The Community College Research Center (CCRC) recently published a series of reports to accompany its Dual Enrollment Equity Pathways (DEEP) framework, a new initiative that aims to rethink dual enrollment (DE) as an equitable ramp to postsecondary programs that can lead to good-paying, family- and self-sustaining careers for learners who might not have otherwise pursued education after high school. The framework centers around the following four areas of 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
- High-quality college instruction and academic support
Redesigning Dual Enrollment as a Purposeful Pathway to College and Career Opportunity: The initial report of the series presents the DEEP model and draws on the authors’ conclusions from institutions that were early adopters of whole-college guided pathways (GP) reforms. Researchers identified that approximately one in five school districts nationwide have closed the racial equity access gap to DE, indicating the importance of scaling and sharing program strategies happening at the local level.
The following list spells out key strategies that leaders can use to implement the DEEP framework in their DE programs:
- Engage in outreach to low-income students and students of color beginning in middle school to make learners aware of DE opportunities when they reach high school.
- “Backward map” all programs to ensure that they lead to a good job, an associate degree or a bachelor’s degree.
- Provide separate advising and planning assistance to DE students to better assist them and reduce the work of overburdened high school advisors.
- Expose learners to postsecondary instructional methods that help them improve academic performance and assimilate to college norms and expectations.
Rethinking Dual Enrollment as an Equitable On-ramp to a Career-path College Degree Program After High School: The second report presents findings that researchers gained through field research at six community college-K-12 partnerships across Florida and Texas that have achieved positive results in expanding postsecondary access to underrepresented learners and economically disadvantaged individuals through the reforming and extension of GP practices and DE offerings. Researchers found that more than 1.5 million high school students take DE courses each year, but the majority of these courses are à la carte with no opportunity for specializing.
The following list contains strategies and recommendations that community college-K-12 partnerships can use to implement GP reforms and increase participation opportunities for underserved individuals:
- Embed program-specific DE coursework into high school CTE programs to market DE to learners, building on existing career-focused academies and programs.
- Create more efficient and streamlined pathways to teaching careers for high school students by aligning DE with teacher education pathway programs.
- Set high expectations across the board and provide essential supports such as tutoring, advising and purposeful pathways to ensure learner success.
- Frame DE pathways as a route to facilitating upward mobility and creating productive citizens when marketing to underserved communities.
Researchers also shared a key recommendation gleaned from the partnerships that they engaged with: Using current academy and DE students as ambassadors to describe DE opportunities to elementary and middle school students and families.
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