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A Case Study of Dual-Credit Programs
GEAR UP Hawai‘i is committed to improving low-income high school students’ access to college courses and, as a result, requested that Education Northwest, the external evaluator of GEAR UP Hawai‘i, conduct a case study to understand barriers and facilitators of participation in dual credit. To do so, we visited five rural, Title I high schools in Hawai‘i and conducted interviews with staff and students.
This case study is guided by three main questions:
- How are dual-credit programs implemented at these schools?
- What are barriers and facilitators of dual credit implementation and participation?
- What are stakeholder perspectives on dual credit?
The following sections of the study report present:
- A description of five rural Title I high schools we visited
- The traditional Running Start model
- New high school-based dual-credit models
- How dual-credit models fit within a larger system that aims to build students’ college readiness
- Recommendations
In presenting each of the dual-credit models, we discuss barriers and facilitators of implementation and participation. At the end of the report, we provide recommendations for a broad range of stakeholders, including policymakers interested in expanding and sustaining dual-credit programs, superintendents and principals interested in implementing these programs, and students interested in participating in these programs.