Dual Credit in Texas

This Texas Tribune article provides information on the academic development in Texas. Dual credit: a chance to prepare students for a competitive world is written by Texas higher education commissioner, Raymond Paredes. A brief introduction to Texas Higher Education commissioner which was found on THECB. Dr. Paredes is a member of the national board of directors for Big Brothers Big Sisters; was appointed to the Education Commission of the States by Governor Rick Perry; he served as a trustee of The College Board and Mercy College of New York, and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Texas Cultural Trust. In 2007, he was named one of Hispanic Business Magazine's 100 Most Influential Hispanics.

As of Fall 2015, Dual credit courses are now available to freshmen and sophomore students in high school. Texas has seen a rapid increase in participation from students, specifically those with a lower socioeconomic status. Parades does a well job at justifying his argument to the general population when explaining the positive impact dual credit courses have on students, "Statewide, 3.6 percent of high school graduates who took dual credit earned an associate degree and 1.8 percent earned a certificate by the time they graduated in 2015. Dual-credit students who enrolled at public four-year universities had higher completion rates than the overall population of first-time, four-year enrollees." I agree with Paredes as he stresses the importance of preparing our students to do well in these college level courses beginning from K-12 students. In another one of his factorial arguments, Parades mentions how there was an increase in students who attempted the ACT, SAT, and PSAT, but only approximately 30% of students did well on all three. As Paredes would say, this is definitely an area of opportunity if we want to increase the amount of money invested into higher education.