Dual Enrollment Alignment Across Pathways and Systems

California has made significant investments in both dual enrollment and college and career pathways. Yet in many communities, these efforts operate largely independently. Students often accumulate college credits without a clear connection to their pathway, intended major, or career goals. Educators and postsecondary faculty rarely have opportunities to examine how pathway competencies, dual enrollment coursework, and postsecondary expectations fit together.

As counties continue implementing Golden State Pathways and related secondary school redesign efforts, there is growing interest in ensuring that dual enrollment contributes to successful transitions into postsecondary education and careers.

The Linked Learning Alliance supports county offices of education to help make that happen. Rather than starting with the question, What college courses can students take while in high school?, this work opens by asking something more strategic: What sequence of competencies are students developing across a pathway, and how can postsecondary experiences intentionally extend that progression? Through regional learning communities, faculty collaboration, and cross-system planning, the Alliance helps educators improve dual enrollment’s alignment across high school pathways, postsecondary programs of study, and workforce opportunities.

This service is well suited for county offices seeking to:

  • Ensure pathways and dual enrollment are mutually reinforcing, including as part of Golden State Pathways implementation
  • Grow and improve College and Career Access Pathway (CCAP) partnerships
  • Increase alignment, learning, and collaboration across K–12, postsecondary, and workforce systems
  • Expand access to transferable and relevant college coursework

A Regional Community of Practice for Dual Enrollment in Pathways

The Linked Learning Alliance collaborates with county offices to structure this work as a regional community of practice—a sustained, facilitated engagement where stakeholders work together to better understand one another’s programs, identify opportunities to connect learning across systems, and design pathway-connected dual enrollment experiences that are accessible, coherent, and opportunity-expanding for students.

Scope of Approach

Duration: 9–12 months

Cohort: 8–15 district and postsecondary teams, typically including district leaders, pathway educators, counselors, college faculty, dual enrollment coordinators, and postsecondary administrators

Investment: $125,000–$275,000 depending on scope and number of participating partners

program overview

Inventory and landscape review

The work begins with a review of existing pathway structures, CCAP and articulation agreements, and dual enrollment participation patterns to establish a shared picture of where alignment is strong and where gaps exist. This will result in an inventory and analysis of dual enrollment structures and agreements already in place across participating districts and institutions.

Empathy-centered inquiry

Participating teams engage in facilitated reflection on the student, educator, and institutional experience of implementing pathway-aligned dual enrollment, surfacing barriers to access and success that may not be visible from any single vantage point.

Trends in empathy data will be summarized, with attention to areas of shared and divergent perspectives across groups. This understanding will be critical to later phases of the work, when dual enrollment plans that are coherent and reliably available to students are developed.

Competency mapping and cross-system alignment

Pathway educators and postsecondary faculty examine pathway competencies, course sequences, major requirements, and workforce expectations together and work through challenges with coaching support. These conversations help participants strengthen alignment, ease student navigation between systems, and increase the value of dual enrollment coursework. Teams end this phase with concrete plans that fit their needs. Products may include:

  • Competency maps connecting pathway coursework, dual enrollment, and postsecondary expectations
  • Pathway-to-major alignment opportunities, including courses without prerequisites that contribute to degree requirements
  • Recommendations for strengthening CCAP and articulation strategies

Implementation planning

The process culminates in the development of concrete priorities, partnership strategies, and tools that participating teams—and those in other communities—can use to expand access and strengthen alignment over time. At this stage, teams may wish to include counselors and administrative staff, who collaborate on ensuring the implementation of their improved course sequence is feasible. In addition to creating implementation plans, teams may also develop new student transition support plans in this phase. Facilitators document lessons learned as a resource to the county office as it supports future pathway-aligned dual enrollment efforts.

Ready to strengthen your county's work?

We'd welcome the opportunity to learn about your goals and explore how the Linked Learning Alliance can partner with your county office to strengthen implementation, build alignment, and support continuous improvement.

pathways@linkedlearning.org