Designing Pathways

Overview

Intentionally designed pathways are important for dual enrollment because they provide a structure for both acceleration and success. Completing a planned sequence of college courses while in high school allows for accelerated time to certificate and degree completion. But designing the pathway is more than the sequence of courses, it includes the services and resources that support student success.

For students, a well-designed pathway guides career exploration, provides holistic support, and accelerates time to completion along a chosen pathway. When designed well, pathways begin with guided exploration of college and career to aid students in choosing a pathway based on both their interests and the potential to enter a high-wage, high-growth career path. Sometimes high schools already have a mechanism for this, especially if they have career academies or Linked Learning pathways. After students finish high school, college credits that they have earned should accelerate them towards their next education or career goal; this could be a certificate, an associate degree, or transfer within their chosen pathway. Dual enrollment is particularly effective as a means to accelerate college completion when the classes are offered as dual credit classes that count both as high school core requirements and college degree or certificate pathway requirements.

To design dual enrollment pathways, high schools and community colleges need to partner with local education and workforce partners to ensure pathways are aligned, coordinated, and collaborative. The planning, communication, and continuous improvement of dual enrollment pathways will support a successful intersegmental partnership. As you are planning, consider ways to sustain this intersegmental partnership over time.

What is a Pathway?

The term pathway is used in a variety of ways in education. For the purposes of dual enrollment pathway development in California, we are defining a pathway as a structured program that leads to a degree or certificate and career. Pathways are made up of connected courses, experiences, and support services that enable students to advance over time to higher levels of education and training and, by extension, obtain better jobs that provide family-sustaining wages with benefits and advancement opportunities. Defining clear pathways is important because they provide students with a roadmap and support structure for college and careers.

This guide adopts a broad conception of pathways that includes both career education, also referred to as career technical education (CTE), and traditional academic disciplines with the understanding that every degree leads to a career and that all students need both academic skills and career preparation. Other legislation, systems, and organizations have put forth concepts and definitions of pathways that are useful to consider in designing dual enrollment pathways:

• • The California Department of Education (CDE) defines CTE pathway completion as a sequence of courses totaling at least 300 hours and completion of a capstone course.
  • The federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) promotes state and system alignment to workforce needs when designing pathways.
  • California’s Golden State Pathways Program states:

“The purpose of the Golden State Pathways Program (GSPP) is to provide local educational agencies (LEAs) with the resources to promote pathways in high-wage, high-skill, high-growth areas, including technology, health care, education, and climate-related fields that, among other things, allow pupils to advance seamlessly from high school to college and career and provide the workforce needed for economic growth.”

• • The CDE explains Perkins as a “federal act established to improve career-technical education programs, integrate academic and career-technical instruction, serve special populations, and meet gender equity needs.”
  • The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) provides a framework for career pathways from secondary through postsecondary inclusive of apprenticeship and focused on a learner’s career pathway over their lifetime.
  • The California Community College Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) Career Pathways Design emphasizes industry-informed pathways inclusive of guided pathways.
  • The Strong Workforce Program (SWP) and K12 Strong Workforce Program (SWP K12) provide allocated funds to community colleges and K-12 districts to enhance and expand CTE and workforce training that prepares students for high-wage employment in industries that meet regional labor market needs.

What Does a Well-designed Dual Enrollment Pathway Look Like?

A successful pathway design allows for the course sequence to meet multiple requirements for graduation, transfer, certificates and degrees—including both general education and major requirements—and leads to high-wage, high-growth careers providing opportunities for advancement. They are designed so that if students switch pathways, excess units are kept to a minimum. Limiting completion of excessive units is important when a student is no longer in high school and using financial aid to fund their education or to pay for life expenses while they complete their educational plan.

Well-designed pathways utilize a combination of high school and community college curriculum, college dual enrollment opportunities, and internships or pre-apprenticeship programs to transition students into college and career. Some pathways start as early as middle school with a pre-collegiate and career preparation course. This dual enrollment coursework starts in middle school or high school and continues through to college with nested credentials and degrees that support students in earning college degrees and accessing higher wage jobs.

Three Key Elements to a Well-Designed Dual Enrollment Pathway

Intentionally Sequenced Experiences

Well-designed dual enrollment pathways often begin with a first course focused on college and career exploration and planning to build college-going navigational capital. Choosing the remaining experiences in the pathway depends on a variety of considerations including the placement of work-based learning opportunities. See Getting Started: Designing Dual Enrollment Pathways for Equitable Completion for a checklist and guiding questions.

