Many high school students aren't proficient in reading, writing, math and science, according to standardized tests. Yet many more are taking community college classes -- usually from high school teachers, sometimes on college campuses -- earning both high school and college credits.
Twenty percent of community college students are high school students, reports Rebecca Koenig on EdSurge. "It's almost 40 percent in Iowa and Indiana."
Community colleges are struggling to attract high school graduates -- numbers fell sharply during the pandemic -- but dual enrollment is growing rapidly. The numbers rose 10 percent in the last year.
"Some programs are run through well-organized early-college high schools that help students earn a full associate degree by the time they graduate," writes Koenig. "Others are more free-form, allowing students to take one or two courses as they please — a style some observers have critiqued as 'random acts of dual enrollment'.”
Earning credit for electives gives students a taste of college -- assuming courses really are taught at the college level -- but doesn't really help students complete a degree.
Dual enrollment is not replacing Advanced Placement courses, but it does offer "a much wider catalog of options, including some career and technical courses, which may appeal to a broader set of students," Koenig writes.
Most community college students -- 83 percent -- say they want to earn a bachelor's degree, but few succeed, writes Dylan Peers McCoy on NPR. Only 13 percent of community college students complete four-year degrees within eight years, according to 2023 data.
I think many don't realize they're poorly prepared for success in college-level classes, especially since nearly all are working at the same time. Others say they want a bachelor's degree because they've been told that's the only goal, and aren't aware of other options.
Even those with realistic ambitions can be derailed.
“Most students leave empty-handed,” said Huriya Jabbar, a USC education professor who co-wrote an upcoming book on community college transfer students in Texas. “There are bureaucratic hurdles. There are really opaque transfer policies. There's not enough information about … which courses will transfer.”
Most high school teachers' counselling is out of date and misguided; instead, American youth need professional career counselling, to be individually provided in cooperation with study guidance that should begin in middle high schools free of educators' tendency to seek their own reproduction.
“Most students leave empty-handed,” said Huriya Jabbar, a USC education professor who co-wrote an upcoming book on community college transfer students in Texas. “There are bureaucratic hurdles. There are really opaque transfer policies. There's not enough information about … which courses will transfer.”
Why, it's almost like much of higher education is some kind of racket, selling worthless educational trinkets to unsuspecting rubes. Aided and abetted by every school teacher ever who advocates college as "the only way to succeed."
Nah, that's crazy talk.