Rising college costs have led more high school students to explore earning credits through concurrent enrollment programs – which can save students and their families tens of thousands of dollars in pursuing a four-year degree.
According to the Colorado Community College System, more than 39,000 of the 88,118 students enrolled in two-year programs statewide are still in high school.
Additionally, the Education Data Initiative reports that tuition costs at public four-year institutions increased by 36.7% between 2010 and 2023. To help more students with the cost of postsecondary education, local school districts have expanded their concurrent enrollment programs – high school students taking college-level classes to earn college credit.
Durango School District 9-R reported saving students nearly $400,000 in 2023 by providing concurrent enrollment credits through Fort Lewis College and Pueblo Community College. More than 500 district students enrolled in college courses during the 2023-24 school year, and the district is expected to reach or exceed that number in the 2024-25 school year.
In Bayfield School District, 187 students were concurrently enrolled in college courses for the fall semester. That number is likely to breach the 200 mark during the spring.
Durango School District Chief Academic Officer Dylan Connell said the district has offered concurrent enrollment for years but popularity of the program recently took off in part because it increased the scale of its offerings.
“In the past few years, we’ve made a bigger programmatic investment in that because we realized that in order to offer more kids a better opportunity to go to college, it’s very helpful to them and their families to have more credits at no cost to the family,” Connell said.
As part of the initiative, the district partnered with FLC to expand the range of college courses available to high school students, going beyond those offered by PCC.
Bayfield School District also offers concurrent enrollment courses from FLC and PCC.
“I’ve had more and more students interested,” said Bayfield High School counselor Jennifer Leithauser. “Even students who are freshmen and sophomores are reaching out to learn about concurrent enrollment.”
Durango and Bayfield school districts pay for student concurrent enrollment tuition through per pupil revenue. Under their agreement with PCC and FLC, the colleges reimburse the district for the tuition costs. The amount depends on the specific contract and how many courses DHS students are taking.
Nate Howland, a Durango High School graduate from 2021, earned 20 college credits before graduation by taking concurrent enrollment and AP classes. Now a senior at the Colorado School of Mines, he is on track to graduate in December, a semester early, with a degree in computer science.
“It was honestly influenced a lot by my teachers,” Howland said. “I knew I wanted to go into some sort of STEM (field) and had an idea of what I was wanting to go into when I walked in, but I know a lot of students that didn’t.”
While in high school, Howland took a general education engineering class at FLC, which he said helped students understand whether it was the field they wanted to study in college.
“Even though I didn’t go into that field of study, it was still really beneficial for me to kind of get to experience not only what a college class would look like, but also experience other topics,” he said.
As part of the class, Howland learned how to use basic computer-aided design programs, which was beneficial to his degree in computer science and the credits transferred over to Colorado School of Mines.
Colorado School of Mines’ instate tuition is $21,186 per year and with a semester of college covered and then some, Howland potentially saved about $10,000 or slightly more on college courses.
Previously, there have been concerns about concurrent enrollment credits transferring over to different schools instate. Depending on the type of institution, there are prerequisite courses and some of them may not transfer over based on the requirements.
However, Durango’s and Bayfield’s programs ensure guaranteed transfer credits, meaning the credits will transfer between public colleges and universities within Colorado. While this guarantee may not extend to institutions nationwide, it greatly streamlines the college experience at instate schools for students who choose that path.
DHS senior Kyler Harbison is also taking advantage of concurrent enrollment to make his future a little cheaper while gaining valuable college experience.
Harbison has interest in attending Georgetown University, Wake Forest University or Pomona College. By the time he graduates in spring 2025, he will already have 18 credits after taking general education courses at FLC.
“I think they’re an awesome opportunity for me to get college credit while I’m still in high school, mainly because it’s for free,” Harbison said. “It’s an incredible opportunity to get myself ahead of the game for when I enter college, and maybe save myself some money and get out a semester early.”
He said he’s unsure whether the credits will fully transfer because he is likely going out of state, but he believes that at least some of the general education credits will transfer and help him save money at higher-cost institutions.
Perhaps, even more valuable, Harbison is able to take courses in a college setting, which is drastically different from high school.
Harbison said the coursework is more demanding, and adjusting to attending class only twice a week has been a challenge.
Before graduating from high school in spring 2025, Harbison will have completed courses such as logic, U.S. history, statistics and consumer chemistry – a class that explores the application of chemistry in everyday consumer products.
“It’s been a good opportunity for me to stretch myself, and get a feel of what it’s like to be in a college classroom,” he said. “Nothing has prepared me more for college.”
Concurrent enrollment courses can take place on a high school campus with a visiting college professor or directly at the college, allowing students to immerse themselves in the full college experience. Howland and Harbison said stepping out of the high school classroom and into a more advanced academic setting helped in their educational development.
Harbison is undecided on which degree he would like to pursue but is thinking about business, law or something in humanities.
Connell said one of his sons attends the University of Colorado Denver, where a full college education would have cost his family about $100,000. But, through concurrent enrollment, his son’s entire freshman year of credits was fully covered, significantly reducing that expense.
“You start to realize the impact this has for students – to potentially have a quarter or more of their college education covered through our concurrent enrollment offerings. That’s a big deal for families.” he said.
Connell said the district has the capability to offer students 36 to 48 college credits before they graduate.
Leithauser said inquiries about concurrent enrollment have only increased. She couldn’t give an exact number, but anecdotally there’s been more interest year over year.
Taking a college course not only reduces the cost of college but can also positively impact a student’s mindset toward higher education, she found.
“We’ve had students that weren’t headed to college because they didn’t believe they would be successful,” she said. “Then, they took the course and found that belief in themselves.”
Concurrent enrollment has proved highly effective in Bayfield School District, with some students earning an associate degree and others accumulating up to 28 college credits before graduating from high school. By comparison, FLC requires 120 credits for graduation.
Additionally, for students not pursuing a four-year degree, Leithauser said that several have earned their certified nursing assistant credentials while still in high school.
“Now, when I go to the doctor’s office, I’ll see some of our old students working,” she said.
tbrown@durangoherald.com
