The perceptions of regular high school and dual enrollment teachers and dual enrollment students toward college preparedness and dual enrollment courses in two Tennessee public school systems

This study examined the perceptions of public high school teachers, dual enrollment teachers, and dual enrollment high school students towards student preparedness for college and dual enrollment courses. This study also investigated whether dual enrollment programs in high schools are beneficial in preparing students for college. Surveys were collected from dual enrollment high school students, and regular high school and dual enrollment teachers, to gauge student abilities to be prepared for the college environment and perceptions toward dual enrollment programs. Eight research questions guided the study. This study examined responses to the teacher and student surveys utilizing descriptive research. The sample data consisted of 190 high school teacher surveys, 37 dual enrollment teacher surveys, and 45 high school dual enrollment student surveys in two school districts in Middle Tennessee. Seven null hypotheses were tested using independent t-tests, ANOVA, frequency, and thematic analysis. Six of the seven null hypotheses were rejected. The results concluded that dual enrollment students gave several advantages to taking dual enrollment classes such as earning college credits early, better writing skills, better prepared for the college environment, and other skills. Dual enrollment students were able to participate in honors and advanced placement courses in addition to being in dual enrollment classes. Dual enrollment students and dual enrollment teachers believed strongly that dual enrollment programs are beneficial for college preparation, but regular public high school teachers still have many reservations regarding the dual enrollment program being beneficial. It is recommended that a similar but larger population be investigated to expand this study