Do Dual Enrollment Students Realize Better Long-Term Earnings? Variations in Financial Outcomes Among Key Student Groups in Texas

This study considers whether dual enrollment is associated with students’ earnings outcomes over a longer, 10-year time horizon after high school graduation, than previously analyzed in the existing literature. Using longitudinal administrative data that span K–12, higher education, and the workforce, we conducted a propensity score analysis to understand how dual credit participation among five cohorts in the state of Texas—the 2008-2012 high school graduating classes—correlates with annual earnings measured through the 10th year post high school graduation. We find that dual credit participants realize lower earnings than non-participants during the first 4 years after high school graduation, but achieve higher earnings in Years 5 through 10, netting a cumulative 10-year earnings increase of 6%. We find similar results across many student subpopulations, although smaller magnitudes of association for some, suggesting that dual enrollment relates favorably to distal measures of students’ financial wellbeing.