Resources

Overview

The growth of dual enrollment has also brought a growth in resources for practitioners. This section provides a list of resources specific for California dual enrollment partnerships as well as national resources. It includes implementation and informational tools, handbooks and toolkits, a repository of student voice publications and videos, research, networks of support, and both state and national organizations focused on dual enrollment.

Implementation Tools

• • Dual Enrollment Scheduling Tool helps schedule college courses offered through dual enrollment so that the high school maintains minimum instructional minutes. The tool also flags potential scheduling conflicts like holidays and minimum days.
  • Dual Enrollment Access Gap Tool uses both publicly available data and data input from partnerships to create easy-to-read visualizations of dual enrollment participation disaggregated by ethnicity, age, and grade. It creates charts that compare disaggregated dual enrollment participation to the general high school population, revealing any gaps.
  • Creating a Dual Enrollment Partnership: Strategies for Coordinators offers an overview and checklist of areas for consideration in starting dual enrollment partnerships.
  • Designing Professional Development for Dual Enrollment Instructors: Strategies for Coordinators supports the planning of professional development for both college instructors new to teaching high school students and high school instructors new to teaching college courses.
  • Supporting English-Language Learners: Strategies for Instructors offers strategies for instructors to support multilingual learners.
  • Working with Adolescents: Strategies for Instructors provides strategies geared towards adolescent brain development.
  • Federal Privacy Law Related to Dual Enrollment: Strategies for Coordinators is an overview of FERPA law and dual enrollment.
  • Transitioning Adult Learners to College: A User Guide for Ability to Benefit and Adult Dual Enrollment is a manual on getting started with adult dual enrollment and utilizing the federal Ability to Benefit provision to support adults without a high school diploma or equivalent in qualifying for federal financial aid.

Information Tools

• • Dual Enrollment Structures in California is an overview of the various ways of accessing dual enrollment on a continuum of most to least structured.
  • What is the Difference? College and Career Access Pathway (CCAP) Partnerships and Non-CCAP Partnerships is an overview of the two types of dual enrollment governed by an agreement between a college and high school district.
  • Policy Table is a reference tool that links to original legislation, current Education Code, Title 5 regulations, CCCCO memos, MIS data elements, and case law pertinent to students with special needs and dual enrollment.
  • The Multiplier Effect: Dual Enrollment x Math provides an overview of issues and considerations for partnerships designing dual enrollment opportunities with math.

Student Voice

• • Navigating Dual Enrollment: Los Angeles Scholars Share their Insights on What Matters Most for Success presents the findings of a student-led research project to investigate what former dual-enrolled students say about their experience.
  • Student Voice Videos and Case Studies is a repository of videos and short case studies of students in dual enrollment.

Handbooks, Toolkits and Frameworks

• • The Dual Enrollment Playbook: A Guide to Equitable Acceleration for Students is a handbook that also includes case studies and self-assessments.
  • Los Angeles County Toolkit to Equity-Centered Dual Enrollment Partnerships provides tools and resources for dual enrollment based on the five areas of an effective and equity-driven dual enrollment partnership: finance, course access and availability, instructor capacity, navigational supports, and data analysis/evaluation.
  • Dual Enrollment Handbook: Building and Scaling Effective Practices for Leadership and Implementation Teams, developed by the Orange County Regional Consortium, comprises four chapters with information specific to a leadership team, an implementation team, faculty, and students and parents. It includes examples from around Orange County.
  • Federal Playbook, September 2023, authored by the College in High School Alliance, outlines what federal funding currently exists that may support dual enrollment, and what policies may be on the horizon.
  • Rethinking Dual Enrollment as an Equitable On-Ramp to a Career-Path College Degree Program After High School, a report from the Community College Research Center (CCRC), presents the case for a new approach to dual enrollment by summarizing the evidence for the four areas of DEEP practice: outreach to underserved students and schools; alignment to college degrees and careers in fields of interest; early career and academic exploration, advising, and planning; and high-quality college instruction and academic support.
  • DEEP Insights: Redesigning Dual Enrollment as a Purposeful Pathway to College and Career Opportunity, authored by CCRC, presents ideas for redesigning dual enrollment based on field research at six promising community college and K-12 partnerships in Florida and Texas. These partnerships have extended guided pathways practices to dual enrollment, achieving strong results in expanding college access and opportunities for Black, Hispanic, and low-income high school students.

Policy-focused Reports

• • How States and Systems Can Support Practitioner Efforts to Strengthen Dual Enrollment (January 2024). This CCRC report presents strategies for states to enhance dual enrollment programs. Drawing from interviews with college and K-12 leaders, the report offers recommendations to expand access, strengthen postsecondary pathways, and build robust partnerships. The report highlights six mechanisms—legislation, funding, regulation, guidance, engagement, and resources—to support these goals, providing examples from various states to illustrate effective practices.
  • “Waiving” Goodbye to Placement Testing: Broadening the Benefits of Dual Enrollment Through Statewide Policy (January 2024), a report from CCRC, evaluates Ohio’s Innovative Programs policy that allows waivers for test-based eligibility requirements for dual enrollment, aiming to increase participation among underrepresented students. The study found that the policy increased dual enrollment among Black and Hispanic students, but its impact on post-high school college enrollment was mixed, emphasizing the importance of pairing increased access with adequate supports.
  • Unlocking Potential: A State Policy Roadmap for Equity and Quality in College in High School Programs for Students with Disabilities (November 2021). This report from the College in High School Alliance provides a framework to improve access and equity for students with disabilities in college-in-high school programs. The report highlights the significant barriers these students face and offers policy recommendations for states to create more inclusive dual enrollment opportunities
  • Building a Concurrent Enrollment Teacher Pipeline: Opportunities, Challenges & Lessons (March 2023). This College in High School Alliance report outlines best practices and policy recommendations to address challenges in creating a pipeline for dual and concurrent enrollment teachers, emphasizing the need for professional development and credentialing support to ensure high-quality instruction in college-level courses offered in high schools.
    (Note: Although other systems or organizations use the term “concurrent enrollment,” this term is not found in California Education Code.)

