College can be a daunting prospect for some high school students, who may wonder if they can handle the coursework. For others, it may seem just out of their reach — often due to the cost.

But most high schools in Connecticut offer students an opportunity to address some of those concerns before they even graduate through dual enrollment programs. These programs offer students coursework that allows them to earn both high school and college credit in one class — saving both time and money for those in pursuit of post-secondary education.

This can be a relief for students worried about how they’ll fare academically and a lifesaver for those who would not be able to afford a college education otherwise.

These courses are “a huge equalizer for a lot of students,” said Christopher Todd, the executive director of the Office of Early College Programs at the University of Connecticut. UConn’s Early College Experience program educates over 17,000 Connecticut students across 188 schools.

UConn is the largest state provider of dual credit courses, followed by the Connecticut State University and College system, the University of Bridgeport and Goodwin University.

Unlike Advanced Placement courses, where a student has to take and pass a standardized test at the end of the year to determine whether they qualify for college credit, students in a dual enrollment program start a college transcript and are graded normally throughout the year, allowing a “true demonstration of mastery,” Todd said.

Across Connecticut high schools, dual enrollment courses are diverse — offering core classes like English or biology, but also other subjects like leadership, natural resources and environment, genocide studies, emergency medical technician training and individual and family development.

“[There’s courses] that a lot of students would be excited about and interested in and this might be that step or reach, where they might not have seen themselves sitting in a college course and then suddenly they’re sitting in a college course and they’re saying, ‘I can do this. I can be successful,’” Todd said.

Research has shown dual credit courses are particularly useful to first generation and low-income students because it familiarizes students with what a college workload looks like and gives them a head-start in their postsecondary education at a fraction of the cost. UConn ECE courses are free for students who qualify for free or reduced lunch, or $50 a credit otherwise, compared to $709 a credit for an undergraduate course if it’s taken on campus.

But, accessibility is a problem.

For thousands of Connecticut students who have access to the opportunity and can earn up to two years worth of college credit based on their school’s offerings, thousands of others aren’t as lucky.

They miss out, not because of a lack of interest or ability, but because their schools offer few or no dual credit courses.

And whether a school offers dual credit courses is often dependent on teacher recruitment, training and retainment and the resources districts’ and high schools’ leadership place into the programs, The Connecticut Mirror found in an analysis of data from UConn’s Early College Experience over the last 10 years and interviews with leaders of some traditional public high schools.

The analysis did not include magnet, charter or technical schools, because Connecticut choice schools have limited admission slots and often have targeted academic approaches or themes.

The analysis found that suburban towns generally have averaged more course offerings compared to rural and urban districts, which often struggle with high staffing turnover. Because most high school teachers have to undergo additional training or higher education coursework when they want to teach ECE classes, the expertise and course goes with the teacher, unless there are multiple teachers approved to teach the same course.

“Once an instructor is approved by UConn, they, as the instructor, are now an official affiliate of the University’s department. So if they were to move schools, it doesn’t change their ability to offer the UConn ECE course, it would change their site that they would be designated,” Todd said. “For some of our districts, it’s the turnover of teachers that creates challenges for sustainability of the program or course offerings.”

Educators used to be required to have a master’s degree in a subject, but UConn has since developed more pathways to open ECE certification up to more applicants, especially if they only have general education degrees.

Veteran teachers are more likely to pursue the certification because through their teaching experience, they’ve developed an “expertise in a subject matter,” and now wish to expand the scope of their teaching matter, said Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association, the largest teachers union in the state.

“If you have a high turnover in your district, you’ll have fewer people that you can tap into, and you might find yourself in a space where you’re just trying to get the basics met. With high turnover, there’s always new people and never getting to the point where you can develop them so they can offer college-level courses,” Dias said. “There’s multiple ways that this plays out, and that’s where you are talking about equity of opportunity.”

Staff stability can widen opportunity gaps

Even within similarly-sized districts that face some of the same issues or have similar demographics, the CT Mirror found that teacher certifications and the leadership of a school or district can make all the difference.

