The Impact of Dual Enrollment and Other Accelerated Mechanism Participation on First Year College English Course Outcomes

The purpose of this study was to explore the academic performance of entering college students in their first enrolled college English course by comparing students who entered with prior college English coursework earned through Dual Enrollment, with prior college English coursework earned through another accelerated mechanism such as AP or IB, and students that entered with no prior college English. The study sought to determine if the effects of earned college English credits through accelerated mechanisms impacted course outcomes differently by racial and ethnic subpopulations. This study utilized administrative student data from a regional public university in Florida.This research was designed to contribute to the existing literature on dual enrollment and accelerated mechanisms by specifically addressing the impact on course outcomes, which is an area of this research where a gap currently exists. This study utilized a linear probability model (LPM), ordinary least squares (OLS), and then both propensity score matching using nearest neighbor (PSM NN) and propensity score weighting (PSW) to simulate an experimental design.The findings from this study suggest that within the context of the study institution, there are slight negative effects for first college English course outcomes for students with earned dual enrollment credits in college English and positive effects for students with earned college English credits from other accelerated mechanisms only. The main effects for the impact of college English credits earned through dual enrollment only were negative for the GPA in students' first college English course and for the likelihood of earning a grade of A for two of the three empirical strategies utilized. Conversely, the main effects for the impact of college English credits earned through other accelerated mechanisms only were positive for both GPA in a students' first college English course and the likelihood of earning a grade of A for two of the three empirical strategies utilized. When looking at the individual race/ethnicity subpopulations, there were no significant effects for Hispanic, Black or African American, or other race/ethnicity students. The effects for White students mirrored the main effects. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]