Giving Compass' Take:

• The author discusses the education reform policy on dual enrollment which allows high schoolers to enroll in college courses and receive credit before attending a university. However, critics say that this reform lowers the quality of colleges because students are able to gain college credit fairly easily and the course instructors are high school teachers rather than qualified professors. 

• What are other higher education reforms that lower the quality of colleges? 

• Read about the higher education accreditation reform and the impact on universities. 

At a time when parents, politicians and universities all want more students to go to college and graduate on time, the idea of letting them take college courses while in high school seems a great solution.

In Ohio, however, lawmakers were surprised to learn that high school kids were earning college credits, at taxpayer expense, by taking gym. That and other loopholes have been closed this summer in response to legislation in Ohio that restricted who can sign up for dual enrollment there and what courses count toward college.

But it’s among the ways critics warn some well-meaning reforms designed to solve the many challenges in higher education are threatening to water down its quality or benefiting students who don’t need help.

There’s no question dual enrollment makes numbers go up. High school students who take dual-enrollment courses are more likely than their classmates to go to college, and they earn degrees or certificates more quickly, research by the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University, or CCRC, found.

A result is that administrators “are all well-meaning, but their focus is not on the quality of instruction,” said Jim Klein, a history teacher at Del Mar College in Texas. “Their charge is to grow the dual-credit programs and the easiest way to do that is reduce standards.” A third of colleges and universities that won’t accept credit from dual-enrollment high school courses said in a survey it’s because they were uncertain about the quality of their content or the qualifications of instructors.

Dual enrollment also often benefits higher-income students more than lower-income ones who presumably need the most encouragement to go to college at the lowest price, the CCRC found.

Read the full article about lowering the quality of colleges by Jon Marcus at The Hechinger Report