Dual Credit Funding Models in Illinois Community Colleges

Funding Models / Members Only /

Over the past decade, the number of Illinois high school students enrolling in community college courses has expanded rapidly, necessitating research to better understand this phenomenon. State policies governing dual credit are the Dual Credit Quality Act, along with administrative rules of the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB). These state policies allow high schools to collect funds for average daily attendance (ADA) and colleges to obtain funding for full-time enrollment (FTE) for the same dual credit student, but other aspects of funding are not specified. Unlike several states (see Borden, Taylor, Park, & Seiler, 2013), state policies do not set tuition rates for dual credit students nor dictate how funding is exchanged among high schools and colleges. Thus, the primary research question guiding this study was: What are the predominant dual credit funding models among Illinois community colleges?