Major urban districts like Hartford and Waterbury are home to three traditional public high schools each.

Hartford Public Schools, which educates nearly 17,000 students across the district, teaches just over 2,000 students across its three traditional high schools because of its high number of choice-school programs. Of those 2,000 students, 84% qualify for free or reduced lunch and the majority of students of color, with less than 3% of students’ identifying as white.

Waterbury educates a total of almost 19,000 students, with about 4,000 of those spread across the district’s three public high schools. Around 83% qualify for free or reduced lunch and less than 8% of students’ identify as white.

In Hartford, two high schools didn’t offer any ECE courses in the 2023-24 school year. One campus offered three classes. In Waterbury, meanwhile, the lowest number of courses offered at one of its campuses that school year was three, but at its other two schools they ranged between 10 and 14.

Leadership stability is a major factor in why some schools’ programs are more successful than others, educators said.

“It’s really important to recognize that some district leadership have preferences to engage in partnerships with other higher ed institutions. Some of it is just building leadership preference, … a building principal could come in and totally rearrange what the pathway is for students in terms of dual credit opportunities. They could say, ‘We’re going to double down on AP and AP is going to be the primary thing we add in,’” Todd said. “The problem starts to become if you have a lot of leadership transitions, you’re sort of ping pong back and forth between those things.”

For example, Bulkeley High School in Hartford had five principal changes between 2014-15 and 2023-24. The school once offered seven dual enrollment opportunities with UConn but now has zero.

In contrast John F. Kennedy High School in Waterbury only had one principal in the same timeframe and saw their UConn ECE courses grow from three to 10.

The vision of the people in these positions also impacts long-term planning and school climate.

Once certified, the workload generally increases for ECE educators, Dias said, adding that it makes a difference when the teacher feels valued at their school. Feeling like an asset in the building is what drives an educator to undergo additional training, but also stay in a district long-term, Dias said.

“Teachers tend to leave when they feel not valued and they feel like their voice is lost. … There are spaces and there are people who never leave some of the most difficult teaching environments, [because of] building level leadership and the idea of ‘We’re all in this together,’ and when there’s opportunities for teachers to be leaders from their classrooms,” Dias said.

Data from UConn shows districts like Southington, East Lyme and Waterbury have built up the number of ECE-certified staff considerably over the last decade.

Southington saw an increase from six to 19 certified ECE educators. East Lyme increased its lineup from three to 16, and Waterbury had 31 certified ECE staff across its three high schools in 2023-24, with 15 at Crosby High School.

Southington High School educates nearly 2,000 students, with less than 20% students of color and about 20% qualifying for free or reduced lunch. Wallingford Public Schools, shares similar demographics, except spread among two campuses: Lyman Hall and Mark Sheehan.

While Southington has seen an increase of 10 courses in the last 10 years (from seven to 17), Wallingford’s high schools have netted a four course decrease between the two campuses.

Similarly, rural districts East Lyme and New Milford have high school student bodies between 950 and 1,300, a majority of whom are white (over 70%) and with about 20% to 30% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch.

East Lyme however offers 15 UConn ECE courses, up from four in 2014-15. New Milford has remained at zero for the last decade.

And even when staff is certified to teach dual credit courses, it doesn’t mean their skills are being utilized.

For example, only three of eight certified staff across Bulkeley, Hartford Public and Weaver high schools in Hartford actually taught ECE courses in 2023-24.

“It’s been a really interesting conversation because [some districts] want to add all these new courses, but then at the same time, you have to have that conversation with them and to say, ‘Look, you’ve got five or six certified instructors at your school that currently aren’t teaching the course that they’re certified to teach,’” Todd said. “Part of that growth conversation also has to be ‘You already have a pool of instructors ready to go. So how do we get their classes going?’”

The underutilization of teachers with these certifications can lead to retention issues.

