses with an academic focus and 72 percent of those offering courses with a career and technical/vocational focus reported that some or all of these courses were offered as part of a sequence.
• Among schools that offered dual credit courses with an academic focus on a high school campus, 59 percent of schools located in towns reported offering some or all of these courses as part of a sequence, compared with 42 percent of schools located in cities.
• Among schools that offered dual credit courses with an academic focus on a postsecondary institution's campus, a greater proportion of schools located in urban fringe areas than in cities offered some or all of these courses as part of a sequence (60 vs. 46 percent, respectively).

• Among schools that offered dual credit courses taught on a high school campus, 35 percent of those offering courses with an academic focus reported that some or all of these courses were offered cafeteria style, while 41 percent of those offering courses with a career and technical/vocational focus indicated that some or all of these courses were offered cafeteria style.
• Among public high schools reporting that they offered dual credit courses taught on the campus of a postsecondary institution, 68 percent of those that offered dual credit courses with an academic focus and 59 percent of those that offered courses with a career and technical/vocational focus indicated that some or all of these courses were offered cafeteria style.
• Of the schools that offered career and technical/vocational dual credit courses taught on a high school campus, fewer schools located in cities (29 percent) reported that some or all of these courses were offered cafeteria style, compared with 50 percent in urban fringe areas and 44 percent in towns. In addition, schools in the Southeast region offering career and technical/vocational dual credit courses on a high school campus were less likely to indicate that some or all of these courses were offered cafeteria style than were schools in the other regions (25 vs. 42 to 46 percent).
• Of the schools that offered career and technical/vocational dual credit courses taught on the campus of a postsecondary institution, schools in the Northeast were more likely to report that some or all of these courses were offered cafeteria style than were schools in all other regions (100 vs. 55 to 59 percent).

Public high schools indicating that they offered dual credit courses taught on their high school campus were asked to specify whether these courses were taught by high school instructors only, postsecondary instructors only, or both high school and postsecondary instructors.⁶ Most dual credit courses taught on a high school campus were taught by high school instructors only, regardless of the educational focus of the dual credit courses.

• Of the schools that offered academic courses for dual credit taught on a high school campus, 64 percent indicated that these courses were taught solely by high school instructors, 24 percent reported that both high school and postsecondary instructors taught the courses, and 11 percent stated that the courses were taught only by postsecondary instructors.
• For schools that offered career and technical/vocational courses for dual credit taught on a high school campus, 76 percent indicated that these courses were taught by high school instructors only, 12 percent of schools reported that the courses were taught by both high school and postsecondary instructors, and 12 percent reported that the courses were taught by postsecondary instructors only.

Schools that offered dual credit courses taught on the campus of a postsecondary institution were asked to indicate whether the most common student composition in these courses was high school students only or a combination of high school students and postsecondary students. The most common student composition for dual credit courses taught on the campus of a postsecondary institution was a mix of both high school and postsecondary students, regardless of the educational focus.

• Of the schools that offered academic dual credit courses on a postsecondary campus, 82 percent reported that these courses enrolled both high school and postsecondary students, while 18 percent reported enrolling high school students only.
• Similarly, of the schools that offered career and technical/vocational dual credit courses on a postsecondary campus, 78 percent reported that these courses contained both high school and postsecondary students, while 22 percent reported they contained high school students only.

There are two primary ways in which postsecondary credit for dual credit courses is awarded. The credit can be awarded immediately upon completion of the dual credit course, or it can be held in escrow until the student has graduated from public high school and enrolls in a specific postsecondary institution that accepts the credit. Students taking courses for dual credit were most commonly awarded postsecondary credit immediately upon completion of the course, regardless of course location or educational focus.