Embedded Student Supports

Partnerships should think through student support while designing pathways. Plan to have support for students before they start the pathway courses, during the semester, and throughout their journey to completion. See the Supporting Student Success section for more ideas about embedding student support in the pathway design.

Data-informed Planning and Iteration

Planning to capture data, assess success, and identify areas of growth or iteration should start with the initial design of the pathway. Pathway design teams should be sure to identify data needs. See the Data section for more detailed guidance.

Design for Equitable Student Outcomes

The United States has a history of sorting students into rigid, career-focused “tracks” in which white, middle class students were destined for academic or white-collar careers, and Black, Latine and low-income students were tracked into lower-paying blue-collar or domestic careers. This was a way to maintain racial segregation in American schools. Given the context of tracking, it is important that partnerships do not reproduce that legacy of racial or gender segregation as they design pathways.

Partnerships are working to address historic and systemic barriers to success. In an equitable student pathway, student success outcomes would not be predictable by race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, disability status, or any other demographic data. Partnerships should determine early how they will collect and identify disproportionate impact. As a regular practice of continuous quality improvement, partners can regularly examine disaggregated data on access, retention, and success. (See the RP Group’s Using Disproportionate Impact Methods to Identify Equity Gaps for more information.)

When establishing pathways, consider student and community interest and aspirations as well as labor market needs. Pathways should lead to jobs that pay family-sustaining wages and “credentials of value.” Equitable student outcomes for dual enrollment pathways means that all students receive the resources, opportunities, and support to access and succeed in the pathway.

When recruiting and enrolling students, look at the data. Are any student groups underrepresented in any particular pathway? Consider race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, multilingual/English language learner status, and disability status. It is important to identify student populations who might be underrepresented so the partnership can purposefully conduct outreach, recruit, and engage students from those groups. To ensure that dual enrollment pathways are equitable, partnerships should work closely with the community to understand where opportunity gaps exist and where resources are needed. See the Outreach and Recruitment for Historically Underserved Students section for more guidance on designing for equitable outcomes.

Dual Enrollment Pathways at McFarland High School

McFarland High School enrolls about 940 students each year. The high school counselors partner with Bakersfield College and local middle schools to work with all 8th graders to ensure that, by the time they get to 9th grade, every student has a completed college application on file. Their efforts also ensure that every incoming 9th grade student and their family has had the opportunity to learn about the dual enrollment pathways at McFarland, understand the benefits of each pathway, and explore how their college and career interest will be served by dual enrollment pathways offered at their future high school.

Dual Enrollment Pathways Offered at McFarland

The following table provides an overview of McFarland’s current dual enrollment pathways. Students can enroll in more than one pathway. Several students are in one of the CTE pathways for their electives and are taking general education courses towards an AA degree.

How Students Learn About the Pathways

Counselors at McFarland’s feeder middle school introduce the dual enrollment pathways to students in their first 8th grade one-on-one meeting with the students. The McFarland High counselors then follow up by going to middle schools to orient the students to the dual enrollment pathways available to them at the high school. They discuss the first two classes in the pathway for students who start a pathway in 8th grade–College and Career Preparation and a Music History class.

The Bakersfield College dual enrollment team also provides information days and enrollment workshops for the 8th graders to help them get the college applications completed before they graduate 8th grade. A Bakersfield College counselor is also assigned to work onsite at McFarland High School one day a week to provide navigational support and college guidance.

How Caregivers Learn About the Pathways

The high school and college dual enrollment teams also hold caregiver information sessions where parents/guardians or other caregivers meet with the high school counselors and receive information about the dual enrollment offerings. These presentations explain the benefits of dual enrollment, the importance of doing well in the first two dual enrollment classes and the rigor of the associate degree pathway. The goal of these early communication efforts is to help students and parents understand the opportunity provided by dual enrollment pathways and the differences in the pathway options.

How Students Are Supported to Explore

All students are provided the opportunity to participate in a dual enrollment pathway. Students complete an interest survey in 8th grade, in the first semester of 9th grade with the student development class, and again in the second semester of 9th grade as part of the exploration of college and career. This is used to help identify which dual enrollment pathway the student might be most interested in. The high school counselor uses the information in the survey in one-on-one meetings with students to guide them toward the pathway that they are interested in pursuing, encouraging students to try the pathway they are most excited about while also encouraging them to not be afraid to reach for the associate degree pathway if that fits their life and schedule.

