Understanding the Community College Concurrent Enrollment Instructor Credentialing Cliff from the High School Administrators’ Perspective: A Qualitative Study Utilizing Principal-Agent Theory

ABSTRACT

Roughly half of liberal arts concurrent enrollment (CE) instructors partnering with community colleges in some locations under the Higher Learning Commission’s (HLC) accreditation are in jeopardy of losing their credentials due to an update of CE credentialing standards. High school administrators responsible for CE programming and affected by this credentialing update were interviewed for this research. Through the theoretical framework of principal-agent theory, along with comparing findings on the issue from the authors’ previous study on the topic from the CE instructor perspective, the authors share findings around the thoughts, actions, and recommendations of the CE high school administrators on this issue. Implications for the field and recommendations for policy changes further research are offered.

PLAN LANGUAGE SUMMARY

Concurrent enrollment (CE) courses consist of a high school teacher who teaches a course that awards high school and college credit in tandem, and this study is a follow-up to Schneider and Snodgrass’s 2023 initial study of the impact of the High Learning Commission’s (HLC) CE credentialing clarification for CE liberal arts instructors. The initial study investigated the issue from the CE instructor lens. This study is a continuation of the research on the issue from the CE high school administrator perspective. With a 2025 deadline for CE instructors to meet the new credentialing standard, many CE programs are in jeopardy, and students will negatively suffer, as their instructors will fall outside of the updated credentialing requirements. This study investigates what CE high school administrators’ thoughts, feelings, and actions are as they prepare to confront the upcoming deadline. The findings of this study are then compared to the CE instructor study and seeks to discover where CE instructors and CE high school administrators converge and diverge on the issue. From there, through the lens of principal-agent theory, policy recommendations and financial incentives are discussed and recommended to best sustain the supply of CE instructors at present and to increase it into the future.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).