About this Dashboard
Dual credit courses are a type of course that give high school students the potential to earn both college and high school credit. The purpose of this dashboard is to examine participation in and completion of dual credit courses within the Washington State public school system. There are several types of dual credit programs in Washington state, the primary six (6) of which are included in this data (see Data Definitions and FAQ). Other dual credit types may be added in the future.
This dashboard focuses on addressing the requirements in RCW 28A.600.280. For other analysis that addresses recommendations made in previous reports, see the ERDC publications.
Longitudinal Cohorts
This dashboard groups students based on their Graduation Requirement Year and follows them over time. This allows for reporting on course-taking throughout the students’ multi-year high school career. The data does not reflect course-taking within an individual academic year or school district.
Students are expected to meet the requirements of graduation that are in place for their expected graduation year, which is set upon entry into 9th grade or transfer in from outside of Washington. For example, a student entering 9th grade during the 2014-2015 academic year would be expected to meet the graduation requirements for the class of 2018 (2017-2018) even if they dropped out or took more or less than 4 years to graduate. This dashboard refers to each group of students as “the 20xx cohort.”
Data include students with a Graduation Requirement Year between 2015 and 2023.
Using this Dashboard
This dashboard presents a large amount of data and allows users to interact with the visualizations to dig into the data in ways that cannot be done easily in a report or spreadsheet.
Select the tabs at the top to navigate through the information on the dashboard and the data visualizations.
For each visualization, there is the opportunity to change the displayed data based on one or more user selections located in drop down menu or radial button filters. Additional information can be viewed by hovering over data in the visualization.
Not all dual credit types are available in all districts. If no students match the criteria selected, the count will display as "N/A" or be blank.
Questions
Please contact Liz Dehlbom, senior data scientist for the Office of Financial Management, at liz.dehlbom@ofm.wa.gov.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Table of Contents
What is the purpose of the dashboard?
The purpose of the dashboard is to provide the public a statewide view of participation in and completion of dual credit courses within the Washington state public school system. Dual credit courses are a type of course that give high school students the potential to earn both college and high school credit.
In 2022, the Legislature passed SHB 1867, related to dual credit programs. The Legislature requested that metrics of dual credit enrollment and high school and postsecondary credit attainment be presented by dual credit type and by student categories and subcategories described in RCW 28A.300.042. This reporting was previously assigned to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) in RCW 28A.600.280.
The dashboard provides a high-level overview of the types of students enrolling in dual credit and earning high school credit, in addition to the trends over time. While dashboards can never provide a solution for a particular “issue,” they can be used to determine what direction a decision-maker may go to gather more information.
This dashboard represents a large amount of data that have been aggregated according to specific definitions and calculations. The dashboard was created because viewing this data in a spreadsheet would be overwhelming and difficult to comprehend. Data visualization can help viewers interpret data and draw conclusions more easily. Tableau was chosen as a data visualization tool because of its ease of use and broad array of visualization possibilities.
For other analysis that addresses recommendations made in previous reports, see the ERDC publications.
Where does the data for this dashboard come from?
The data came from the ERDC P20W data warehouse. This data warehouse links administrative records from several contributing education state agencies. Data sources for this dashboard include:
- Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI): Comprehensive Education Data and Research System (CEDARS) — For data on student characteristics, K-12 program participation and enrollment and completion of high school courses.
- Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) — For data on enrollment and completion for Running Start and credit earning for select types of dual credit courses at Washington Community and Technical Colleges (2-year institutions).
- Public Centralized Higher Education Enrollment System (PCHEES) housed at the Office of Financial Management (OFM) — For data on enrollment and completion for Running Start and credit earning for select types of dual credit courses at Washington public 4-year institutions.
Who/What isn’t included in this dashboard?
The dashboard focuses on the reporting requirements of the legislation, with additional information and analysis in ERDC published reports. The data do not account for variation in the availability or offerings of dual credit courses among schools. Future updates to the dashboard may incorporate additional data. There are several types of dual credit programs in Washington state, the primary six (6) of which are included in this data. Others that are not included in this data are:
- Direct-funded/technical high school – high school program located at a Community and Technical College
- Open Doors 1418 Youth Reengagement Dual Credit – serves students in grades 9-12, offered through an articulation commitment between high school and college programs for courses at or above the 100 level, may be taken at or under the authority of Washington’s Community and Technical Colleges
- District/Local Dual Credit – attendance at certain institutions of higher education through individual agreements with high school
- Dual credit enrollment at out-of-state institutions or private colleges in Washington, or at the Northwest Indian College.
