Exploring Variation in the Impact of Dual-Credit Coursework on Postsecondary Outcomes: A Quasi-Experimental Analysis of Texas Students Matthew Giani The University of Texas at Austin Texas Education Research Center mgiani@utexas.edu Celeste Alexander The University of Texas at Austin Texas Education Research Center celeste.alexander@austin.utexas.edu Pedro Reyes The University of Texas at Austin Texas Education Research Center preyes@utsystem.edu Despite the growing popularity of dual-credit courses as a college readiness strategy, numerous reviews of the literature have noted a number of important limitations of the research on the effects of dual-credit on student postsecondary outcomes. This study addressed these gaps in the literature by estimating the impact of dual-credit courses on postsecondary access, first-to-second year persistence, and eventual col- lege attainment, and overcame many of the methodological limitations of previous studies. The study utilized a statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS), allowing us to track an entire cohort of students through their transition into postsecondary statewide. Propensity score matching was used in order to reduce the self-selection bias associated with high achieving students being more likely to take dual-credit courses. We explored how the number of dual-credit courses students complete and the subject of the courses influences their impact. We also compared the effects of dual-credit to alternative advanced courses. Our results suggest that dual-credit is a promising strategy for increasing the likelihood of students accessing, persisting through, and completing a degree in postsecondary, and is possibly even more impactful than advanced coursework. However, significant variation in the benefit of dual-credit exists. Dual-credit courses, in which secondary students can earn high school and college credit simultaneously for the same course, have recently become one of the most popular reform strategies for bridging the gap between high school and college (Hoffman, Vargas, & Santos, 2008, 2009). Also known as dual-enrollment or concur- rent enrollment, dual-credit courses have existed for decades (Andrews & Marshall, © 2014 The University of North Carolina Press 200