The high school and college counselors explain to both students and caregivers that the student’s mental health is paramount, emphasizing the need to consider how the student can ensure they have a balanced high school experience while participating in a dual enrollment pathway. When a student is struggling academically, they are still encouraged to participate in a pathway. Counselors support students to make a “success plan” to help them manage their time and the workload. Students are never discouraged from pursuing one pathway or another. When students are struggling academically but want to pursue the most rigorous pathway, the Spanish AA-T pathway, they are supported to do so. Similarly, when students who are excelling academically express interest in a less rigorous academic pathway, the counselors talk them through the benefits of the associate degree program to encourage the student to try it.

How Students are Supported Through the Pathway

The following table highlights key ways students are supported in dual enrollment pathways in the McFarland and Bakersfield partnership.

What Success Looks Like for McFarland High School

Out of the 210 students who graduated from McFarland High School in 2024:

• • 208 (99%) took at least one dual enrollment class
  • 119 (57%) completed a pathway
  • 99 (47%) earned a degree or certificate from Bakersfield College
  • 44 (20%) earned an associate degree for transfer in Spanish

Getting Started: Designing Dual Enrollment Pathways for Equitable Completion

Assess Your Starting Point

The first step focuses on information gathering and data analysis. You might try creating a storyboard or a visual representation of this starting point to support a dialogue among partners.

• • Identify students furthest from opportunity. Review your student data to identify the student populations that are underserved or underrepresented in college access. Student populations furthest from opportunity can be identified by comparing the high school demographics and the community college demographics. Are there populations underrepresented in community college? Are there populations underrepresented in dual enrollment? Where there are fewer students enrolled in community college versus high school, there may be an access gap.
  • Identify populations impacted by high expulsion, high absences, and lower graduation rates. Are there current efforts to re-engage these students through dual enrollment? How are these students currently supported to re-engage in high school, college, and career planning?
  • Examine current pathways. What are the current pathways that exist at the high school or community college? Do you want to expand on any of them? Is there something missing? Do you want to build a new pathway? Do the high school pathways align with the community college pathways? Are you ensuring students are not tracked into either career education/CTE or transfer based on their race, ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic status?
  • Identify high-wage and high-growth regional sectors for potential pathways. What are high-wage and high-growth career fields in your region that the community college has developed pathways around? Are there further training opportunities in the region or local area that lead to high-wage jobs or careers?
  • Assess current instructor capacity. Who will teach the classes? Can high school teachers teach community college courses? Will the high school allow college instructors to come on the campus during the school day? Are community college faculty interested in teaching at high schools? Are there high school teachers who meet minimum qualifications to teach college courses? Is there an opportunity for high school teachers to share pedagogical strategies with college faculty?
  • Determine employer engagement. Do you have employers that might be interested in offering work-based learning opportunities such as field trips, guest presentations, project ideas, job shadowing, pre-apprenticeship programs, internships, or direct work experience?
  • Review current partnership agreements. Identify existing agreements or partnerships with K-12, colleges, and community based organizations that support intersegmental alignment and cooperation. Assess your partnerships and all existing agreements. Are there agreements that you can build upon to add or strengthen dual enrollment? Are there agreements that need to be modified?

Plan a Course of Action with Your Partners

This section can support partnerships to begin planning dual enrollment pathways that best meet the needs of the community.

• • Establish a design team. Develop a workgroup or design team that includes key dual enrollment roles. These could include community college faculty, deans, vice presidents, high school instructors, assistant superintendent or director over curriculum, high school counselors, community college counselors, Strong Workforce Program (SWP) pathway coordinator, a current or former dual enrollment student, and others specific to your partnership. As you are putting together your team, consider the following questions:
    • Who needs to be at the table to make decisions about which pathways to work on and to begin mapping out courses?
    • Who needs to be at the table to ensure the partnership is designing for equitable outcomes?
    • How will the team ensure they are keeping students at the center of the decision making? In other words, how are they prioritizing students’ needs and student success in making design decisions?
  • Map pathways. Begin by reviewing the data and information you found in the previous step, Assess Your Starting Point. Use the questions below to begin conversations with your partners about aligning the high school and community college pathways. Can the general education course sequences for the high school partners provide a guide for what year and semester to offer courses, especially when students earn both high school and college general education credit?

