Overview

Students who complete college courses during high school value faculty who offer a challenging and engaging curriculum balanced by a safe, supportive, and success-oriented environment. To prepare high school students to handle a college course’s pace, rigor, and responsibility, faculty new to dual enrollment may benefit from intentional onboarding. High school teachers may need to know more about following the college course outline of record and effectively addressing student learning outcomes. College instructors may benefit from learning about class management techniques and developmentally appropriate and culturally responsive pedagogy and approaches.

Partnerships can support instruction in several ways—by helping faculty navigate college and high school systems and providing professional development and support with curriculum. In particular, faculty play a central role in increasing students’ navigational capital. The Dual Enrollment Empowerment Memo from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) and the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) notes, “College faculty create the first impression of college for new dually-enrolled students, teaching both content and college navigation.” To create a rich classroom experience, faculty must be supported with training and professional development. This will help ensure that dual enrollment can promote high school success, college enrollment, and postsecondary degree/credential completion for students.

In developing plans to provide onboarding and support for instructors, it’s important to note that class schedules are a major constraint on instructors’ time and availability. Partnerships should approach scheduling with instructional support needs in mind. See the Scheduling section for more information.

Areas for Consideration

There are three primary areas to consider when onboarding college faculty and high school teachers to instruct college courses offered through dual enrollment partnerships. This is especially important for those new to the adjunct faculty role at the community college. The three areas are:

    • Logistics: information specific to the high school site, college and/or high school management information systems, and procedures.
    • Pedagogy: professional development designed to support high quality instruction.
    • Curriculum: collaboration, scaffolding and policies.

Sierra College Faculty Onboarding

Sierra College is rapidly ramping up their dual enrollment offerings with local high school CCAP partnerships. This has created a need for a supportive process for onboarding new faculty. They have focused that effort in two areas: outreach and recruitment, and orientation and training.

Outreach and recruitment of new faculty. In the fall semester, in addition to posting part-time faculty positions for dual enrollment to the traditional online job boards, the college sends an announcement to their local dual enrollment partnership high schools asking them to encourage teachers who meet minimum qualifications to apply. The high school teachers go through the normal hiring process and participate in the general orientation before onboarding with the dual enrollment team.

Orientation and training for new dual enrollment faculty.

      • Asynchronous orientation. New Sierra College faculty teaching courses offered through dual enrollment participate in an asynchronous orientation that provides information about the college’s goals, emphasizing the focus on equitable dual enrollment. This orientation provides an overview of the expectations of faculty teaching courses offered through dual enrollment and relevant points of contact.
      • In-person professional development on equitable teaching. Following the asynchronous orientation, faculty participate in an in-person training on how to develop an equity-focused syllabus, curriculum, and classroom environment. This training is led by the Sierra College Professional Development Coordinator in partnership with the dual enrollment team.
      • Faculty mentors. Before the start of their first teaching semester, new faculty are assigned a faculty liaison, often a leader in the department for which they are assigned to teach. These faculty liaisons serve as mentors and points of contact for new faculty teaching in the dual enrollment program. In monthly meetings throughout the semester, liaisons support new faculty in:
        • Developing course syllabi and Canvas modules,
        • Meeting college reporting requirements for managing class rosters, reporting SLOs, and submitting grades,
        • Connecting students to college resources, and
        • Navigating other aspects of teaching in community college.

Faculty liaisons are awarded a stipend for their service in supporting faculty who are new to teaching courses offered through dual enrollment. In addition to supporting new faculty teaching at the high school, the faculty liaisons serve on hiring committees and the evaluation team supporting dual enrollment.

Strategies for Addressing Considerations

Dual enrollment partnerships take different approaches to onboarding—creating checklists and handbooks, and sharing information through virtual workshops and in-person convenings.

Logistics

Faculty new to dual enrollment need information specific to the high school site and the college to become familiar with access, logistics, and procedures. One of the most important things is for faculty to have a contact person that they can reach out to as questions come up during the semester. Some partnerships create a one-page resource for instructors, including critical information and contacts. See Designing Professional Development for Dual Enrollment Instructors for some logistical considerations for onboarding instructors.

There are four essential areas to address: health and safety; learning management systems including attendance, rosters, and grades; campus and classroom procedures; and schedules.

Health and safety. There are many considerations around health and safety, and colleges and high schools may have different procedures. Faculty new to dual enrollment need to understand these procedures at the site(s) where they teach. This information is often site-specific, such as what to do in a medical emergency, where to go in case of fire or earthquake, and how to respond to threats or violent attacks. Each site may also have specific policies and training for mandated reporting.

Learning management systems: attendance, rosters, and grades. An instructor new to the college must be familiar with the learning management system, how to report attendance and access various attendance reports such as census reports, and how to submit grades. Colleges often have different enrollment procedures for dual enrollment, so ensuring rosters are correct is especially important. Policies for noting absences and adding or withdrawing students from the course are often part of either Title 5 regulations or state law.

