research design issues in education dual credit

The Challenges of Dual Credit: A Research Proposal Problem Statements Dual credit or dual enrollment programs “are designed to boost college access and degree attainment, especially for students typically underrepresented in higher education,” (United States Department of Education, 2017, p. 1). With this lofty goal set, it should seem that dual credit programs would be reducing the educational achievement gap.

After all, dual credit programs by definition allow all students the opportunity to potentially shorten the amount of time they spend in college, thereby reducing their tuition fees that enable the completion of a degree program. Yet recent research shows that college enrollment and completion gaps may be getting wider, based both on ethnicity and on socioeconomic class (Gewertz, 2017).

The results of the RAND study reported by Gewertz (2017) may not be applicable specifically to the state of Hawaii, and yet educational attainment disparities do continue to exist and it is the role of the state’s Department of Education to make dual credit more effective and cost-effective. Research questions could therefore focus on several aspects of the problem including first how to operationalize success rates, and how to determine whether dual credit is actually increasing disparities in educational attainment.

Second, research questions could relate to perceptions of the dual credit programs among students, parents, and educators to determine whether there are reasons why disadvantaged students in the state might be (a) using dual enrollment less often than their privileged peers; and/or (b) not entering and/or completing a college degree program after participating in dual credit successfully. Survey research might also help policymakers in the state of Hawaii determine what needs to be done.

For example, is it more important to improve visibility and access to dual credit programs among specific populations such as new immigrants and English language learners, or is it a more pressing need to provide structural supports for disadvantaged students during their dual enrollment courses? Alternatively, perhaps dual credit itself is not the issue but higher education culture and climate are what is preventing disadvantaged students from attaining a desired achievement outcome.

The research questions will then determine the appropriate research design, and whether it would be more effective to use qualitative or quantitative methods. I would then refer to the readings like Lopez-Alvarado (2017) and Muijs (n.d.) to help me formulate an appropriate research question. As Lopez-Alvarado (2017) points out, one of the central issues for researchers at this stage in the process is to focus on ontology and epistemology.

What kinds of knowledge would be valid, or at least perceived of as valid? How do we come to an agreement of what constitutes the “truth” regarding dual credit: what it is, what it does, what it is supposed to do, and how it achieves its goals? If I were to determine that perceptions of dual credit programs are more important from an epistemological and ontological perspective, then I would need to pursue a phenomenological approach in my research and eschew quantitative methods.

On the other hand, if I were to believe that some variable like enrollment rates or completion rates were the most important factor in dual credit program evaluation, then I would opt for an experimental, quasi-experimental, or other quantitative design (Muijs, n.d.). To help with my decision in designing the research, I would then look to my philosophical goal: to influence public policy and educational practice.

Because my goal with the research is to make dual credit programs more effective and relevant for specific underserved populations (specifically, low income and English language learners), I would need to conduct phenomenological research. Qualitative and phenomenological research has distinct advantages over quantitative designs, especially with a proposal similar to mine. Camburn, Goldring, Sebastian, et al. (2016) offer further insight into why some types of quantitative research fail to change real world behaviors or outcomes.

For example, quantitative research can only show that something is not working but cannot illuminate exactly why or how (Camburn, Goldring, Sebastian, et al., 2016). The main reason why quantitative data fails to illuminate why and how is that there are multiple complex variables that an experimental design cannot comprehensively cover and still maintain validity and reliability. As Camburn, Goldring, Sebastian, et al. (2016) and also Muijs (n.d.) points out, the results of quantitative research are not necessarily generalizable even when they are internally valid.

I would therefore propose a systematic and in-depth use of qualitative methods to explore attitudes, perceptions, and lived experiences of low income students, students who are new immigrants or English language learners, and their respective families.