Dual Credit Students from Three Academic Years; Summer 2003 to Spring 2004, Summer 2004 to Spring 2005, and Summer 2005 to Spring 2006

MCC

Technical Report March 2007

Office of Research, Evaluation and Assessment Metropolitan Community College 3200 Broadway Kansas City, MO 64111

Dual-Credit Students: An Analysis of Academic Performance

-Technical Report- March 2007

Office of Research, Evaluation and Assessment Metropolitan Community College 3200 Broadway Kansas City, MO 64111

Prepared by:

Melissa M. Giese And Jennifer R. Ebeling

Preface

This is the second dual-credit report produced by the Office of Research, Evaluation and Assessment. The present report examines dual credit students from three academic years; Summer 2003 to Spring 2004, Summer 2004 to Spring 2005, and Summer 2005 to Spring 2006. Students in each Academic Year are tracked for either two, five or eight semesters. This report examines demographics, academic success, and courses taken by dual-credit students. Additionally, further enrollment at MCC and the academic success of these students are examined.

Comments regarding this project should be directed to its authors:

Melissa M. Giese Research Analyst (816) 759-1300 [email protected]

and

Jennifer R. Ebeling Research Analyst (816) 759-1003 [email protected]

Metropolitan Community College Office of Research, Evaluation, and Assessment 3200 Broadway Kansas City, MO 64111

Additional copies of this report can be obtained from our website: http://www.mcckc.edu/?qlinks=Research+Department

Executive Summary

♦ Students comprising this study were obtained from three Dual-Credit Academic Years; 2003 to 2004, 2004 to 2005, and 2005 to 2006. Each group of students were tracked from two to eight semesters for each academic year.

♦ There averaged, 2,240 dual-credit students enrolled for each Academic Year. The majority were white (91%) and female (56%).

♦ The majority of dual-credit students were enrolled at 5 high schools: Park Hill High School, Park Hill South, Blue Springs High School, Lee’s Summit North, and Oak Park High School.

♦ Maple Woods (42%) was the most common campus enrolled by dual credit students followed by Penn Valley, Blue River, Longview, and BTC.

♦ The most popular courses among dual-credit students were MATH 120, ENGL 101, ENGL 102, CDCG 113, and MATH 110.

♦ The majority of grades obtained by dual credit students were “C” or better (97%).

♦ Dual-credit students attempted an average of 6.95 credit hours, completed 99% of those hours, and earned an average GPA of 3.35 in dual-credit courses.

♦ Following graduation from high school, 19% of dual-credit students enrolled in MCC within the following academic year. When the dual-credit cohorts were tracked over eight semesters, nearly 40% had enrolled as regular MCC students.

♦ In general, dual-credit students performed well in college courses, however, dual-credit student GPA’s declined on average half a point as MCC regular students in comparison to their courses attended as dual-credit students.

Table of Contents

Section Page

Introduction...... 1

Methodology ...... 2

Demographics ...... 3 High School Attendance ...... 3 Dual-Credit Campus ...... 3 Table1: Dual-Credit Enrollment by Campus ...... 4 Dual-Credit Course Enrollment ...... 5 Table 2: Percentage of Successful Grades by Course ...... 5 Academic Success in Dual-Credit Courses...... 6 Table 3: Academic Performance...... 6 Post High School Enrollment at MCC...... 6 MCC Academic Performance ...... 7

Summary...... 8 Figure 1: Dual-Credit Enrollment by Campus...... 8

Appendix A

Dual-Credit Students

Introduction

Dual-Credit students are those who are able to enroll simultaneously in high school and college-level classes while concurrently earning credit. The dual credit program at MCC functions in conjunction with many participating high schools. Dual-credit courses offer high school students the opportunity to earn college credit before they finish their high school work and help to reduce duplication of courses for students matriculating to college. The result is the reduction of time and financial expenditure of obtaining a college degree.

Dual-Credit Program Structure Dual credit courses are typically taught by high school faculty, with supervision of MCC faculty. The dual-credit course taught to high school students has the identical content of the equivalent college course, and the dual-credit students meet the same requirements as their college counterparts enrolled in the equivalent course.

The performance of dual-credit students enrolled at MCC is assessed in the same manner as the performance of on-campus students (including exams, portfolios and papers). Dual- credit students also take part in regular general education assessment activities much like their on-campus counterparts.

The credits earned by these high school students are accepted for transfer by the institution (in this case MCC). A dual-credit student can expect to transfer up to five courses. Institutions may accept more than five courses depending on their individual transfer and articulation agreements.