“It is disincentivizing [for a district to say] ‘We want you to get certified to teach these courses,’ and then don’t offer them,” Dias said, noting that those teachers may seek an opportunity to use those skills they’ve learned elsewhere.

“That’s where you start to build a whole cadre of haves and have nots. If we’re not able to offer these courses, and my teachers, who are skilled to offer them leave, then you end up in a vicious cycle,” Dias added.

“I think that there’s an incredible opportunity to talk about how we’re certifying people to take on these roles, how we’re supporting them, how we’re incentivizing them to do this work, recognizing that it is, in fact, more work and how are we following through to make sure the courses happen,” Dias said.

Staff turnover was likely the case at a school like Bulkeley in Hartford, that had offered seven courses in 2014-15, but 10 years later, didn’t have a single section, Todd said.

“A lot of [offerings depend on] teachers. A lot of it is that if certified instructors leave, [leadership] may or may not be pushing to get somebody in the department to get certified to replace that person, or there wasn’t an intentional long-term approach,” Todd said.

Where districts would historically only send one or two teachers to receive their ECE certification, long-term planning now means certifying multiple educators in the same discipline to maintain offerings regardless of attrition.

“We have schools that are getting more strategic about having multiple instructors certified so that they can ensure continuity of course offering just given the turnover that’s happening in a lot of our partner schools,” Todd said.

In a district like Southington, Amy Zappone, the director of teaching and learning, said they’re often looking at their existing staff and trying to find if there’s multiple people who can apply “to have them on backup.”

“Sometimes there may be two teachers teaching a course, so even if one left, we can still maintain it,” Zappone said.

Challenges unique to certain districts

Some staffing challenges, however, are more unique to the type of district and region the town is in.

Urban districts are more prone to high turnover and low retention, because of growing student populations (particularly students with high needs), limited staff, extensive workloads and funding challenges.

“If you have a more transient staffing community like Hartford, then you have to start all over from scratch the next year or wait until we get another staff member,” said Tracy Avicolli, the director of secondary teaching and learning at Hartford Public Schools.

Without stability in staffing, the focus of these schools becomes rooted in providing equitable core classes across campuses before opening new sections.

“Our kids just want the same experiences that all kids have. At the end of the day, they just want what the kids in Glastonbury have, what the kids in Simsbury have, and in many cases we just aren’t there. … While we have University High School of Science and Engineering and Classical High School Magnet School — some that do offer more of our ECE courses — some of our comprehensives are still possibly not able to offer as many because of staffing issues that we have. We have to make sure that we get our kids credited and offering our core courses takes priority,” Avicolli said. “We’re focused on what exactly the core curriculum is to make sure that it’s rigorous, it’s consistent and that teachers are feeling confident and supported in that core content.”

“When you have a school that is stressed staffing wise, those are the programs that are the first to go because we have to have our basic needs met,” Dias said.

In some rural districts, outreach and information about different or new opportunities can be a challenge both in and out of their schools.

At a school like New Milford High School, that hasn’t offered ECE courses in at least 10 years, building up a dual credit program starts with staff, said Principal Raymond Manka said, who joined the district from Stamford in 2021.

New Milford High School used to partner largely with Western Connecticut State University, but those classes fizzled out with retirements, Manka said.

“Some of the challenges that existed previously had to do with having too few staff members holding the keys to the opportunities, and then when those teachers leave, and you don’t have anybody behind them who are certified then to take over the reins,” Manka said, adding that he plans to build up more dual credit opportunities.

“We’ve been moving slowly but responsibly, to inform and develop our staff about what ECE programming is,” Manka said. “Whenever you’re talking about introducing something new, you have to go slow to go fast and you have to look at an effective and clear communication plan. All stakeholders need to know what’s going on, that means that my teachers have to know what ECE is, what it stands for and even if you’re one of the 20 teachers who are teaching ECE, I still have 80 other teachers and I need them to know what ECE is. ‘This is what our school is doing. This is what our school believes.’”

