A comparison of learning outcomes for dual-enrollment mathematics students taught by high school teachers versus college faculty - Statistical Data Included

Community College Review, Winter, 2001 by Laura Hebert

With the growing popularity of dual enrollment, researchers throughout the United States began to report on the effectiveness of such programs. Studies repeatedly have shown positive outcomes with dual enrollment programs (Boyer, 1981; Brown, 1993; Legg, 1993; Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, 1995; Windham, 1997; Chatman & Smith, 1998; Clayton, 1999). The researchers have found former dual enrollment students performed equally as well as regular college students in subsequent coursework and, once in college, maintained as high or higher grade point averages as all other transfer students.

Yet dual enrollment programs everywhere continue to come "under attack" (Reisberg, 1998, p. A40) when it comes to who teaches the courses. This information, however, should not come as a surprise to the higher education community. It has been a source of controversy for decades (Rifkin, 1998). Faculty and administrators often perceive nontenured faculty in a negative light (Banachowski, 1996). Adjunct faculty have been referred to as "a corps of unregulated personnel" (The National Education Association in McGuire, 1993, p.2), "gypsy scholars"(Reed, 1985, p. 41), and as "a necessary evil" and a "cheap fix" (McGuire, 1993, p. 2).

Yet for all the negative perceptions of adjunct faculty, there is a limited amount of data to substantiate such claims (Banchowski, 1996). In fact, studies repeatedly have shown positive outcomes with adjunct faculty (Clark, 1990; Iadevaia, 1991; Davis, DeFilippis, & Ghaffari-Samai, 1994; Bolge, 1995). In each case the researchers found no significant differences in learning between students taught by adjuncts and those taught by full-time faculty. Additionally, researchers found no difference between full-time and adjunct faculty in professional characteristics such as degree of professionalism, quality of work, and student preference (Sworder, 1987; Banochowski, 1996; Rifkin, 1998).

There is, however, a very specific group of adjunct faculty that has yet to be adequately studied -- high school teachers. The learning outcomes for dual enrollment students taught by high school teachers need to be compared to the outcomes of dual enrollment students taught by regular college faculty. A difference in outcomes might justify a difference in transferability of credit. Similar outcomes, however, would support the need for equitable transfer policies.

Therefore, two hypotheses are proposed concerning the learning outcomes for dual enrollment students taught by high school teachers versus college faculty. They are the following:

1. There is no statistically significant difference in the learning outcomes for dual enrollment students taught by high school teachers and those taught by college faculty as measured by students' success (grades) in subsequent college coursework for which the dual enrollment course should have prepared them.

2. There is no statistically significant difference between the distribution of course grades of dual enrollment students taught by high school teachers and those taught by college faculty in the grades earned in subsequent college coursework for which the dual enrollment course should have prepared them.