- Privately funded postsecondary enrollment – attendance that is not funded through state basic education funds.
What do the data mean when a specific District is selected?
The selected district relates to the last district in which a student is/was enrolled and the displayed data represents the cumulative dual credit course-taking of students over their high school career. Although the majority of students stay in the same district between 9th and 12th grade, student mobility across districts is not uncommon. Therefore, the displayed data may represent course-taking from multiple school districts.
For example, if a student enrolled in Cambridge International courses in District A during 11th grade and then transferred to District B, which does not offer Cambridge International, for 12th grade, that student’s participation in Cambridge International will be reported under District B – as the student’s last district – and not under District A.
While the district data shown on the dashboard may provide a general sense of what dual credit types have been available to students in each district, it should not be used as a measure of access. For information about dual credit types offered by a district in a particular academic year, see the access discussion in the 2024 ERDC legislative report or the OSPI data portal.
How do we protect student privacy and ensure compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)?
ERDC mitigates the risk of unintentionally releasing personally identifiable information using a variety of techniques recommended by the Privacy Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) at the US Department of Education. These techniques include data suppression, recoding, and blurring.
Some of these techniques do affect the utility of the data by reducing the users’ ability to view information about specific demographic groups or view exact percentages. It is our goal to maximize the utility of the data to our stakeholders while minimizing the risk of accidental disclosure and protecting student privacy as dictated by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
This dashboard allows for statewide data and some district-level data to be disaggregated by multiple groupings. If the groupings selected result in a cohort that has less than ten (10) members (denominator), or has fewer than five (5) participants (numerator), the data is suppressed and will have "Redacted" displayed. If no students are members of the grouping selected, the count will display as "N/A" or be blank. Whenever possible, results are “top-coded” and “bottom-coded” when very few students (less than 4) or nearly all the students (greater than N-4) are contained in a cell. Complementary blurring is also applied when only one cell is top- or bottom-coded. These techniques allow us to suppress less data.
Why is the data displayed on the dashboard different from other sources of data?
This data uses an analytical approach that follows each cohort over time. This is different from the approach taken in OSPI’s reporting on dual credit, which looks at a specific school year and identifies all students in that school year who participated in dual credit courses. This “annual snapshot” approach allows for monitoring school and student performance and enrollment in dual credit in a timely manner. However, it is not suited to following students over time (a longitudinal approach) to understand the role of dual credit as students move from high school into postsecondary education. Since the longitudinal approach covers student course-taking throughout their multi-year high school career as opposed to just one year (in the snapshot approach), the dual credit enrollment rates in the dashboard will be higher than those reported in OSPI’s annual reports. The cohort data will differ slightly from the graduation cohorts included in the OSPI Report Card. While both definitions are broadly the same – i.e. cohort determined in 9th grade and excluding students confirmed to have transferred out of the WA public school system –the count of students in each cohort will not match due to different business rules used to include or exclude students.
How was this dashboard developed?
Data was compiled by ERDC staff, who shared it with a workgroup consisting of representatives from OSPI, SBCTC, Council of Presidents, Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board, Labor and Industries, State Board of Education, Washington Student Achievement Council and institutional researchers from the public four-year institutions for their review of definitions, calculations and processes. The ERDC used Tableau to create the dashboard, and examples of format were shared with the workgroup for comment. Changes to the display were made based on user recommendations.
When is the dashboard updated with new data?
The dashboard is updated annually in the Fall.
How do I print or save what I’m looking at?
To print, click on the Download Button on the Tableau Toolbar. Save the report as an image or PDF and then print the image/PDF.
Who do I contact about questions, suggestions, or training on how to use the dashboard?
Please contact Andrew Weller, data visualization analyst for the Office of Financial Management, at andrew.weller@ofm.wa.gov.
