Dual enrollment (DE)—taking college courses in high school—can help improve student access to and success in college. In the past few years, California has passed legislation that expanded DE through the College and Careers Access Program (CCAP) and enacted reforms in assessment and placement for English and English as a Second Language (ESL). Both are intended to boost access and accelerate academic progress among historically underserved populations such as Latino, Black, and first-generation students. The state has also recently invested nearly $700 million for K–12 and community college districts to expand and support DE. Moreover, agreements and initiatives across California’s public higher education system increasingly promote more access to DE, including the completion of at least 12 college credits during high school.

How effective have these expansion efforts been so far, and what changes do we see in student participation and outcomes?

The current expansion landscape

More students take DE English every year—from fewer than 10,000 in 2016–17 to almost 30,000 in 2023–24, about 6% of all high school students. Participation through CCAP comprises 45% of total DE English enrollment. Latino, Black, and first-generation students represent a larger share of CCAP than non-CCAP English DE participants and are more likely to meet the college composition requirement through DE. They also have higher college-going rates than their non-CCAP peers.

Most DE students taking English do so at the transfer level, which has grown from 81% (2016–17) to 98% (2023–24). Of the DE students taking transfer-level English, 94% enroll in college composition courses that satisfy lower-division general education requirements for the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU). Among students who enrolled in community college post-high school, those who took DE English are more likely than their non-DE peers to complete associate degrees or transfer to four-year institutions. In contrast, DE ESL participation has decreased in recent years, and course offerings are much less common than DE English courses. Many campuses we interviewed referred to ESL populations as a largely untapped demographic for DE and expressed interest or upcoming efforts to develop access for them.

Points of consideration and current challenges

Understanding the distinctions between ESL and English courses at local colleges is crucial for discerning the best options for DE. Interviewed instructors noted multilingual learners of English are better served in pedagogically distinct ways from what is offered in traditional English departments.

Offering DE requires establishing relationships across institutions. However, many elements— such as instructor recruitment and pay—are not standardized and must be negotiated locally. This leads to extensive costs when there is high teacher turnover at the high schools or colleges. Interviewees emphasized that for DE opportunities to effectively reach underserved populations, high schools must be able to trust that colleges can reliably offer courses, while colleges must be able to trust that enrollment will meet the requirements to maintain course offerings.

How can DE programs improve student access and success?

Establish a repository for CCAP partnerships across the state. Many elements must be negotiated between high schools and community colleges to offer DE courses. The negotiating process could be expedited by a state-wide repository of actual CCAP partnerships so that newly starting partnerships can reference real examples. This would also help prevent implementation from varying too dramatically because of differences in negotiating power or institutional knowledge.

Support dual enrollment students and their instructors. As access to DE expands to historically underserved students, it will be important to ensure that students and instructors are well supported. For example, aiding faculty in curriculum redesign to adapt to students’ needs can help maximize students’ likelihood of successfully completing college composition through DE.

Expand access to transfer-level dual enrollment ESL. Adequate investment and community collaboration can create a promising DE ESL curriculum for an entire high school. High schools may consider expanding options for English Learners by offering DE in transfer-level ESL or aligning high school English language development (ELD) courses.

Maximize efficacy and efficiency by integrating policy and linked data. It can be challenging to determine whether English Learners have equal access to DE or whether CCAP is actively recruiting students not on the college track. Linked K–12 and community college data would help DE partnerships address these issues and improve recruitment into DE courses. The current lack of such data means that individual partnerships have to lead these efforts. Linked data would also support causal research into the value of dual enrollment compared to other acceleration options offered in high school, especially for historically underserved students.

Source

About the Authors

Rachel Yang Zhou is a research fellow at the PPIC Higher Education Center. Her research lies at the intersection of higher education and labor economics, with a focus on financial aid, community colleges, and the college-to-workforce transition. Before joining PPIC, she was a research data specialist at the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, a postdoctoral scholar at the Golub Capital Social Impact Lab at Stanford University, and a quantitative researcher at the Community College Research Center. She holds a PhD in economics and education from Columbia University and a master’s degree in economics from Duke University.

Hoyun Kim is a research associate at the PPIC Higher Education Center. She is also a PhD candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, studying policy and politics in higher education. Her research centers on public higher education policy and systems, examining their implications for student access and agency. Her recent work focuses on community colleges. Prior to working for PPIC, she served as a researcher on faculty and student support at Handong Global University in South Korea. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and master’s degree in education from the University of California, Berkeley.

Olga Rodriguez is director of the PPIC Higher Education Center and a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, where she holds the Thomas and Marilyn Sutton Chair in Higher Education Policy. As center director, she works with a team of researchers to identify programs and policies to help make the state’s higher education system more successful, equitable, and sustainable. Her own research focuses on college access and success among underserved students. Her recent work has examined statewide reforms to developmental education, English as a second language, dual enrollment, and assessment and placement systems in California’s community colleges. Before joining PPIC, she was a postdoctoral research associate at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University. She holds a BA in economics/mathematics and Spanish from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MA and PhD in economics and education from Columbia University.

Laura Hill is a policy director and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. Her areas of expertise are K–12 education and immigration. She is currently researching English Learners in California schools, special education, and ESL students in community colleges. Her recent publications examine student achievement on the state’s K–12 assessments and the link between language reclassification policies and student success. Prior to joining PPIC, she was a research associate at the SPHERE Institute and a National Institute of Aging postdoctoral fellow. She holds a PhD in demography and an MA in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Eric Assan is a research associate at the PPIC Higher Education Center, where he researches PK–12 and higher education policy. His work focuses on educational equity, dual enrollment, college and career pathways, the impacts of COVID-19, and digital transformation to improve California’s education system. Prior to joining PPIC, he was a graduate teaching assistant at the Berkeley School of Education. He holds a BS in social sciences education from the University of Cape Coast (Ghana), an MEd in educational administration from Huzhou University (China), and an MA in education from the University of California, Berkeley. He also holds a Graduate Certificate in applied data science from the Berkeley School of Information.

Daniel Payares-Montoya is a research associate at the Public Policy Institute of California. He is a member of the PPIC Economic Policy Center, and he also contributes to the PPIC Higher Education Center. His research focuses on expanding economic opportunity through the labor market, the relation between the labor market and higher education, income inequality, climate-related jobs, and economic development. Before joining PPIC, he worked as a consultant for the World Bank, concentrating on green growth and green finance in developing countries, and as a researcher at the Center for Latin American Studies, University of California Berkeley, focusing on the socio-economic impact of globalization and industrialization in the Americas. He has also conducted research on productivity, education, and labor markets for Fedesarrollo, the Private Council on Competitiveness, and Proantioquia Foundation in Colombia. He holds a master’s degree in public policy from Universidad de Chile and a master’s degree in development practice from the University of California, Berkeley.

Chansonette Buck is the owner and executive editor of Appaloosa WordCraft, which provides research, writing, and editing for a wide range of organizational clients—including public policy think tanks and nonprofits. She is also an award-winning poet. She holds a PhD in English from the University of California, Berkeley.