MCC dual-credit students are provided access to on-campus support as well as support within the high school campuses themselves. This support includes library, counseling and student activities.

Dual-Credit Eligibility Requirements

There are a series of pre-requisites that a high school student has to fulfill before he/she can enroll in dual-credit classes. Eligibility varies upon class level and whether or not the courses are intended to transfer or are part of career and/or technical programs. However, there are some basic guidelines.

¾ Junior or senior high school students must have a minimum overall high school GPA of 3.0 for courses intended to transfer. In some instances, high school freshmen and sophomores are also allowed to take these courses if they demonstrate superior academic proficiency (score at or above the 90th percentile on the ACT or SAT).

¾ Students who have not earned a 3.0 GPA may enroll in dual credit courses that are part of a career and/or technical program by demonstrating their ability through test scores, recommendations, and high levels of performance in prerequisite courses.

¾ The student must meet the requirements of individual courses (placement test scores).

¾ The student must be recommended by the principal or counselor of his/her high school.

Methodology

The purpose of this report is to examine demographics, academic success, and courses taken by dual-credit students at Metropolitan Community College. Three academic years (AY); Summer 2003 to Spring 2004, Summer 2004 to Spring 2005, and Summer 2005 to Spring 2006 were used for the analysis. Dual-credit students enrolled in the AY2003-2004 were tracked for eight semesters, students enrolled in the AY2004-2005 were tracked for five semesters, and students enrolled in the AY2005-2006 were tracked for two semesters due to availability. Each cohort was examined independently to determine demographic characteristics, academic success, and further enrollment at MCC. In effort to diminish redundancy, the averages of these cohorts are reported and summarized as each cohort revealed similar trends.

MCC DUAL CREDIT STUDENTS

Demographics A total of 2,127 dual-credit students were enrolled during the 2003-2004 academic year, 2,262 for the 2004-2005 academic year, and 2,333 for the 2005-2006 academic year. Cohort analyses revealed similar demographic characteristics across all three academic years. The majority of students were white (91%) and female (56%). In contrast, the racial/ethnic affiliation of the overall MCC student population is approximately 75% white, much lower than the dual-credit student population, 91% white. In addition, the gender mix of dual credit students varied slightly from the MCC overall population, 61% female, 39% male.

High School Attendance Dual-credit students enrolled at MCC attended over 90 different high schools. The majority of these students attended Park Hill High School (12%), Park Hill South (11%), Blue Springs High School (8%), Lee’s Summit North (7%), and Oak Park High School (7%). Other high schools attended were, Blue Springs South (6%) and Kearney High School (5%). A total listing of dual-credit high schools by academic year can be found in Appendix A.

Dual-Credit Campus Table 1 shows the percentage of dual-credit students enrolled in each academic year by campus. The averages of the three academic years were computed and show that the highest percentage of dual-credit students were enrolled through Maple Woods, followed by Penn Valley, Blue River, Longview, and BTC. Some dual-credit students may have taken courses through multiple campuses.

Table 1 Dual-Credit Enrollment Percent by Campus

Academic Year

Campus 2003-2004 2004-2005 2005-2006 Average

BR 21% 17% 18% 19% BTC 8% 10% 10% 9% LV 8% 17% 21% 15% MW 41% 43% 41% 42% PV 27% 18% 15% 20% Note: Percentages may not equal 100 due to duplicated headcount SOURCE: MCC Research Database

Dual-Credit Course Enrollment Students were enrolled in over 100 dual-credit courses offered through MCC. The ten most popular courses among dual-credit students were MATH 120 (28%), ENGL 101 (17%), ENGL 102 (15%), CDCG 113 (13%), MATH 110 (9%), HIST 120 (6%), SPDR 100 (6%), CDCG 114 (6%), HIST 121 (6%), and HUSC 162 (5%). Table 2 shows the disbursement of grades by percent, “A,” “B,” “C,” or Unsuccessful, “D,” “F,” “W,” “I,”completed by dual-credit students in these courses. HUSC 162 had the highest percentage of “A’s” (75%), followed by CDCG 114 (74%), and CDCG 113 (72%). MATH 110 and MATH 120 had the lowest percentages of “A’s” (33% & 32%). MATH 120 had the highest percentage of unsuccessful grades (8%).