• • • What pathway is the most viable option based on regional workforce needs, college pathways available, student interest, and instructor availability?
    • What core competencies are needed in the pathway courses and what courses support students to gain those skills?
    • What course sequence does the community college discipline faculty recommend for students to complete the degree or certificate?
    • Are courses offered on a schedule that will allow a student to complete the degree or certificate in a reasonable timeframe?
    • Are there work-based learning opportunities embedded in the program? Are there age requirements for those experiences? How can those experiences support student retention and completion of the pathway?
    • Consider support and interventions for students in dual enrollment. How will you ensure that they are successful and supported? Do you have an early alert mechanism that can support students? Do you have tutoring support that dual enrollment students will be able to take advantage of? See the Supporting Student Success section of this guide for additional information and resources.
  • Assess facilities, equipment, and materials needs. Does the pathway program you have decided to develop have specific facilities and equipment needs? Are there specific materials that students will need as part of the program? How can the partnership ensure those needs are met?
  • Plan class schedule. Determining when the classes will be offered to students can be one of the more challenging and technical aspects of planning dual enrollment pathways. Start by level setting with your design team to make sure everyone has a shared understanding of how scheduling works for high schools and community colleges. Discuss the benefits and challenges of offering dual enrollment within the school day. What dual enrollment schedule will best meet the needs of students furthest from the opportunity to attend college?
  • Make a plan to identify, onboard, and support instructors. Successful dual enrollment pathways have instructors who want to teach college courses and are supported by both the high school and community college. Discuss which high school teachers or community college faculty may be ready and available to teach courses offered through dual enrollment. Do you have instructors who share the demographics of the students served? Where do you have gaps for instructors in your pathway courses? Make a plan to recruit and train faculty to fill those gaps.

Next Steps: Prepare for Implementation

Use the steps in the following table to help your partnership prepare for implementation.

Implementation Preparation for Dual Enrollment in Specific Contexts or Institutions

When implementing dual enrollment pathways in contexts outside of traditional high schools, make sure to consider the needs of the community and the restrictions that may exist in the facility. Use the recommendations below as a starting point:

Adult and Continuation Schools. Adult and continuation school students who are seeking their high school diploma or equivalency may also participate in CCAP pathways and enroll in community colleges through dual enrollment, if they are enrolled in a school district or county office of education (COE). Dual enrollment pathways for students in adult education or continuation programs should be designed to help students earn their high school diploma. The courses offered should be ones that grant students dual credit, accelerate them towards their high school diploma or equivalency, and get them started on a path to a college certificate or degree and a career that offers a family-sustaining wage.

Juvenile Facilities, Community and Alternative Schools. The CCCCO’s Juvenile Justice Program was created to “help youth throughout the state transition out of the justice system and into higher education.” Colleges can work with juvenile detention facilities to coordinate dual enrollment pathways onsite or remotely for students in these centers. The school district or county office of education and the college should select courses that help students advance towards earning their high school diploma and expose them to college and career pathways that they can transition to and complete at the college when they transition out of the state system. Each facility will have its own limitations on when and how courses can be offered, and it is essential that instructors and support staff are properly trained to support justice-impacted students and facility protocols.

Career Education Centers. When designing career education pathways, there is often an added element of equipment and facility requirements. School locations may be limited in space or funding needed to provide the proper facilities and equipment for certain college programs, so it is important to review these needs and options before marketing and scheduling courses. Several partnerships have benefited from utilizing facilities at regional occupational centers or at the college, depending on proximity to these locations or the ability to provide transportation. The Strong Workforce Program (SWP) has funded several high school and college collaborative career education programs, and is a potential resource for partnerships expanding or starting new career education dual enrollment pathways.

County Offices of Education. Colleges may also enter CCAP partnerships with COEs to offer dual enrollment pathways for students enrolled in schools and programs under that COE. These programs often serve students from specific populations, many of whom may be transitory, so many of them are independent study or hybrid programs. Partnerships should consider courses at the college that are designed for and have success with the intended modality. Students in these programs may have more flexibility to enroll in courses at the college or online, but may still benefit from additional supports and structures that can be included in a well-designed dual enrollment pathway.