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Four Main Findings (Based on Data from Before the Implementation of House Bill 505 in 2015)

• DC students who graduated from high school had better college outcomes — including higher grades in DC courses and their follow-on courses; higher college enrollment, persistence, and completion rates; and lower remediation rates — than high school graduates who did not take DC courses.
• DC instruction and advising varied across colleges and universities.
• Disparities in DC participation rates — by race/ethnicity, income, urbanicity (the urban or rural location of the student's high school), gender, and academic background — exist and change across demographic groups over time. These disparities persist, and the research thus far is unable to pinpoint their specific causes.
• DC students took about the same number of semester credit hours (SCHs) as their non-DC counterparts, however, they took, on average, half an academic year less to complete a four-year degree.

Research Questions for the Second Phase of the Study

• Are there systematic differences in curricula, course content, assessment methods and standards, and/or teaching approaches in DC and college-credit-only courses?
• Is there a way to improve DC advising to reduce the number of SCHs a DC student earns toward a college degree?
• How much did students' previous academic preparation and behavioral dispositions, versus what they learned in their DC courses, contribute to their academic success?
• What are the financial costs of DC programs to stakeholders, given that Texas allocates funding to both high schools and colleges and universities to deliver DC and that DC students exhibit similar time-to-degree and SCHs-to-degree patterns as college-credit-only students?
• Why do disparities in DC participation rates across demographic groups exist and persist?
• Are institutions expanding dual-credit programs in response to House Bill 505 If so, which students are gaining access to dual-credit education, and are they still benefiting?