The Beauty of Dual Enrollment During COVID-19

by Jacob Varney

Amid COVID-19 spread and struggle, the Massachusetts Department of Education has deemed it necessary and is requiring primary and secondary students to learn in-person. Schools are requiring faculty and students to stay in the school building for several hours a day, with a rapidly spreading pandemic, and this can cause students to feel stressed and increase their risk of falling ill with COVID-19. 

With Massachusetts offering no mandated virtual alternatives to attend school, students are facing a higher risk of catching and spreading COVID-19 and are struggling to stay healthy. Massachusetts’ lack of virtual options may cause severe problems for students, parents, and faculty through a lack of opportunity. Although there are not options to go to high school virtually, Cape Cod Community College (4Cs), along with other colleges, offers a program called Dual Enrollment. Dual Enrollment allows students to attend online college classes via Zoom while earning credits to graduate from high school.

“Dual Enrollment students can take classes in a delivery format offered, whether it is online, remote or in-person,” said Tara Riley, the Dual Enrollment coordinator at 4C’s. “Students can take all their classes with 4C’s or continue to attend high school and take a few courses on the side.”

According to statistics from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, COVID-19 cases from in-person learning students during the week of Feb. 3, had spiked from 583 students COVID-19 positive in 2021 to 10,068 students COVID-19 positive in 2022. In the 2020-2021 school year, when Massachusetts high schools offered virtual learning, average SAT scores in Massachusetts went up from 1,112 in 2019-2020 to 1,152 in 2020-2021, according to the department. Statistics show an uptick in Dual Enrollment applications.

“This semester we will have a record number of Dual Enrollment students participating at Cape Cod Community College,” said Riley. According to the Cape Cod Community College Dual Enrollment Program webpage, applications are available to every high school student in Massachusetts at least 16 years of age with a 2.5 grade point average or higher. If students do not fit these criteria, they can still fill out additional forms or get a letter of recommendation from a school advisor or official in order to apply.

Sandwich High School

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