<br><div><aside class="gnt_em gnt_em__fp gnt_em_vp__tp gnt_em__el" aria-label="Video - Students and educators reflect on stories they'll tell in 20 years"/><p class="gnt_ar_b_p">Like many students taking college courses during the coronavirus pandemic, Alexis Lopez struggled with a poor Wi-Fi connection and professors who didn’t offer much support. </p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p">“They couldn’t really help us. They didn’t really know what to do for us,” said Lopez, who remembers becoming so frustrated in front of her computer that she burst out crying. “We had to do everything by ourselves.”</p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p">Unlike most college-goers, however, Lopez, who lives in Bastrop, Texas, is still a senior in high school. And the problems forced her to withdraw from two of these classes, saddling her with two unwanted W’s on her transcript.</p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p">“I’ve never had to withdraw from a course until the pandemic hit,” she said. “That’s what I didn’t want.”</p><aside aria-label="advertisement" class="gnt_m gnt_x gnt_x__lbl gnt_x__al"/><p class="gnt_ar_b_p">At 18, Lopez is among what varying estimates say is <a target="_blank" href="http://www.nacep.org/resource-center/fast-fact-on-dual-and-concurrent-enrollment/" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a">10%</a> to <a target="_blank" href="https://nces.ed.gov/datapoints/2019176.asp" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a">34%</a> of high school students who take college-level courses that give them a head start on credits, save time and money, and prepare them for the demands of higher education.</p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p">But the number of students enrolling in and passing these classes has started slipping – dramatically, in some places – suggesting a potential decline ahead in the number of high school students who end up going to college. For those who do go, it means earning a degree could take longer and cost more.</p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p">“It definitely throws them off track,” said Samuel West, District P-16 director at Houston Community College. </p><figure class="gnt_em gnt_em_img"><img class="gnt_em_img_i" style="height:510px" data-g-r="lazy" src="https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2021/04/01/USAT/8e90641d-25a7-4e3b-a5f2-79271e6319cd-villareal_corona_dual_2.jpg?width=660&height=510&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp" srcset="https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2021/04/01/USAT/8e90641d-25a7-4e3b-a5f2-79271e6319cd-villareal_corona_dual_2.jpg?width=1320&height=1020&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp 2x" decoding="async" alt="Bryan Gonzalez-Alcantar, a junior at Colorado River Collegiate Academy in Bastrop, Texas, put off taking his dual enrollment college courses until this summer because of the pandemic. “It does slow me down a little,” he said."/></figure><p class="gnt_ar_b_p">The increasingly popular practice of taking college courses while in high school – an...</p></div> <style> .wrapper { text-align: center; } </style> <div class="wrapper"> <a class="button" href ="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2021/04/03/covid-lowers-number-high-school-students-taking-college-courses/4836206001/">Read more <span>➤</span></a> </div>
