Dual enrollment, early entry are here to stay

During his State of the System address, Stan Carpenter, Nebraska State College System Chancellor, issued a strongly-worded statement in defense of dual enrollment and early entry programs.

“There are those that would restrict dual enrollment,” Carpenter said, “and there are those that say we should not be in that business.”

“There are those that would say that should only be the business of, we’ll say, the community colleges.  I don’t ascribe to that view, the board of trustees doesn’t ascribe to that view, nor do the college presidents.”

Carpenter continued, “We will maintain our dual enrollment programs and attempt to grow them, and if there is any attempt by anyone to try and limit us in that regard, we will enter that debate aggressively to ensure that students have the opportunity to take college courses while they’re in high school if they choose to do so.”

Carpenter clarified this statement in a telephone interview Tuesday, saying that the “anyone” he alluded to were accreditors and those who might have conflict with the NSCS hiring practices and personnel teaching the dual enrollment courses.

NSCS Board Policy 4400 outlines the requirements established by the NSCS for high school students to take part in dual enrollment programs and earn college credit prior to graduating.  The policy also lists stipulations for who can instruct the courses.

According to Joel Hyer, dean of BEAMSS, this is the second year that Chadron State has offered dual enrollment courses.

The board policy, however, was initially adopted August 29, 1997, and was last updated January 15.

“The main issue I think an accrediting body would have [with dual enrollment] would be quality control,” Hyer said Wednesday, citing the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education.

The Wabash Study found that there were significant differences in the quality of two courses offered by the same institution, more-so than between the same courses offered by two different institutions.

Hyer added that these issues are not specific to the State College System, but are present across higher education as a whole.

“Ultimately, Chadron State College is trying to ensure student success,” Hyer said. “If a student can show that they can already handle college level work, we want them to have that opportunity.”