Statewide participation in dual enrollment courses is on the rise, according to the Dual Enrollment Task Force 2023 Report that was recently released.

Representatives from the Louisiana Board of Regents (BOR) and the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) visited Lake Charles to launch the report on Wednesday.

This is the third annual Dual Enrollment Task Force report that has been released, and it lays out current statewide dual enrollment trends and goals. Louisiana Commissioner of Higher Education Kim Hunter Reed highlighted some of these data points.

There is a 13 percent one-year increase in students taking dual enrollment classes, with 32,577 Louisiana high school students enrolled in courses. Aligning with the Task Force’s efforts to make early college courses accessible to every student, there has been a consistent increase of 2,000 Black and Hispanic students participating in dual enrollment each year. She called this a “faster than average increase in participation rate for minority students.”

This positive growth is important for the education of Louisiana students and the health of the state’s future workforce. She noted that research shows that dual enrollment participation increases the chance of a student enrolling in and completing college.

Ernise Singleton, assistant superintendent of the Office of Career and College Readiness, LDOE, said that the opportunity to earn college credit before receiving a high school diploma serves as an “option multiplier” for every student, not just “high flyers.”

“It connects students’ interests and aptitudes towards the world of work, demonstrating that college is not only a possibility but an achievable reality.”

She explained that the collaborative effort between BOR, LDOE and the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) has led to the “massive expansion” of dual enrollment in Louisiana. They share a vision that “moves towards a more personalized and flexible education experience that blurs the lines between high school and college.”

The Task Force chose to debut this year’s report in Lake Charles because of the Calcasieu Parish School Board’s Virtual Instruction Program (VIP) – a program that brings STEM, Dual Enrollment and Advanced Placement classes to 700 students across Calcasieu Parish with synchronized instruction, Reed said.

They toured the facilities at the Lake Charles-Boston Academy of Learning to see VIP in action. She said that this “proven model” could be the solution to ensure dual enrollment courses are widely accessible, even in rural areas.

“We have a vision to have universal access to dual enrollment for every student in Louisiana, whether they are interested in career and technical education or academic courses.

Dual Enrollment Task Force

The Dual Enrollment Task Force was established with the passage of Act 128 during the 2019 Regular Legislative Session.

The task force’s mission is to establish a framework to make dual enrollment courses for all eligible public high school juniors and seniors universally accessible.

The force is staffed by the BOR and has met over 20 times since 2019 to develop these recommendations.

The Task Force released 24 recommendations for 2024, with many focusing on removing barriers and promoting dual enrollment opportunity equity for rural students, students with disabilities or exceptionalities and underserved student populations. The recommendations also had an emphasis on promoting partnerships between school districts and local community and technical colleges to bolster statewide career and technical dual enrollment opportunities.