Dual enrollment programs give students a jump start on college credits
More Wisconsin high school students than ever before are participating in dual enrollment programs that offer them both high school and college credit.
Many see these programs as a way to accelerate students into the job market while reducing their tuition costs. However, availability of these programs is not consistent across all schools, leaving some students with fewer opportunities.
Participation in dual enrollment programs offered by the University of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Technical College systems hit a new record in the 2023-24 academic year, at a combined 78,703 students. This represents more than a quarter (26.6%) of the state’s secondary students across public, private, and home schools, and it is a 3.4% increase over the previous year.
The Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) offers the largest dual enrollment program in the state, enrolling more than four times as many students as the one operated through the University of Wisconsin System (UW). From 2022-23 to 2023-24, however, the UW program grew at a faster rate – by 12.0% to 15,588 students – than the WTCS program, which increased by 1.5% to 63,115 students.
Postsecondary preparation programs for Wisconsin high schoolers include dual enrollment and Advanced Placement (AP) programs. The AP program is a nationwide system in which students take courses to prepare for endof- year standardized tests in various subjects, the results of which are the basis for colleges to opt to grant students college credit. Dual enrollment programs are based within Wisconsin's public higher education systems, with credit based on a semester’s work.
The most popular AP classes among Wisconsin students who graduated in 2024 were in social sciences, English, and mathematics. The top courses for dual enrollment programs at UW and WTCS also included some liberal arts subjects, but others were career-based with the intention of preparing students for specific occupations.
A majority of Wisconsin’s public schools offer both programs because they meet the varied needs of their students. Districts with higher rates of AP participation are concentrated in the southern part of the state, within and close to the Milwaukee and Madison metro areas. Districts with high rates of dual enrollment, on the other hand, are dispersed throughout Wisconsin.
Small schools with limited resources often do not offer postsecondary programs, but if they do, the programs are more likely to be dual enrollment as opposed to AP classes. Schools that offer no postsecondary opportunities may wish to consider how they could work with the college systems to begin their own dual enrollment programs. As some students choose to forgo enrolling directly in a college or university after high school graduation, even as the value of higher education remains high, dual enrollment offers a compelling opportunity to accelerate preparation for both the workforce and postsecondary education.
This information is a service of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education. Learn more at wispolicyforum.org.
