The Commissioner’s Office recently released the Concurrent Enrollment Annual Report for the 2016-17 academic year. Concurrent Enrollment (CE) provides an opportunity for prepared Utah high school junior and senior students – freshmen and sophomores by exception – to take college courses and earn both high school credit for graduation and college credit corresponding to the first year at a USHE institution. Originated in 1985 in Utah by what is today Utah Valley University, the CE program was formally established by the Utah State Legislature in 1988.
- In the June 2017 high school graduating class, 50% of the students had taken at least one concurrent enrollment course (more information on pages 2-3).
- Of the June 2017 high school graduating class, the college-going rate for low-income students who participated in concurrent enrollment was twice that of low-income students who did not participate (more information on page 8).
- 71% of concurrent enrollment credits were earned in highly transferrable general education courses. 13 of the 15 concurrent enrollment courses with the highest enrollments are general education courses (more information on pages 4-5).
- Significant work has taken place to increase the number of students who take a CE math class and the impact of this work is visible. In 2016-17 the number of CE math enrollments grew by 50% over the prior year (9,562 in 2016-17 from 6,369 in 2015-16).
CE Enrollment
CE program participation grew in 2016-17 for the third consecutive year, and has reached its highest enrollment in ten years.
Concurrent Enrollment Participation History, 2006-07 to 2016-17
CE Course-taking Patterns
Consistent with recent years, 78% of students enrolled in CE take one to three classes, with only 22 of the 32,849 students taking 12 or more. In the 2017 high school graduating class, 50% of the students had taken at least one CE class, and 86% of those enrolled in six or fewer classes.
Number of CE Classes Taken by Students in 2016-17
Low Income Student Participation
Low-income students are defined as students participating in the free or reduced lunch program. Generally, students self-select to take a CE course. Low-income students may need to be recruited to participate in concurrent enrollment. In the June 2017 high school graduating class, while over 50% of non-low income students participated in concurrent enrollment, only 35% of low-income students participated.
In the June 2017 high school graduating class, non-low-income students enrolled in college at an 11% higher rate than low-income students. Of low-income students, those who participated in concurrent enrollment enrolled in college at a rate of 50% compared to a rate of 24% for those who did not participate in concurrent enrollment.