• Among schools that offered academic dual credit courses on a high school campus, 86 percent awarded postsecondary credits to their students immediately and 15 percent held credits in escrow. Sixty-one percent of schools offering career and technical/vocational dual credit courses reported immediate award of credits and 41 percent reported holding credits in escrow.
• Among schools that offered academic dual credit courses taught on the campus of a postsecondary institution, 91 percent awarded postsecondary credits to their students immediately and 10 percent held credits in escrow. Eighty-six percent of schools offering career and technical/vocational dual credit courses reported immediate award of credits and 18 percent of schools reported holding credits in escrow.
• Schools that offered courses for dual credit on a high school campus or on the campus of a postsecondary institution were more likely to report that the postsecondary credit was awarded immediately rather than held in escrow, regardless of course location or focus. However, the percentage point difference between schools that offered postsecondary credit immediately and those that held it in escrow was smaller for dual credit courses with a career and technical/vocational focus taught on a high school campus than for any other dual credit course location or focus (20 percentage point difference vs. 68 to 81 percentage point difference) (figure 5).

Schools that offered courses for dual credit were asked whether their school had established any entrance requirements, other than state or specific postsecondary entrance requirements, that their students must meet in order to enroll in courses for dual credit. Schools that had such requirements were asked to indicate which requirements students must meet.

• Sixty-two percent of schools that offered courses for dual credit indicated that their school had established requirements for students to enroll in dual credit courses. Among schools with requirements, the most common requirement was grade level (84 percent), followed by minimum GPA (48 percent), teacher recommendation (42 percent), and minimum score on standardized tests (31 percent) (figure 6). Twenty-eight percent reported that their school had established some other requirement(s) than those listed.
• A greater proportion of schools located in urban fringe areas reported that their school had specific requirements for taking dual credit courses (56 percent) than schools located in cities or towns (69 and 68 percent, respectively). Furthermore, a greater proportion of schools in the Northeast (70 percent) and the Southeast (70 percent) than in the West (61 percent) or Central region (55 percent) reported having specific requirements.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Fast Response Survey System (FRSS), "Dual Credit and Exam-Based Courses," FRSS 85, 2003.

Figure 6. Percent of public high schools reporting established requirements that students must meet in order to enroll in courses for dual credit: 2003


NOTE: Percentages are based on the 7,300 schools that reported having established requirements that students must meet to enroll in dual credit courses. Percentages are based on unrounded numbers.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Fast Response Survey System (FRSS), "Dual Credit and Exam-Based Courses," FRSS 85, 2003.

Bailey, T., and Karp, M. (2003). Promoting College Access and Success: A Review of Credit-Based Transition Programs (ERIC ED482497). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Adult and Vocational Education.

Clark, R.W. (2001). Dual Credit: A Report of Programs and Policy That Offer High School Students College Credits. Seattle, WA: Institute for Educational Inquiry.

Education Commission of the States. (2004). Dual/Concurrent Enrollment. Retrieved April 27, 2004, from http://www.ecs.org/html/IssueSection.asp?issueid=214&s=Quick+Facts.

Snyder, T.D., Tan, A.G., and Hoffman, C.M. (2004). Digest of Education Statistics 2003 (NCES 2005-025). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved February 23, 2005, from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d03/tables/dt002.asp.

¹Throughout this report, school enrollment size will be referred to as small, medium, or large schools.

²E.D. TAB reports are designed to focus on the presentation of selected descriptive data in tabular format.

³Percentages sum to more than 100 because schools could offer more than one type of course.

⁴To put these numbers into context, NCES reports 13,736,000 students enrolled in public high schools in fall 2001 (Snyder, Tan, and Hoffman 2004). It is important to note that the dual credit enrollments collected in the FRSS survey may include duplicated counts of students, while the NCES estimate of 13,736,000 students enrolled is an unduplicated count.

⁵The percentage of schools with courses for dual credit taught on a high school campus, on the campus of a postsecondary institution, and through distance education sum to more than 100 percent because many schools offered courses for dual credit at more than one location. An estimated 21 percent of schools offered courses for dual credit at both the high school and postsecondary institution campus, and an estimated 6 percent offered dual credit courses at the high school campus, postsecondary institution campus, and via distance education.

⁶Information about course instructors was not collected for dual credit courses taught at a postsecondary institution, because research during survey development indicated that these courses are almost always taught by postsecondary faculty.