Dual Credit. Dual credit programs allow high school students to earn high school and postsecondary credit at the same time. Dual credit programs can be course-based or exam-based. Course-based dual credit programs can be offered at an institution of higher education, for example the Running Start Program, or at a high school, for example the College in the High School program and the Career and Technical Education Dual Credit Program—previously called Tech Prep.
Exam-based dual credit programs allow students to take an exam and apply to receive postsecondary credit based on their exam score. These programs include Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and Cambridge International.
Dual Credit Report. Annually, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), in collaboration with the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, the Washington State Apprenticeship and Training Council, the Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board, the Washington Student Achievement Council, the public baccalaureate institutions, and the Education Research and Data Center (ERDC), must report to the Legislature regarding student participation in dual credit programs.
The report must include:
Data Reporting. Beginning with the 2018-19 school year, OSPI began collecting additional student race and ethnicity categories, although school districts have through the 2021-22 school year to fully implement the new categories.
The race categories include 38 subcategories for American Indian/Alaskan Native, 28 subcategories for Asian, 22 subcategories for Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander, 100 subcategories for Black/African American, and 37 subcategories for White. The ethnicity categories include non-Hispanic/Latino and 29 subcategories for Hispanic/Latino.
All student data-related reports required of OSPI must be disaggregated by at least the following subgroups of students: American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian, Hispanic, Pacific Islander/Hawaiian Native, Black, White, low income, transitional bilingual, migrant, special education, and section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
Education Research and Data Center. The ERDC, within the Office of Financial Management, maintains a longitudinal data system which includes information on students across time and multiple sectors. These sectors include early learning, kindergarten through grade 12, postsecondary education, and the workforce. Data is shared with the ERDC by partnering agencies and institutions across the state. The longitudinal data system facilitates cross-sector data sharing, analysis, research, and reporting.
The ERDC, rather than OSPI, is required to collaborate with the other entities to prepare the annual dual credit report to the Legislature. The State Board of Education is added to the list of entities that must be collaborated with in preparing the report. The list of data that must be in the report is expanded to include: award of high school credit and award of postsecondary credit at an institution of higher education.
In addition to other disaggregation requirements, the data in the report must be disaggregated by students who are dependent, students who are homeless, and Multilingual/English learners.
The report must also recommend additional categories of data reporting and disaggregation. For each additional category, the report must describe the purpose for reporting on, or disaggregating by, the category; the specific metric or indicator to be used; whether the specific metric or indicator is a new data point; and which educational entities should be responsible for collecting the data.
The 2022 report must recommend whether to require reporting of data related to application of postsecondary credits earned through a dual credit program towards postsecondary credentials and degrees and whether to require a comparison of postsecondary credential and degree attainment between students who did or did not participate in a dual credit program and between students who participated in different dual credit programs.