In fall 2024, the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) launched a new project exploring innovative state strategies for funding community colleges and building dual enrollment pathways. States across the country are in various phases of considering, or not, similar policy shifts in their states. The project will focus primarily on Texas’s new community college funding formula, which includes incentives for dual enrollment pathways, and California’s dual enrollment pathways initiatives.  It will leverage research and dissemination to focus on gathering information on the evolution of Texas and California’s policy changes, what effects they have had, what guidance and learnings is applicable to, and can be provided for other states, and empowering the right individuals to share the message.

Over the past decade, Texas has seen dual credit enrollment climb by nearly 100,000 students. However, knocking down the price for more students and rewarding colleges for awarding more dual credits within college and career pathways have put that growth on steroids. College leaders look at Texas and wonder what’s in their special sauce.

In 2023, Texas updated its community college funding formula to incentivize the attainment of credentials of value. The formula in House Bill 8 (HB 8) provides extra funding for providing credentials of value in high-demand fields. It includes weights to reflect the challenge of getting particular student types, including economically and academically disadvantaged and adults, to the finish line. While community college leaders are right to focus on the dynamic funding formula influencing debates on how other states approach funding and celebrating the state’s bipartisan approach, leaders should pay close attention to some lesser-known provisions of HB 8 that are driving more high school students to college-level coursework on pathways that lead to college and good jobs.

Financial Aid for Swift Transfer, or FAST, put dual credit pathways within reach for tens of thousands of more students by making dual credit courses free for low-income students and capping the cost for all other students. Previously, dual credit costs varied widely across the state, with some larger districts like Dallas, with strong tax bases, charged students nothing, while others charged up to $99.

Now, FAST ensures that students who received free and reduced-price lunch in any of the previous four years have access to free dual-credit classes, including books, materials, fees, and access to a laptop and hotspot. The state reimburses colleges at $58.52 per semester credit hour for low-income students in dual credit. Dual credit costs for other students are capped at a reasonable $58.52 per credit hour, bringing the price down considerably for other students. The financial aid program is optional, but only a handful of colleges aren’t participating. The state legislature provided $78.6 million in new money in the first biennium to cover the costs while making it an entitlement and ensuring the per credit hour rate rises with inflation.

Del Mar College Trustee Carol Scott says, “It expands access and opportunity much further than before.”

The state didn’t only provide a no-to-low-cost avenue for students to earn dual credit in HB 8, but also rewards colleges for each student who achieves 15 dual credit hours by graduation. The new formula provides $1,700 per student for the number of students who earn at least 15 credit hours through academic and workforce dual credit programs. It also allows colleges to earn even more funding if students achieve credentials of value.

When most people think of dual credit or dual enrollment, they think of what some call “programs of privilege” where the most academically prepared and well-resourced kids who are already college-bound take that second year of calculus for concurrent high school and college credit. Other approaches include “random acts” of dual enrollment where students take a couple of college-level courses and end up with excess credits unrelated to their college or career goals when they get to college.

By making dual credit courses free and embedding them in college and career pathways, colleges and school districts in Texas are opening access to who receives access to dual credit coursework.  They’re also changing how it’s delivered, stacking courses into a pathway leading to college credentials and careers contributing to the state’s economic competitiveness. Research shows that even students who fall behind in high school or aren’t as academically well-prepared as the “traditional” dual credit student perform better when they have access to dual credit coursework. They earn better grades and are more likely to graduate from high school and enroll in college. It gets students used to success in their lives.

Kilgore College has seen an increase in the number of students enrolled in dual credit by over 36% since the last academic year alone. High school students now make up most of the student population. President Brenda Kays, who was on the committee that developed the new community college funding formula, is an unabashed advocate for the state’s new approach to funding dual credit. “FAST funding helped immensely to open the door for those who weren’t previously involved in dual credit,” said President Kays.”

Kilgore developed a Patient Care Technology pathway with its school districts in East Texas. Dual credit students can receive three certifications—in phlebotomy, patient care, and echo stenography—by the time they graduate from high school.

Some colleges took the opportunity to fund changes and incentives for dual credit to strengthen student services to prepare students for dual credit. They are providing middle school kids college and career exploration opportunities so they can hit the ground running with dual credit coursework when they enter high school. They’re giving 9th-grade students academic and career advising so the students can make educated decisions about which pathways to pursue.  Others are looking at adaptive learning tools.

HB 8 also initiated the optional College Connect Dual Credit/Dual Enrollment program, which encourages colleges to deliver innovatively designed dual credit courses that integrate college-level content in the core curriculum and college-readiness content and skills instruction. The program builds pathways for students who don’t have college-level academic skills to transition into dual credit coursework more easily.

Dual credit coursework can motivate and prepare students who are falling behind in high school and don’t have a college plan to pursue postsecondary education and training after high school to change their minds. This, in turn, grows community college enrollment and improves college finances as they rack up more funding for better outcomes.

There is some fine print that’s worth noting. Some colleges had to revisit their dual credit memorandums of understanding with their school districts to account for costs not covered by the state’s reimbursement rate and capped funding levels. Participating colleges may charge a school district for course-related expenses, other than tuition, for an eligible student or address through cost-sharing agreements. Four-year institutions are eligible, too.

• Record-level dual credit due to HB 8 Changes to dual credit (in a box)
• 22% increase in dual credit enrollment compared to 2022.
• 260,000 students with financial need served by the program
• At the statewide level, $1.46 million per semester credit hour saved by students.
• $79.6 million in funding distributed to institutions participating in FAST.

Texas offers some important lessons for those trustees who want to grow the dual credit/enrollment population.

Providing wider access to dual credit allows community colleges to transform who they educate and how they do business. In attracting more low-income and first-generation students to dual credit coursework, Texas community colleges are shifting who they are educating. Dual enrollment students now make up most students at some community colleges. High school teachers are being upskilled to earn the credentials needed to teach college content, and college instructors are shifting their teaching styles to meet the needs of a younger student population. The incentives in HB 8 that encourage high schools and colleges to serve more students through dual credit and ensure students are on a pathway to a credential of value make high-quality advising more critical than ever.

Elements of Success

Make it free. Providing free and low-cost dual credit coursework has smoothed access to community colleges for different populations, like first-generation and low-income students—those groups not well served by the old way of doing dual credit, where only the high-achieving kids have access.

Open the college doors wider. Increasing the number of students with access to dual credit builds a pipeline for more students into the community college when some colleges are experiencing stagnant enrollment of more traditional students. It exposes high school students to career opportunities earlier, getting them on a pathway that will lead to high-quality credentials and good jobs, all of which is incented through HB 8.  And it plugs the leaky pipeline of students transitioning from high school to college. Students who take college classes in high school are more apt to go to college and succeed.

Increase a region’s and state’s economic competitiveness. Building a Talent Strong Texas, the state’s strategic higher education plan, calls for 60% of Texans ages 25-64 to achieve degrees, certificates, or other postsecondary credentials of value by 2030. Dual credit is a crucial component of ensuring that Texas achieves this goal. Embedding dual credit within career and college pathways that lead to quality jobs strengthens Texas’ ability to draw new employers that offer good jobs.

Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield is a freelance consultant and the principal researcher on this project. Learn more about Amy here.