Dual Enrollment Course Completion and the Academic Success of African American Male First-Year Community College Students

Abstract

The focus of this study was to explore how dual enrollment course completion in high school impacted the academic success of African American male first-time, full-time community college students. In the current study, academic success referred to the number of credit hours earned in the first year of college, the cumulative grade point average (GPA) achieved at the end of the first year, and whether the student returned for the second year of college. The study was conducted using a quantitative, quasi-experimental research design, analyzing archival data from a Midwestern community college. The sample included 162 African American male first-time, full-time students who matriculated to the Midwestern community college from fall 2015 through fall 2018. Sixty-two students had completed dual enrollment coursework in high school and 100 had not completed any dual enrollment coursework. Independent-samples t tests and a chi-square test of independence test were conducted to compare the academic success of the African American male first-time, full-time students who completed dual enrollment coursework in high school to those who did not complete any dual enrollment coursework in high school. Results of the analyses indicated that the students who completed dual enrollment coursework in high school enrolled in more credit hours, earned higher end of first year cumulative GPAs, and re-enrolled for the second year of college more frequently than students who did not complete dual enrollment coursework in high school. Additional analyses were completed to determine if the number of dual enrollment credit hours earned had any impact on the academic success of the students in this group. There was a statistically significant difference in the end of the first year of college cumulative GPAs among African American first-time, full-time students based on the number of hours of dual enrollment credit hours earned. High school administrators and counselors and personnel from higher education institutions that offer dual enrollment may be interested in the results of the current study as they research promising practices related to increasing the college academic success of African American male students.