Campus and classroom procedures. High schools will have procedures for faculty to enter the campus, such as signing in and showing identification at the front desk. They will also have a procedure for faculty to access the classroom and other facilities on campus, such as adult restrooms, the teachers’ lounge, printing areas, and the library. The high school may want teachers or staff from the high school to take attendance, and the high school may have procedures for students to follow if they leave class. If there is a high school teacher or employee in the class, these are some areas that they can support. When they create their agreements, partnerships can negotiate the level of access to the high school campus that instructors will have. Partnerships should ensure faculty understand how to protect student privacy, which is governed by federal law, also known as FERPA. It’s important for faculty to have a clear understanding of procedures required by the high school, such as attendance, hall passes, and what to do in an emergency.

Schedules. High school and college daily schedules and semester calendars usually do not align. Partnership agreements should address the following questions (see the Scheduling section for more information):

    • What is the procedure if the college class time does not align with the high school schedule? For example, the college class may end a few minutes before the passing period begins.
    • What if the semester start and end dates and non-instructional days do not align?
    • How will the partnership deal with any non-instructional days in the high school calendar that are instructional days in the college calendar? (Non-instructional days include breaks and professional development days.)
    • How will the class be supported if the high school academic semester begins before (or ends after) the college academic semester?
    • How will the partnership ensure instructional minutes for college classes are met, and who will supervise students if there is a gap between the college class time and the high school schedule?

College Example

The Golden West College Dual Enrollment Instructor Handbook outlines the basic information a faculty member new to dual enrollment might need including key contacts, the instructor application process, course outline of record and syllabus, viewing rosters, reporting grades and dropping students. There is also a detailed section on collaboration between the high school and college instructors. A Venn diagram points out unique characteristics of the two systems and where they overlap in dual enrollment. The handbook also includes a timeline and collaborative practices. Faculty receive a stipend for participating in collaborative practices in dual enrollment.

Pedagogy

Professional development opportunities such as orientation and onboarding sessions, high-impact teaching practices and faculty mentorship can prepare any instructor, regardless of training or tenure, to offer rigorous coursework, create an engaging classroom environment, and design assignments that support student success. Both high school and college instructors can benefit from professional development in adolescent pedagogy and culturally relevant pedagogy, and from participating in a community of practice.

Adolescent pedagogy. New dual enrollment faculty can benefit from training in pedagogy for adolescents (ages 10-25). Professional development in pedagogy is a common request of instructors in dual enrollment partnerships. See “Instructional Approaches to Supporting Adolescents” in the Supporting Student Success section for more information.

Culturally relevant pedagogy. Students thrive when they feel they belong, as stated in a 2024 Umoja report. Faculty play a key role in students’ sense of belonging in college. This is especially true for Black, Indigenous, and Latine students. The CCCCO and ASCCC Dual Enrollment Empowerment Memo explains, “When faculty create culturally affirming spaces and utilize culturally relevant pedagogy in college courses, they support students in feeling they belong in college.” A classroom experience in which students feel welcomed, are challenged academically, and are supported, can create a sense of belonging for students. Training can support faculty in creating a classroom environment where students can bring their whole selves and feel like they are welcomed and that their culture is valued. See the Supporting Student Success section for more information on creating a sense of belonging.

Community of practice. When discipline-aligned high school and college instructors collaborate in a community of practice, they grow in their professional learning. They can share methodologies and projects and solve instructional problems of practice such as concepts that students struggle with and approaches to help them through. Faculty may also benefit from norming sessions where they review assignments and assessments together and compare how they gauge student learning and mastery of course learning objectives. Communities of practice are also essential in building relationships between college and high school instructors. These relationships play a key role in institutional practices such as evaluations, comprehensive program review, and curricular mandates to ensure that high school and college faculty are supported in addressing, assessing, and implementing curricular changes.

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Resource

The Bay Area Community College Consortium hosts the Bay Area Community of Practice for Dual Enrollment Instructors and Counselors. Their webpage has information on equity-focused counseling, culturally relevant pedagogy, and open educational resources (OER).

Curriculum

Students who are completing college courses offered through dual enrollment are both high school and college students. While faculty agree to teach to the college’s course outline of record, a collaboration between college and high school instructors can create more closely aligned coursework that meets the college’s requirements while ensuring that students can successfully balance and complete their high school coursework. The following three elements can support rigorous coursework:

Learning resources and tools. When the college uses specific assessment tools, such as a common rubric for English papers, teachers can introduce the tool to students in their high school classes.

Curricular alignment and scaffolding. When both institutions collaborate, faculty can identify concepts and skills introduced in high school classes that the college class can either build on or lightly review and move on. The pathway, beginning with high school courses and transitioning to college courses, can be aligned and scaffolded to build on prior learning and reduce redundancy.

Curriculum policies and procedures. Colleges have specific procedures for having courses approved at the college and state levels and having those approved courses articulated for transfer to other colleges and universities. They also may have specific grading policies.

What Students Say

The research memo, Navigating Dual Enrollment: Los Angeles Scholars Share Their Insights on What Matters Most for Success, reports findings from interviews with 58 former dual-enrolled students. Respondents attributed their overall success to dual enrollment professors’ teaching. They appreciated the professors’ enthusiasm, supportiveness, and approachability. Their professors’ willingness to network and connect was key to creating a successful learning environment. Engaged professors empowered students to communicate their needs and prioritize their workload, knowing they had academic allies. Effective teaching styles and subject matter expertise were also crucial, making content relatable and engaging. Respondents highlighted the professors’ leniency and adaptability in adjusting deadlines and course structures, significantly enhancing their success in dual enrollment.