The Promise of Dual Enrollment: Assessing Ohio’s Early College Access Policy

For more than 18 years, Ohio high school students have been able to take college courses for both high school and college credit at no cost to them, thanks to the Ohio Post Secondary Enrollment Options policy (PSEO). While this policy redirects almost $18 million in state funds to pay for these courses, until now no comprehensive review has been done to determine how effective the policy is in better preparing students and the state’s workforce.

The Promise of Dual Enrollment: Assessing Ohio’s Early College Access Policy, released today by KnowledgeWorks Foundation, is the first report to collect and analyze available data on the policy. It finds both promise and problems in how the PSEO policy is implemented across the state. Researchers found that high school students who take college courses through PSEO may be more likely to attend college and get degrees faster than the general population, but identified faults in how data is collected that make it impossible to determine whether these outcomes are a result of early college access. The report’s findings also contradict some commonly held conceptions of how the policy has been used, document both direct and indirect costs associated with the policy, and pinpoint possible inequalities in access.

With the policy set to expand – the Ohio General Assembly included nearly $5.7 million for PSEO in the budget it adopted in June – it is crucial that policy makers, educators and the public understand the importance of early college access and limitations of the current policy. Used to its best advantage, Ohio’s PSEO policy has potential to be an effective 21st-century model that crosses old education boundaries and increases access and preparation for all Ohioans.

View the Report Highlights

Download or order a copy of the Report