More Fort Worth high schoolers are earning college credit tuition-free. Here’s how.
A new state program designed to help low-income high school students get a head start on college is having an impact in Tarrant County schools, officials say.
The Financial Aid for Swift Transfer, or FAST, program provides state funding to cover tuition and other expenses for low-income high school students taking dual credit courses. Lawmakers created the program during last year’s legislative session.
Dual credit classes allow high school students to earn both high school and college credit for a single class. They’re most commonly offered through partnerships between school districts and community colleges.
Colleges across the country, and particularly in Texas, have seen rapid enrollment growth in their dual credit offerings over the past few years. Recent research suggests those programs may help certain students finish college faster.
FAST program covers dual credit tuition for low-income students
Dual enrollment programs can take a number of forms within a single school district. Students in traditional high schools can take individual dual credit classes and earn credit toward a college degree. Many districts also have early college high schools that allow students to earn up to 60 college credits and an associate’s degree or professional certificate before they graduate high school.
The FAST program was a part of House Bill 8, a larger overhaul of Texas’ system for funding its community colleges. It went into effect during the fall semester of 2023. About 5,800 students who are eligible for the new state program are enrolled in dual credit courses through Tarrant County College.
Although the program only covers tuition for high school students who qualify for free or reduced lunches, some colleges, including TCC, began waiving tuition for dual credit courses for all students when the program began. Since then, the college has seen a 24% increase in the number of students enrolled in dual credit courses.
David Ximenez, TCC’s associate vice chancellor for enrollment and academic support services, said college officials can’t say for sure that the waived tuition is the only factor leading to that growth — there’s been a sharp upward trend in dual credit enrollment across the country in recent years — but Ximenez said he suspects the new program played a major role.
High school students enrolled in dual credit programs represent a little more than a quarter of TCC’s overall enrollment. The majority of those students take general education courses like freshman-level English and math, Ximenez said, although there’s usually a certain amount of interest in career-related technical courses, as well.
That places TCC roughly in line with statewide trends. Across Texas, 23% of community college students in the 2022-23 academic year were high school students enrolled in dual credit courses, according to the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Edward Hicks, the TCC’s district director of educational partnerships, said although the FAST program has been in effect for more than a year, this semester marked the first time college officials could begin to see its impact. The college recruits students for dual credit classes a year in advance, he said, so by the time it went into effect in the fall of 2023, the recruitment and enrollment process for that year’s classes was already over.
Hicks said he expects the growth to continue as the word gets out about the FAST program and the college’s tuition waiver. The college has staffers on high school campuses to talk to students and parents about what options are available, he said.
One message college leaders want to deliver to students is that dual credit classes aren’t intro-to-college courses, Hicks said — they’re bona fide college classes taught using the same syllabi and textbooks students would get if they were taking the same class on campus at TCC.
In most cases, dual credit classes are taught by the same faculty members who teach those classes at the college, Hicks said. In some cases, TCC has offered credentials to high school teachers that allow them to teach college-level courses. Those teachers get the same advising and professional development as their counterparts at TCC, he said, and they go through the same employee evaluation process with their college department chairs.
Robert Wright, director of college, career and military readiness for the Fort Worth Independent School District, said the district has seen a 19% uptick in dual credit hours taken by economically disadvantaged students since 2021. The district has long made a priority of making opportunities like dual credit classes available to all students, he said, but he suspects that the FAST program and TCC’s tuition waivers contributed to that growth.
This week, district officials will be sending letters to families of eighth-graders letting them know about opportunities that will be available to them starting next year, Wright said. That includes early college high schools, where students can enroll starting in ninth grade, as well as dual credit classes that they won’t be able to take for a few years. Even if those kids can’t enroll in those classes yet, district leaders want to get them involved in advanced academics earlier, and let their parents know what’s available, he said.
Dual credit participation surges in Texas, nationwide
Nationwide, community colleges have seen huge growth in interest in their dual credit offerings. Figures from the U.S. Department of Education suggest that about 2.5 million students took at least one dual credit class during the 2022-23 school year, compared with an estimated 1.4 million in 2021.
States have made big investments in dual enrollment programs over the past few decades, seeing them as a way to give high school students an early taste of the college experience, and potentially encourage more of them to enroll after high school.
In Texas, those investments have led to major enrollment growth. According to an analysis released in October by the Community College Research Center, Texas had more new dual enrollment students than any other state in 2015, and had nearly twice as many as New York, which was second on the list.
Tatiana Velasco, a researcher at the Community College Research Center and one of the authors of the analysis, said those courses can be a part of states’ strategies for maintaining or expanding their workforces. Speaking earlier this month during a webinar organized by the nonprofit Education Writers Association, Velasco said there’s a large and growing need across the country for college-educated workers.
By giving high school students an early look at what college is like, and allowing them to earn course credit at little or no cost, Velasco said lawmakers in states across the country hope to convince students who might not otherwise have gone to college that it might be a good fit for them.
Those programs appear to have bigger benefits for some students than others. According to the analysis, students who enrolled in college after taking a dual credit course in high school were only slightly more likely to graduate with a bachelor’s degree within four years than those who didn’t take a dual credit class. But while Black and Hispanic students are under-represented in dual credit classes, those who took dual credit classes in high school were substantially more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree within four years.
What’s unclear is whether dual credit classes are the main factor behind that difference. It’s also possible that Black and Hispanic students who enroll in those classes tend to be high achievers who would have graduated from college in greater numbers with or without the head start that those classes offer.
In any case, researchers argue that state policy makers would do well to expand access to those programs. Velasco said that means not only continuing to invest in those programs overall, but also making sure to include students who have been under-represented up to now.
“It’s not simply about getting more students in dual enrollment,” she said. “It’s targeting the students who will benefit the most.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
