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Dual Enrollment

Dual enrollment provides students with the opportunity to take college-level courses for both high school and college credit and is offered nationally to increase college access. In FY2009, the Department of Higher Education requested and received $2 million to offer payments for dual enrollment to the Commonwealth’s public higher education institutions.

There are many benefits of dual enrollment, which has been shown to:

• inspire college aspirations and ease the transition to college for students who are traditionally underrepresented in higher education, such as first-generation college students;
• challenge high-achieving students by allowing them to take rigorous coursework sometimes not readily available in high school;
• save time and money when made available at no additional cost to students.

History

Dual enrollment was first established in Massachusetts through the Education Reform Act of 1993. The program, offered across the entire public higher system, served over 12,000 students from 1994–2001. It was then eliminated to reduce costs during the financial downturn of 2001–02. In the absence of state funds, a handful of colleges working in partnership with local high schools continued to offer dual enrollment on a limited basis, with students primarily being responsible for payment.