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Research Findings
Western Washington University’s 2000
study about how Running Start students transition
into the university showed:
- The study participants reported feeling well prepared
academically for Western. Students found community college a good
bridge to the four-year environment. As one student said, “Community
college was very, very hard and it definitely prepared me academically.”
Having already learned to navigate the culture of one college system,
they felt well prepared to tackle another.
- All students said their exposure
to the broader range of courses at the community college had helped
them choose their major field of study at Western.
A national study of dual-credit programs released
in 2001 by the Pew Charitable Foundation lists a number of benefits
of such programs, including savings in both costs and time, efficiency
of learning (reduced repetition between grades 11-14), enhanced admission
and retention rates in college, improved transitions from high school
to college, allowing students to “test the waters” of college
learning, improving students’ access to college, and providing
professional development for faculty in high schools and colleges. This
study found that:
- By creating alternatives to traditional high-school-to-college
transition, dual-credit programs provide additional points of entry
into postsecondary schooling for students whose options would otherwise
be much more limited.
- Dual-credit programs can blur the line between
high school and college by integrating the two systems, and thereby
create a continuum of learning from high school to college.
The Washington State Institute for Public Policy
released a study in 2001 that indicated:
- Running Start is the most readily available
college-learning option for high school students.
- About half of the state’s public high
schools report increases in enrollment and offerings of other college-learning
opportunities in the last three years. High schools are trying to
encourage students to stay on the high school campus by creating an
array of learning options that augment Running Start.
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