Connecticut has seen a significant jump in the number of high school students taking college-level courses, according to data from the state Department of Education released on Thursday.
In 2024-25, more than 24,700 high school juniors and seniors in Connecticut enrolled in college-level courses, an increase from 17,500 students three years prior. The 24,700 amounted to about 30% of high school juniors and seniors across the state.
The trend follows a surge of state funding that was directed to the programs two years ago.
In the fall of 2023, the state announced it would use $3.8 million in federal pandemic emergency funds to help high schools add more college-level courses. Districts have since used that money to expand their offerings and pay teachers to write curriculum and become certified to teach a variety of disciplines. Connecticut’s education department also invested an additional $5 million of COVID funds in colleges and universities for the expansion of dual credit classes.
Superintendents say they’ve shifted their focus when developing courses with an eye to the current job market. And some have begun to question the widely-accepted philosophy that every high school graduate should pursue a 4-year degree.
“We see students always have to go to a four-year college,” said Joseph Macary, superintendent of Vernon Public Schools, at a roundtable discussion in Hartford on Thursday. “And that’s not what we want them to do. We want to try — and we are — diversifying to other courses that they don’t need a 4-year degree to do.”
Subjects with the highest enrollment across Connecticut public high schools are social sciences, followed by physical and life sciences, mathematics and English language and literature.
Courses in some subjects have exploded. The number of business and marketing courses in particular have increased by 73% from last year — an increase that may be partly driven by a new financial literacy requirement for high schoolers in Connecticut.
The number of students taking manufacturing courses has increased by 47%, and the number of students taking classes in healthcare and mathematics have increased by about a third. Enrollment in English and social sciences has grown also, though not as dramatically.
Responding to business needs
John Maduko, chancellor of Connecticut State Colleges and Universities, said Connecticut’s workforce is facing an “existential threat” as the state’s population ages and Baby Boomers retire.
Specialty high school courses — and the apparent rising enrollment in those courses — could help address shortages of workers with needed skills.
Macary noted that military submarine manufacturer General Dynamics Electric Boat needs thousands of welders and other technicians in order to fulfill recent contracts with the United States Navy.
“I believe that we need to create systems and structures in our high schools that are responsive, that they can be agile enough to be responsive to the workforce,” said Macary.
Anna Cutaia, superintendent of Milford Public Schools, said her district offers five career pathways — business management, allied health, computer science, education and government. She said district leaders are hoping to expand those offerings to include performing arts, cybersecurity and eSports.
Cutaia said the school meets with industry representatives to hear what skills are needed for the current labor market. She said they have recently added industry certifications, which allow students to go directly into the workforce — or into an apprenticeship, technical school or a 2- or 4-year college degree program.
According to Cutaia, 80% of Milford’s seniors last year went on to a 4-year college, and 20% “are taking advantage” of the industry certificate they earned.
Dual enrollment courses are also critical for colleges and universities as they work to attract new students and shore up their own student population.
Maduko said dual enrollment students make up 11% of CSCU’s total enrollment. He said this has helped offset some of the enrollment declines the system experienced during COVID.
The University of Connecticut offers the most dual enrollment courses — serving about 30,000 students in partnership with nearly 200 high schools.
CSCU offered classes to about 12,500 dual enrollment students last year, and private colleges offered about 3,700.
Jennifer Widness, president of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges, said some of the private universities in Connecticut have developed partnerships with certain high schools.
Goodwin University, for example, has partnered with Wallingford Public Schools and other districts to offer advanced manufacturing courses. Mitchell College is developing healthcare and business tracks in partnership with New London Public Schools, while also working to launch a healthcare academy with Lawrence + Memorial Hospital. Quinnipiac University is offering an apprenticeship program for teaching in partnership with East Haven and West Haven public schools.
Improving access
Past reporting by the Connecticut Mirror found that access to dual enrollment classes varied significantly depending on resources available within each school district. Suburban districts tend to have greater college course offerings than rural or urban districts, driven in part by the availability of teachers who are certified to teach those classes and the stability of leadership.
Ajit Gopalakrishnan, chief performance officer for the state Department of Education, told CT Mirror that the state was working with higher education institutions to make it easier for teachers to become accredited to teach dual enrollment courses. That includes moving away from the traditional assumption that teaching a college level course required a master’s degree in the subject of the course, he said, which many K-12 teachers don’t have.
Gopalakrishnan said the coronavirus funds have been put toward teacher stipends, to help cover the cost of any additional classes they need to become certified.
Tom Yelich, chief of staff for CT State Community College, said in a statement that the college and the state provide funds for tuition and professional development for teachers taking graduate classes to be able to teach dual enrollment classes.
Maduko stressed the importance of making dual enrollment classes available for students who might not have otherwise considered college. He said that CSCU wanted to provide college-level courses to high schoolers who fall into what he calls the “academic middle.”
“God bless the AP students, they are phenomenal. But we want to make sure that those students — and really their families that maybe at first never thought of college and the university being a reality — we can provide this opportunity to them while in high school,” he said.
Data shows the state has made progress with increasing access to dual credit courses for students of color. Last year, the number of white high school students taking college courses increased by about 24% compared to the prior year. But the number of Black and Hispanic students taking college courses in high school rose 34% and 35.5%, respectively.
Tadarrayl Starke, UConn’s vice provost for undergraduate student success, said that 44% of the students in UConn’s Early College Experience classes are first-generation, and that the fees were waived for about two in five students in those classes.
A stepping stone to higher ed
Students and superintendents at Thursday’s roundtable said dual enrollment classes had many benefits.
Kayla Markowitz, a student at Jonathan Law High School in Milford, said that taking a series of Advanced Placement courses helped her narrow down her interests. She now plans to attend a 4-year college and major in public policy.
Markowitz and higher education leaders also said that taking college-level courses in high school gives students confidence in their ability to complete that level of education. And several higher education presidents and school superintendents pointed out the significant savings students can achieve when they complete college courses in high school.
Macary said students at Rockville High School in Vernon saved $1.5 million in college tuition through dual enrollment courses last year.
A UConn Early College Experience course costs $50 per credit and is free for low-income students, compared to about $700 per credit for a traditional college class at UConn.
Dual and concurrent enrollment students at CT State Community College can take classes for free. In comparison, one credit at CT State Community College for an adult before financial aid costs about $300.
According to state data, the percentage of students exhibiting “post-secondary readiness” has increased from about 44% to about 47% from the 2023-24 school year to 2024-25. This means they’ve either earned above a certain score on an Advanced Placement exam or earned three or more college credits through dual enrollment classes.
State Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker said that while it’s important to celebrate the progress being made, there’s also a lot of work that still needed to be done.
This spring, lawmakers voted to include $6 million in the state budget in 2026-27 to offset the cost of dual credit courses. Officials at the State Department of Education say this is intended to be an annual appropriation.