On Top of the News
College Aid: Obama to Extend Pell Grants to Some HS Students
Washington Post | 10/30/15

Behind the Headline
High Schoolers in College
Education Next | Summer 2011

On Friday, the Obama administration announced an experimental program that will give up to 10,000 low-income students access to federal Pell grants to take college courses while still in high school.

Jennifer Kerr explains

High school students who take college courses through “dual enrollment” programs will be eligible. Those programs allow high school kids to take classes at a local college, often earning college credit.

An Education Next article about dual enrollment, “High Schoolers in College,” noted that the trickiest issue for dual enrollment was figuring out who would pay for the college courses.

In the article, June Kronholz visits an Indianapolis dual enrollment program and talks with the high school students who are taking advantage of it. The article focuses on high-achieving students who are looking for an extra challenge, but increasingly policymakers are looking to introduce larger numbers of low-income high school students to college courses as a way to jumpstart their higher education.

—Education Next