A Strong Start for College and Career: Dual Enrollment Participation from 9th to 12th Grade

High school student participation in dual enrollment--a key strategy for increasing equitable access to postsecondary education and improving readiness for college--has been on the rise in California in recent years. Despite the overall increase in participation, however, large gaps between racial/ethnic subgroups persist. Also of concern, English learners, socioeconomically disadvantaged students, youth in foster care, and students experiencing homelessness lag their peers in dual enrollment participation. To address these gaps, California policymakers and advocates are working with K-12 and community college educators to increase participation and to ensure that dual enrollment opportunities are more equitably available to students and accessed by them earlier in high school. This report updates and expands our prior work by examining participation in dual enrollment among California public high school students at all grade levels. Our partnerships with the California Department of Education (CDE) and the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office (CCCCO) enable us to merge data from both segments and analyze the full extent of dual enrollment for California public high school students through the state's 72 community college districts. While we have previously reported dual enrollment participation among high school graduates, this analysis incorporates new data to show rates of participation and characteristics for all 9th- through 12th-grade students during the 2021-22 academic year. For the first time, we have a statewide picture of dual enrollment participation for high school students at all grade levels to inform current policy discussions and efforts by local educational agencies (LEAs) and community colleges to increase dual enrollment. [An additional collaborator for this report is the University of California, Davis, California Education Lab.]