Table 2 Percentage of Successful Grades by Course

% Course % A % B % C Unsuccessful D,F,W, or I HUSC 162 75% 18% 4% 3% CDCG 114 74% 19% 3% 3% CDCG 113 72% 21% 4% 3% SPDR 100 57% 37% 5% <1% ENGL 101 56% 37% 6% 1% ENGL 102 55% 37% 6% 1% HIST 121 42% 40% 15% 4% HIST 120 39% 40% 18% 3% MATH 110 33% 39% 25% 3% MATH 120 32% 33% 27% 8% SOURCE: MCC Research Database

Academic Success in Dual-credit Courses

Table 3 depicts the academic performance of the dual-credit students in their dual-credit courses. Students attempted an average of 6.95 credit hours in dual credit courses and earned 99% of those hours, 6.88 credit hours. These students earned an average GPA of 3.35 on their dual-credit courses. The majority of the grades obtained by dual-credit students were “C” or better (97%), while 2% withdrew and 2% of the grades were unsuccessful (D, F, I).

Table 3 Academic Performance

Academic Year Students Dual Dual Dual “C” or Credit Credit Credit better Attempted Earned GPA Hours Hours 2003-2004 2,127 6.75 6.70 3.33 96%

2004-2005 2,262 7.30 7.17 3.35 97%

2005-2006 2,333 6.81 6.77 3.36 97%

SOURCE: MCC Research Database

Post High School Enrollment at MCC Dual-credit students were tracked two, five, or eight semesters based on availability to look at future MCC enrollment. Approximately 19% of dual-credit students in AY2003-2004 and AY2004-2005 enrolled at MCC within the following academic year. For the AY2005- 2006 only Summer 2006 and Fall 2006 were examined since the entire academic year was not available. It is important to note that not all of the dual-credit students in our cohorts were seniors and therefore many were unable to matriculate to MCC until the following year. For this reason the AY2003-2004 and AY2004-2005 cohorts were tracked through the Fall 2006 semester to try and capture both Junior and Senior dual-credit students.

When the 2003-2004 Academic Year is tracked out eight semesters, a total of 40% of these dual-credit students eventually enrolled in MCC as regular students. When the 2004-2005 Academic Year is tracked out five semesters, a total of 32% of these dual-credit students enrolled in MCC as regular students. It is unclear whether dual-credit students transfer to four year institutions or stop-out and eventually return to MCC.

MCC Academic Performance Student GPA, once enrolled as an MCC regular student, was tracked through the Fall 2006 semester. The cohort data reported was averaged for comparative analysis. As MCC regular students, these past dual-credit students averaged a 2.83 GPA which is a half a point decline compared to their previous high school dual-credit average GPA of 3.35.

Summary The Dual-credit program provides an opportunity for high school students to earn college credit simultaneously thereby reducing the time and expense of obtaining a college degree. This report examined the performance of three Academic Years of dual-credit students during high school and after matriculating to MCC. Cumulatively, 5,916 high school students have enrolled in dual-credit courses from AY2003-2004 to AY2005-2006. Cohort analyses revealed similar trends across all academic years. The majority of students were white (91%) and female (56%). Dual-credit students were enrolled at over 90 different high schools. The majority of students attended Park Hill High School, Park Hill South, Blue Springs High School, Lees’ Summit North, and Oak Park High School. Other schools attended were Blue Springs South and Kearney High School. Forty-two percent (42%) of dual-credit students were enrolled through Maple Woods followed by Penn Valley (20%), Blue River (19%), Longview (15%), and BTC (9%). Figure 1 Dual-Credit Student Enrollment by Campus

MW PV BR LV BTC

Students enrolled in these Academic Years attempted an average of 6.95 hours in dual-credit courses and completed 99% of those hours. They attained an average GPA of 3.35 in their dual-credit courses. The majority of grades obtained by dual-credit students were “C” or better, approximately 97%.

The most popular courses among dual-credit students were: MATH 120 ENGL 101 ENGL 102 (28%) (17%) (15%)

CDCG 113 MATH 110 HIST 120 (13%) (9%) (6%)

SPDR 100 CDCG 114 HIST 121 (6%) (6%) (6%)

HUSC 162 (5%)

HUSC 162 had the highest percentage of “A’s” (75%), followed by CDCG 114 (74%), and CDCG 113 (72%). MATH 110 and MATH 120 had the lowest percentages of “A’s” (33% & 32%). MATH 120 had the highest percentage of unsuccessful grades (8%). Upon graduating from high school, 19% of dual-credit students enroll at MCC the following academic year. However, tracking these students longitudinally for eight semesters, for AY2003-2004, 40% of these students enrolled as MCC students. Extending the “track” out five semesters, for the AY2004-2005, 32% of these students enrolled as MCC students. These longitudinal or “track” numbers reflect both the Seniors and Juniors in our cohorts that would have graduated during these time frames. Overall, these students enrolled through MCC perform very well in college-level courses while in high school; however, this performance declined slightly once they entered MCC as regular students. Dual-credit students experienced a form of “transfer shock” with the GPA decline of half a point in subsequent semesters as compared to their GPA’s in their dual credit courses.

