Some time ago I wrote a heartfelt post entitled, ” When Dual Enrollment Doesn’t Work.” Now I am very happy to follow up that post with, “When Dual Enrollment Does Work.”
We all know every child is different. What works with one child may not work for another as we found out the hard way! We had many friends sending their kids to the local community college for dual enrollment. These children ended up graduating with diplomas and 2 year degrees. We excitedly jumped on this bandwagon for one of our children. Sadly, it did not go well. What was a great experience in our circle of friends was anything but with our dual enrollee.
On the flip side I’m now happy to report that the dual enrollment experiment has been a success with our next dual enrollee. Recently, our second send out to dual enrollment land has graduated from high school with a diploma in hand and an AA from our local Community College. His story is a little different. As a highly motivated individual, he applies himself and works extra hard to achieve good grades in subjects that don’t come easily. When he had told me he wanted to dual enroll at the age of 15, I was a bit hesitant. He had not yet taken the ACT or the SAT test. Within our system, you have a third option of taking a PERT Entrance Test. I told him if he studied and passed the PERT test, he could attend community college and begin earning college credits. To my surprise not only did he pass the PERT test, but qualified for all honors courses.
He began his dual enrollment studies easily and without much prompting or oversight. He was a mature child and able to navigate the “older crowd” pitfalls. He loved having a small number of subjects to focus on rather than a large load of every subject. He excelled in this environment and made friends easily! His classmates were equally surprised to learn his age and that he was not an awkward homeschooled kid as they had imagined homeschoolers to be.
Though he did change course directions a few times with his post-high school ambition, it was a very good experience and one that he’s glad that he started when he was 15. As a parent, I’m happy we gave dual enrollment another chance. Starting him a bit early on college classes was ideal to help him form his future path. And I’m very happy to be able to write, “When Dual Enrollment Works.”
