Op-Ed: Celebrating the Successes of Dual Enrollment and FastTrack

By Dr. Vicki P. Hawsey, President of Wallace State Community College
For more than a decade, Wallace State Community College has provided high school students the opportunity to simultaneously earn high school and college credit though its dual enrollment program. And since 2005, high school juniors and seniors have also had the opportunity to enroll in the FastTrack Academy, which allows dually enrolled students to take all their classes on the Wallace State campus rather than at their high schools.
On May 7, Wallace State celebrated the graduation of 39 students from the FastTrack Academy. A number of FastTrack students are even receiving their associate’s degrees in advance of their high school diploma this month. Many other FastTrack and dually enrolled students will transfer enough college credit earned during high school to Wallace State or the Alabama public college or university of their choice to put them a year or even two full years ahead of their classmates. Wallace State is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and, through participation in STARS, the statewide system for articulation, seamless transfer of credit is guaranteed to all of the state’s public colleges and universities and many private institutions.
This year’s crop of nearly 400 dual enrollment students included 70 in the FastTrack program at Wallace State and nearly 30 in a new FastTrack program at J.B. Pennington. The success rate for dual enrollment, and especially the FastTrack program, is exceptionally high. One hundred percent of students who entered the FastTrack program last year graduated this year with a high school diploma and some college credit, a better rate than can be found at most any high school.
Moreover, dual enrollment and FastTrack students disproportionately win scholarships to further their education. Here are just a few of many from the class of 2013:
 

 
For students who plan to attend in-state colleges and universities, dual enrollment often makes even more sense than AP because credits are guaranteed one-to-one transfer.
It is no wonder that, with successes similar to those at Wallace State documented among dual enrollment programs nationwide, programs are growing.  According to new report from the National Center for Education Statistics, during the 2010-11 school year, 82 percent of high schools offered dual enrollment courses across the country, a 71 percent increase from 2002, with more than two million course enrollments.
Dual enrollment is increasingly considered a viable strategy for improving college readiness and success for its many advantages. Dual enrollment introduces students to the rigors of college coursework while still in the safe and supportive surroundings of high school.  The variety of courses and more intense study suits some students who may be looking for an additional challenge, whether in core academic areas or in a technical field. And, dual enrollment allows students to finish college early by getting ahead on coursework, which saves both time and money.
According to The National Center for Postsecondary Research, a partnership of Teachers College of Columbia University, the University of Virginia, Harvard University, and MDRC, dual enrollment students are even more likely than AP students to go to college after high school. A similarstudy done by researchers with the Oregon University System determined the following:

• ·        Dual credit students have a higher college participation rate than high school graduates overall.
• ·        Dual credit students who go on to college continue to the second year at a higher rate than freshmen who enter college without having earned dual credit.
• ·        Among freshmen who continue to the second year of college, dual credit participants earn a higher first year GPA.
• ·        Students who continue to the second year of college accumulate more college credit if they take dual credit in high school.

About Wallace State FastTrack and Dual Enrollment
Dual Enrollment is open to sophomores at qualified schools and allows them to take courses on their high school campus that also count for college credit. Participating schools have high school teachers certified to teach the required classes.
FastTrack is open to qualified juniors and seniors at participating high schools, and the participants are enrolled as Wallace State students, taking all of their courses on the Wallace State campus – or through a new Wallace State FastTrack site at J.B. Pennington in Blount County.  The entirely on-campus option available through FastTrack offers students a more flexible schedule since they go by the college schedule. The Fast Track program  is particularly appropriate for mature, self-motivated and goal-oriented high school students who do not mind leaving their classmates for advanced study.  Like dual enrollment students, FastTrack students also participate in high school sports and other extracurriculars.
Both Dual Enrollment and FastTrack are open to students in high school students in Cullman, Blount, Morgan and Winston counties, as well as to home-school students.
To be eligible for Dual Enrollment, students must:

• ·        Have completed the ninth grade
• ·        Have a “B” average in completed standard, regulation high school courses leading to a high school diploma
• ·        Have written approval of the principal and local superintendent of education
• ·        Meet the entrance requirements
• ·        Complete placement exams

To be eligible for FastTrack, students must:

• ·        Be a high school junior or senior
• ·        Have a GPA of 3.0 or higher
• ·        Have a minimum of 12 high school credits
• ·        Passed required parts of graduation exam (if applicable)

For more information about Wallace State Dual Enrollment or FastTrack, call 256.352.8051 or visitwww.wallacestate.edu.