Appendix A

Table 1 Dual-Credit High Schools Schools with at Least 10 Dual-Credit Students in Any Year

AY2003-2004 AY2004-2005 AY2005-2006

High School Name N % N % N % Park Hill High School 257 12% 257 11% 253 11% Park Hill South High School 219 10% 271 12% 227 10% Blue Springs High School 189 9% 177 8% 148 7% Blue Springs South High School 172 8% 115 5% 135 6% Oak Park High School 150 7% 138 6% 146 6% Kearney High School 109 5% 115 5% 127 6% Truman High School 93 4% 46 2% 76 3% Fort Osage High School 80 4% 100 4% 104 5% Lee's Summit High School 70 3% 66 3% 47 2% Liberty Senior High School 68 3% 106 5% 90 4% North Kansas City High School 63 3% 48 2% 48 2% Winnetonka High School 63 3% 60 3% 48 2% Lawson High School 60 3% 62 3% 51 2% William Chrisman High School 59 3% 36 2% 44 2% Hickman Mills High School 50 2% 36 2% 26 1% Lee's Summit North High School 50 2% 191 9% 219 10% St Pius X High School 45 2% 44 2% 40 2% Excelsior Springs High School 28 1% 30 1% 39 2% Raytown High School 27 1% 24 1% 26 1% Raytown South High School 25 1% 9 <1% 15 1% Smithville High School 23 1% 36 2% 45 2% Lathrop High School 22 1% 12 1% 12 1% Southwest Charter School 22 1% 13 1% 13 1% De La Salle Education Center 20 1% 0 0% 0 0% Mid-Buchanan High School 11 1% 4 <1% 10 <1% Raymore-Peculiar High School 8 <1% 10 <1% 9 <1% Oak Grove High School 8 <1% 9 <1% 17 1% Lexington High School 6 <1% 13 1% 10 <1% Grain Valley High School 6 <1% 12 1% 10 <1%

Table 1 -CONTINUED- Dual-Credit High Schools Schools with at Least 10 Dual-Credit Students in Any Year

AY2003-2004 AY2004-2005 AY2005-2006

High School Name N % N % N % Richmond High School 6 <1% 6 <1% 14 1% Savannah High School 5 <1% 11 <1% 12 1% Odessa High School 3 <1% 10 <1% 20 1% Grandview High School 3 <1% 6 <1% 10 <1% Ruskin High School 2 <1% 11 <1% 8 <1% Lafayette County High School 2 <1% 4 <1% 10 <1% Southeast High School 1 <1% 15 1% 4 <1% Cass Career Center 0 0% 11 <1% 0 0% Polo High School 0 0% 11 <1% 8 <1% Lee’s Summit West High School 0 0% 10 <1% 35 2% SOURCE: MCC Research Database

Table 2 High Schools with Fewer than 10 Students during All Years:

Adrian High School Metro Advanced Technical Archie High School Metropolitan Technical High School Belton High School Midway High School Benton High School Nodaway-Holt High School Bishop Leblond High School Norborne High School Bishop Miege High School North Platte High School Cameron High School Northeast High School Center High School Orrick High School Centerplace Restoration School Osborn High School Central High School Paseo Academy Concordia High School Platte County High School Crest Ridge High School Plattsburg High School East Buchanan High School Santa Fe High School Fort Osage Career & Technical Center South Holt High School Grandview Alternative High School Southeast African Centered High Hardin-Central High School Southwest High School Harrisonville High School St Mary's High School Herndon Career Center St Pius X High School Hogan Preparatory Academy St Teresa Academy Independence Academy Stewartsville High School Islamic School of Kansas City Valley View High School Lafayette High School Van Horn High School Lee's Summit Community Christian Wellington-Napoleon High School Lex La Ray Technical Center West Platte High School Lincoln Academy Westport High School Lone Jack High School Westport Senior Academy Manuel Career Tech