Brown University

Does Online Course-taking Increase High School Completion and Open Pathways to Postsecondary Education Opportunities?

Description

Abstract:
Recent substantial increases in high school graduation rates have been linked anecdotally to the expansion of online course-taking for credit recovery. Online course-taking that supports high school completion could open new opportunities for postsecondary education pursuits. Alternatively, poorer quality online instruction could diminish student engagement and learning and discourage persistence toward graduation and further education. Using fixed-effect models and inverse probability weighting with regression adjustment with data from an eight-year longitudinal study of online course-taking in high schools, we find positive associations between online course-taking in high school and credits earned, high school graduation, and college enrollment. Our results leave open the question of whether online course-taking supports learning that will lead to longer-term postsecondary education and labor market success.

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Use and Reproduction
In Copyright

Citation

Carolyn J. Heinrich, and Jennifer Darling-Aduana, "Does Online Course-taking Increase High School Completion and Open Pathways to Postsecondary Education Opportunities?" (2019). EdWorkingPapers.com Archive. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:956654/

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  • EdWorkingPapers.com Archive

    The Annenberg Institute at Brown University has developed this national working paper series to provide public access to high-quality papers from multiple disciplines on a wide variety of topics related to education. EdWorkingPapers focuses particularly on research with strong implications …
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