More Hispanics are earning college credits in high school in Texas

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Nearly half of all public high school students in Texas who earn college credit before graduating are Hispanic, according to a new study. This makes Texas a national leader in closing the gap between Hispanic and non-Hispanic students enrolled in dual credit programs.

However, Hispanic students in dual-credit classes graduate at lower rates than peers who also participated in these programs, underscoring the need to strengthen the high school-to-college transition for students of color.

“We both need to focus on equalizing access to dual credit and providing dual credit students the support they need to go to college and complete college,” said John Fink, a researcher at Community College Research Center.

The Community College Research Center used National Student Clearinghouse data to study high school juniors and seniors enrolled in a dual-credit course in 2015 and tracked where they went in the first four years went to high school. The researchers selected this particular group of students to examine the long-term effects of dual credit on educational success. The researchers said it is the first of its kind to break down dual credit scores by race, socioeconomic status and age by state.

The study found that black student participation now lags. Black students made up 8% of dual credit programs in the state, compared to 13% of high school enrollment in Texas, according to a dual credit report released Tuesday.

As Texas students made plans after high school, about half of dual-enrollment students returned to community college, where they took dual-credit courses for at least one semester, according to the report’s findings.

The number of dual credit students in Texas and across the country has risen sharply over the past 10 years. Education leaders see dual-credit programs as a way to encourage students to pursue higher education by giving them the opportunity to become familiar with the college environment in high school. Acquiring coursework during high school is associated with higher educational attainment.

Texas lawmakers even changed the way they fund community colleges last year to incentivize dual credit. Community colleges now receive more money when high school students earn at least 15 college credit hours on their campuses. As part of the new funding system, state lawmakers also created the Financial Aid for Swift Transfer (FAST) program, which gives community colleges extra money if they offer college-level courses for free to low-income students who qualify offer discounted lunch.

Last year alone, dual-credit participation increased in record numbers, with about 250,000 students using the FAST program to take dual-credit courses for free, Sarah Keyton, the interim commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, said in a statement before the Senate Higher Education Committee last month.

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus for higher education coverage.