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Dual Enrollment Programs: Setting Minimum Standard of Admission

Currently the admission requirements for entry into dual enrollment programs at the ¾Ã²ÝÈȾòÝÊÓƵ of Missouri are informally set at a HS GPA of 2.5. This study examined the policy implications of increasing this standard.

Columbia(P&B)--Currently the admission requirements for entry into dual enrollment high school programs at the ¾Ã²ÝÈȾòÝÊÓƵ of Missouri are informally set at a high school GPA of 2.50. This study examined the policy implications of increasing this standard.

The goal of this study was to determine if there was a minimum high school GPA that could be used as a requirement for participation in the dual high school enrollment programs, primarily at UMKC and UMSL. Because high school and college transcript data of the dual enrolled students are not readily available, we used the records of students who were required to meet first-time freshman standards (fall 1997) to determine what minimum high school GPA could be used as a requirement for automatic admission into the ¾Ã²ÝÈȾòÝÊÓƵ. The problem was approached in several ways.

Data Analysis:

• Alternative 1: Equal Percent Based on ACT of 24
  • The ACT score of 24 is the lowest score that automatically admits a prospective student into the ¾Ã²ÝÈȾòÝÊÓƵ. For fall 1997, the percent of students entering with an ACT of 24 or higher was 61%. This equates to a minimum high school GPA of 3.14.
• Alternative 2: Equal Standards of 50% of Current New Students
  • Fifty percent of the first-time freshmen enter with a high school GPA of 3.30 or better.
• Alternative 3: Regression--Using high school GPA to predict first semester GPA
  • Model 1 - Predicting a 2.00 GPA for the first semester of college work
    Minimum high school GPA = 2.30
  • Model 2 - Predicting a 2.50 GPA for the first semester of college work
    Minimum high school GPA = 2.87
  • Model 3 - Predicting a 3.00 GPA for the first semester of college work
    Minimum high school GPA = 3.44

Potential Policy Implications:

The use of a GPA involves lowering current informal requirements of a minimum high school GPA to 2.30 (Model 1 of Alternative 3) or creating higher standards for high school students than our current general admission's policy (Alternatives 1, 2 and Models 2 and 3 of Alternative 3). Lowering the minimum GPA requirement is not a viable option. Creating higher requirements for non-degree seeking students than those required for degree-seeking students also has potential policy issue problems.

Research has been done that supports the notion that dual enrolled students do as well as those who took the courses on-campus (Quality of Dual-credit Preparation for Further Study in Foreign Languages, Steve Chatman and Kandis Smith, P&B97-06). However, there is a lack of readily available data on these students. Questions such as how well they perform in particular college classes, are they as successful as other first-time college students, how does their performance compare to students participating in Advanced Placement programs are beyond current, readily available data sources.

Data Sources:

Results are based on using regression and frequency tables for 4,317 first-time college students at UMC, UMKC, and UMSL for the fall of 1997. The data records are part of the Curator's Exceptions Reporting System.

UMKC Dual High School Enrollment Credit Hours & Headcount FY1993 - FY1998 (PDF 5 KB)

UMSL Dual High School Enrollment Credit Hours & Headcount FY1993 - FY1998 (PDF 5 KB)