For both urban and rural schools, course expansion may also be a budget issue.

A district like Hartford is home to 11 high schools when choice-schools like magnet and charters are counted, which means the district can have small populations spread across each of their buildings. At the three traditional high schools, the student body ranges between 550 to 700 students.

Rural districts generally have smaller schools as well.

Without established dual credit courses, these small schools may struggle with class enrollment, especially if it’s a first-time offering and may be intimidating.

“Just because you offer [the courses], if the kids don’t know what it is, or if they’re bewildered, or if they’re scared, they’re not going to sign up for the course,” Manka said.

Sometimes only a handful of students sign up to take a new class offering. In districts with already limited staffing, it’s hard to justify running a course with small interest, even if it could pay off later down the road.

“It’s a big ask and it’s a big expense to take full time educators and run a class with only five or six students, but at a certain point, you have to start to build the momentum. It’s hard to recruit students to a class that they’d never seen or don’t have siblings or don’t have older peer group friends that have taken the class,” Todd said. “A lot of the courses that we chose to take with certain teachers were because we had a friend that told us that it was a great class. And so getting our partner schools to say, ‘Look, this is a long term investment, you may have a couple of years where you have low enrollment, but that low enrollment is going to build momentum.’”

Even in schools with high student interest, already stretched funding or staffing can be a deterrent for any additional certification a teacher may need.

“We’ve increased our number of courses because of the number of students who want to take them,” said  Nyree Toucet, the director of college and career readiness in Waterbury. “[A problem is] the number of sections of dual enrollment courses, because we have so many students who want to take them, but do we have the number of certified teachers to be able to teach them?”

Last year, the state Department of Education started a grant program for dual credit expansion that schools could apply for and receive additional funds to get staff trained. UConn also provides reduced fees for educators who may need to go back and take more classes to have the equivalent credentials to teach college level courses at a high school. These initiatives have eased the financial burden, but Dias also said there’s a “barrier of time.”

Some teachers are “already under the gun,” and working multiple jobs, Dias said, adding that the likelihood for them of them taking more courses is “just not happening.”

“It begs the question of how do we incentivize people to take on these roles and how do we encourage them to stay to do them? It’s a really powerful conversation that I’m just not sure a whole lot of people are really having at this point,” Dias said.

Similar approaches

Even with districts’ differing approaches to dual credit offerings, there’s a general consensus about working toward providing opportunities that will open more doors for success post-high school.

“When you’re talking with students, you help them to be able to dream bigger than what they’ve ever imagined, and to also believe in the power of being themselves…. Perseverance is very important. I think it takes everybody working towards that, the school counselors, individual teachers to be able to tap into students talents that they may not even recognize,” said former Waterbury Superintendent Verna Ruffin. “There’s an increase in the number of students that are interested in post secondary ed because they see an opportunity and they see an open door that they can walk into with support.”

“It’s really important to give kids the opportunity while they’re young to experience different content. I think it’s very hard for kids to choose a career at such a young age, and so being able to provide opportunities in a variety of different areas helps students to focus and narrow what they feel is a strong interest that they’re going to want to pursue outside of high school,” said Wallingford Superintendent Carrie LaTorre.

How that looks is similar among districts, with a strong emphasis on student feedback for course offerings and using similar methods, like staff recommendations, course fairs and easily-accessible programs of studies, to target students for more rigorous course work.

“We try to be really mindful, as we’ve added classes, that we choose things that are as accessible to as many kids as possible,” said East Lyme High School Principal Deborah Kelly. “With collaborative work with the counseling department, we’re understanding what kids need, that we’re offering it in a way that supports them, and that we’re using the same language when we have those conversations so we’re not guiding kids into classes where they don’t necessarily need to be or want to be. But by expanding those offerings and having those conversations, it makes kids aware of what we have, then when they sign up for it, it’s not just ticking a box for them. I think it’s meaningful for them to take these classes.”