College-Level Learning in High School: Academic achievement comparisons between CLLHS-accelerated and non-accelerated peers in college classes

College Level Learning in High School (CLLHS) programs are increasingly popular. CLLHS programs provide academic challenge, accelerate the accrual of college credit and provide financial or prestige benefits to students, education institutions and the state. A literature review indicates that there remains disagreement about the value of these programs.; Questions addressed are: (1) Controlling for academic ability, do the grades received in regular-section second-level (102) college courses differ based upon the completion method by which students satisfied requirements for the first-level (101) pre-requisite courses? (2) Controlling for academic ability, do the grades received in regular-section second-level (102) college courses differ among the first-level (101) completion method groups based upon the academic discipline of the courses?; This study drew a sample of 4,975 freshman students from the fall 2003 and fall 2004 classes at a large public university in several "101" to "102" course sequences in the "hard" and "soft" sciences. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) found the Advanced Placement (AP) group had higher academic ability scores than the Dual Credit/Concurrent Enrollment (DC/CE) group, which had higher academic ability scores than the Regular group. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) that controlled for differences in academic ability found: (1) Small but statistically significant differences in the adjusted mean "102" grades between Method of "101" Completion groups. The AP and Regular groups outperformed the DC/CE group by a small margin. There was no significant difference between the AP and Regular groups. (2) Small but statistically significant differences in the adjusted mean "102" grades between Method of "101" Completion groups in the soft sciences. The AP group outperformed the Regular group, which outperformed the DC/CE group. There were no significant between-group differences in the hard sciences.; Implications and recommendations include: (1) Students earning credit through CLLHS programs achieve about the same academic outcomes as academic peers who take regular-section courses at the college after high school graduation. (2) Awarding college credit for AP exam scores ≥ 3 is apparently justified. (3) Research focused on why AP accelerated students outperform Dual Credit/Concurrent Enrollment accelerated students might identify factors that could be used to improve acceleration programs.