Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

States across the country have implemented countless policies aimed at better preparing students for higher education, but achievement gaps persist nonetheless. The question remains as to how state policies—particularly those that create voluntary programs for school districts—can change behavior at the local level on a large-enough scale to improve college outcomes.

This study uses publicly available data from the Colorado Department of Education to analyze how the state’s Concurrent Enrollment program started in a few school districts and quickly scaled up to be offered in 94 percent of the state’s school districts within four years. The program, which was specifically designed to improve college readiness for traditionally-underserved students, allows high school students to take tuition-free college courses and simultaneously earn high school and college credits. The enabling state policy creates the operational framework (e.g. the funding mechanism, participation requirements and oversight) for the Concurrent Enrollment program, but it is a voluntary initiative—school districts choose whether or not to offer the program to students.

Policy diffusion and innovation theory guides the inquiry to uncover the local variables and conditions that affected the decision to offer Concurrent Enrollment programs in participating school districts. The variables that are tested include academic achievement levels, fiscal capacity, district size, proximity to implementing districts, and proximity to community colleges. Event history analysis using discrete-time models is employed to explore the existence of any explanatory relationships in the adoption of Concurrent Enrollment programs. This method allows the researcher to identify which, if any, of the hypothesized variables influenced the spread of Concurrent Enrollment throughout Colorado school districts over time.

Research presented at the 2014 APPAM conference found that participating in Colorado’s Concurrent Enrollment program increases the probability of college matriculation by 10.9 percent and reduces the chance of needing remedial education in the first year of college by 7.1 percent. As state policy continues to be heavily relied upon as a lever for changing educational outcomes, researchers must use available data to understand which local factors and conditions contribute to scaling up effective policies. Advancing collective knowledge about how state policies can be widely implemented to leverage improvements in college access and success will help combat the pervasive gaps in postsecondary achievement among students of different backgrounds.