Dive Brief:
- The popularity of dual enrollment programs has surged in recent years, rising 15% year over year in 2023-24 in New York state, for example, and reaching as many as 57% of students at Kingsborough Community College, according to a report from the New York Alliance for Early College Pathways.
- But high schools and districts designing such pathways need to account for several factors to ensure student success, according to advocates for such programs. These include an up-front assessment of goals, a partnership with a high-quality provider, a targeted instructional model with student supports, an equity focus, and a priority on student and parent engagement.
- “It’s about being thoughtful. And a lot of that comes down to: What is the population you as a school district are serving? What do you know about their postsecondary trajectory? And, what are you and your students looking to get out of the college experience?” said Alex Perry, coordinator of the College in High School Alliance.
Dive Insight:
The National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships, in June 2025, published a report titled “Online, On Purpose” in response to a flood of calls from principals and superintendents asking how to forge productive partnerships. Despite the title, the key principles apply equally well to in-person programming, said NACEP Executive Director Amy Williams.
NACEP sets out a five-pronged approach:
- Find a good provider that understands what programs can accomplish when run well and isn’t just looking to boost enrollment numbers.
- Build a strong partnership by discussing all details in advance, including costs, timelines and roles.
- Choose a model that will be sustainable for the school and its students.
- Determine what supports will be provided and by whom, academically and otherwise.
- Engage early and often with students and, as needed, with parents, ranging from required student orientation to distribution of a “what to expect” guide.
“Everything starts with the quality of the partnerships,” Williams said. “How good is the provider? How useful are their courses? What are they going to contribute?"
Other questions to consider, Williams said, include, "What are you going to have to do? How will you and they support students? How do you communicate with parents and students? How do you help students identify what’s most important?”
Many districts focus on dual enrollment as a way to save students time and money, Perry said, but that doesn’t automatically happen.
“You have to be taking the right courses for what you think you want to be doing after high school,” he said. “You can’t just throw a dart at a dartboard.”
Although if the goal is simply to broaden college access, he added, dual enrollment programs overall have accomplished that aim, regardless of what courses a student takes.
For students to have information on what to take, districts need to ensure proper advising and counseling so they can build a sequence of courses that will be transferable, said Perry, who is also a senior policy advisor at Foresight Law and Policy, an education law and consulting firm.
If the student doesn’t know what they want to do in the future, have them take general education courses that are broadly applicable, he said, rather than fun-sounding courses like “History of Rock & Roll” that will count only as electives.
Dual enrollment programs overall have had a demographic equity gap, with White, female students from higher-income families whose parents have at least a bachelor’s degree overrepresented, Perry said.
To ensure equitable access, Perry suggests administrators should make sure students know about opportunities as early as middle school — not because they’re going to enroll in 7th grade, “but they know that it’s a thing that happens in high school, so students expect it and demand it.” And districts should dive deep into data about who is and isn’t participating to figure out what they need to do to expand access.
To broaden the reach of dual enrollment programs, Williams suggests not requiring a high GPA, given that students often interpret that as a sign of “whether I’m college-quality material or not.”
In addition to potentially providing proof-of-concept that they are college ready, Williams said entry into dual enrollment programs “also gives them a better understanding of the options that are out there, and how that might contribute to their next-step goals. Be very inclusive in who is allowed into these courses, and be very thoughtful about the courses you pick.”
And she concludes with “evergreen advice: Start small, establish a practice, and then scale.”
