High School Students' College Outcomes in a Dual Enrollment Program, 1998-2015.

AIMS: This paper examines the college outcomes of dual-enrolled high school health science careers' students from 1998 to 2015. METHODS: For this retrospective descriptive evaluation of the program, the university requested from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) data on 6,831 students who had earned college credit through the Rutgers high school program. Descriptive statistics were used for analysis using Excel. RESULTS: Final dataset had 5,315 students, with 3,339 students who had been in college long enough to graduate. Of the 2,358 (71%) who had graduated from college, 62% (1,470) completed their associates or bachelor's degrees within 2 or 4 years, while an additional 25% (581) finished their respective degrees within 3 to 6 years. Students attending 2-year colleges had a 42% overall, on-time graduation rate, and students attending 4-year colleges had a 95% graduation rate. One or more health professions degrees were earned by 36% (862) of graduated students. DISCUSSION: College degree completion rates of these students are better than national performance and many students entered health careers. This paper adds to the literature on design and outcomes of dual high school/college enrollment at a time when states are expanding these partnerships.

Evaluation of high-school health science careers program impact on student retention and careers.

The purpose of this research was to longitudinally measure the impact of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Health Related Professions high-school Health Science Careers program on student retention in health careers. Students (n = 1,218) who earned college credit in the program from 1996 to 2002 were surveyed. The response rate was 17% of the total and 21% of the deliverable surveys. Students were equally distributed between vocational, comprehensive, and academy-type schools. Ninety-seven percent of the students continued their education after high school, with 70% attending 4-year colleges. Forty-nine percent of those entering 2-year colleges and 57% of those entering 4-year colleges pursued health-related careers. Ninety-five percent perceived the Health Science Careers program as valuable. The findings suggest that the Health Science Careers program was helpful in guiding students toward health-related professions. The evaluation helped to understand the impact and to realize the positive and negative aspects of the program by the respondents.