Research

California

• • A Strong Start for College and Career: Dual Enrollment Participation From 9th to 12th Grade (February 2024). This Policy Analysis for California Education publication reviews CCAP participation by grade level in 2021-22 and disaggregates by race and income level.
  • Improving College Access and Success through Dual Enrollment (August 2023). This Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) report compares CCAP student outcomes to those from other types of dual enrollment and to students who have not participated in dual enrollment.
  • UC Davis Wheelhouse: The Center for Community College Leadership and Research has a dual enrollment web page that houses all of their reports.

National

• • CCRC has a number of publications on dual enrollment from a national perspective including The Postsecondary Outcomes of High School Dual Enrollment Students: A National and State-by-State Analysis (October 2024), which tracked outcomes for students who began dual enrollment in 2015.
  • National researcher John Fink has a publicly available data visualization that shows state representation in both dual enrollment and advanced placement, disaggregated by race and gender.
  • A large research project led by Jason Taylor of the University of Utah produced the white paper, Research Priorities for Advancing Equitable Dual Enrollment Policy and Practice. This paper includes as appendices several literature reviews on specific themes within dual enrollment.
  • The State of CTE: Early Postsecondary Opportunities, a report from Advance CTE and the College in High School Alliance, provides findings from a survey of state CTE directors on state policies that support early postsecondary opportunities in CTE.

State System Support Infrastructure

• • Guided Pathways Regional Coordinators provide local support for colleges and districts in their guided pathways implementation, and also serve as liaisons with the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.
  • Rising Scholars Network supports colleges in building strong pathways from incarceration to postsecondary education for students who have experienced the criminal justice system.
  • K12 Pathway Coordinators serve as a point of contact between K-12 and community colleges and support career and technical education pathways, including dual enrollment.
  • K14 Technical Assistance Providers provide regional leadership in the development, administration, and organization of pathway improvement initiatives and intersegmental partnerships in their region for the K12 Strong Workforce Program and the overall expansion of career technical education.
  • Regional Consortium Chairs provide leadership in eight community college regions of the state for their respective consortia of career education faculty and administrators.

Organizations

California

• • Career Ladders Project (CLP) promotes equity minded community college redesign. CLP has a special focus on dual enrollment.
  • California Alliance of Dual Enrollment Programs, an affiliated chapter of the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships, is a unified coalition committed to the advancement of equity, student success and quality in dual enrollment programs in California.
    (Note: Although other systems or organizations use the term “concurrent enrollment,” this term is not found in California Education Code.)
  • The California Coalition for Early and Middle Colleges promotes and expands proven best practices associated with dual enrollment to enable high school students to transition successfully to postsecondary education.
  • California College Guidance Initiative provides tools, curriculum and infrastructure to smooth the transition to college.
  • The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC) is a postsecondary education convener with the goal of increasing certificate and degree attainment in the Central Valley. CVHEC has a special focus on dual enrollment.
  • The California Association of Black School Educators (CABSE) is composed of elected and appointed school officials, administrators and instructors committed to advancing equity for Black students. CABSE has a special focus on dual enrollment.
  • Dual Enrollment Coalition of California (DECC) advances a shared vision of high-quality dual enrollment for equity, in which educators believe in the capacity of all students to succeed. DECC uplifts high-impact practices and promotes high-quality, equitable, dual enrollment policy and practice throughout California.
  • Education Trust–West, a research and advocacy organization, is committed to dismantling the racial and economic barriers in the California education system. EdTrust-West has a special focus on dual enrollment.
  • Fast Forward California is a coalition of the Linked Learning Alliance, Career Ladders Project and EdTrust-West to support evidence-based practices of pathways and dual enrollment to drive excellence and equity through the Golden State Pathways Program.
  • Linked Learning Alliance partners with education systems as they engage youth, strengthen workforce readiness, and advance equity and economic justice through Linked Learning.
  • Youth Law Center provides support and advocacy for foster youth and justice system-impacted youth; its education focus areas include dual enrollment.

National

• • The College in High School Alliance is a coalition of national, state and local organizations that focus on dual enrollment policy.
  • Middle College National Consortium is a national network of early and middle colleges.
  • National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP) supports programs, practitioners and policy to advance concurrent and dual enrollment. NACEP offers a quality framework and certification for concurrent and dual enrollment programs.
    (Note: Although other systems or organizations use the term “concurrent enrollment,” this term is not found in California Education Code.)
  • Early College Research Center conducts, synthesizes and disseminates research on early college.