Students who take college credit courses in high school are more likely to enroll in postsecondary education after graduation and earn a degree or credential, according to a new Iowa Department of Education report.

In the state’s first longitudinal look at joint enrollment cohort data, the Outcomes of Jointly Enrolled Students in Iowa report tracks 29,000 high school graduates from the class of 2011 over an eight-year period. It compares postsecondary enrollment and completion rates of students who jointly enrolled in community college credit courses while in high school and students who did not.

Out of the 17,508 high school students from the class of 2011 who earned college credit in high school, 75.5% enrolled in college immediately after graduating, and of those, 59.1% achieved a degree within eight years. In comparison, 50.4% percent of students who did not earn college credit in high school immediately enrolled in college. Of those, 32.8% completed a degree or transferred during the same time frame.

Student participation in joint enrollment in Iowa schools has increased by an average annual growth rate of 5.8% since 2004, although participation differs by district. In total, 51,800 students were jointly enrolled during the 2019-20 school year.  High school students participating in joint enrollment programs accounted for 40.8% of total community college enrollment during the 2019-20 school year, according to the 2020 Joint Enrollment Report the department released in March.

“Earning college credit while in high school benefits students in so many ways,” said Ann Lebo, director of the Iowa Department of Education. “While we had a record number of jointly enrolled students during the 2019-20 academic year, we still have work to do. Closing the gap and ensuring all high school students take advantage of these opportunities will help more students explore career paths and experience the rigor of college-level courses, putting them on a path for success in both college and careers.”

Metrics for the study on joint enrollment were collected from Iowa’s 15 community colleges. Additional report highlights from the graduating class of 2011 include:

– 60.4% of those earned college credit while in high school.

– 15,316 jointly enrolled students subsequently enrolled in postsecondary education within eight years of high school graduation, compared to 7,698 students who graduated high school without earning any college credit.  

Students who were of a racial or ethnic minority made up 8.8% of all jointly enrolled students. In comparison, minority students made up 11.5% of the total student population from the graduating class of 2011.

Future research will look further into equity gaps in joint enrollment participation, whether joint enrollment course type affects enrollment and completion rates and if earning a postsecondary award while in high school impacts further postsecondary education and employment decisions.

The full report can be found on the Iowa Department of Education’s website.