Researchers outline strategies to expand access and success in dual enrollment in Indiana and North Carolina

Jenny Parks, vice president of policy and research at the Midwestern Higher Education Compact, opened a webinar where Julie Edmonds and Nina Arshofsky of the Early College Research Center (UNC Greensboro) presented comparative findings on dual enrollment in Indiana and North Carolina.

Edmonds and Arshofsky described how the states use different delivery models and policy levers to expand college coursework for high‑school students. Edmonds summarized the center’s evidence that dual enrollment is associated with higher high‑school graduation rates and increased college credit accumulation, and that, in some analyses, participation appeared to mitigate COVID‑era declines in postsecondary outcomes: "dual enrollment students have higher high school graduation rates, and they earn more college credits in high school," Edmonds said.

The presentation contrasted Indiana’s model—where most dual credit courses are taught by high‑school teachers on the high‑school campus—with North Carolina’s Career and College Promise (CCP), where most courses are taught by college faculty on college campuses or online. Arshofsky said Indiana statute requires each high school to offer at least two dual‑credit courses and described an Indiana College Core pathway (ICC) offering…