Publications & Research
Dual Enrollment for Equitable Completion
Dual Enrollment for Equitable Completion (DE4EC) is a multi-year collaborative initiative among the College Futures Foundation and Tipping Point Community, carried out with research support from RDP Consulting. DE4EC helps California community colleges and their high school partners build dual enrollment programs centered on strengthening equitable access and completion outcomes for students underrepresented in higher education, particularly African American/Black, Latina/o/x, and students experiencing economic disadvantage.
DE4EC supports 10 community colleges and their high school partners: Berkeley City College, Compton College, Contra Costa College, Cuyamaca College, East Los Angeles College, Fresno City College, Gavilan College, Hartnell College, Madera Community College, and Skyline College. Each of these collaborations represents different levels of capacity and stages of dual enrollment program implementation.
Career Ladders Project, an organization focused on promoting equitable community college redesign and an expert on dual enrollment practice and policy, supports the work of each partnership by convening a community of practice and providing capacity building as needed.
For this funder supported endeavor, RDP Consulting, the initiative’s learning and evaluation partner, employed quantitative and qualitative research methods to explore and address the following overarching research question:
How did the partnerships ensure that historically underrepresented and excluded students were engaged, participated, and successful in dual enrollment… and beyond?
In March 2023, RDP Consulting published a report titled Advancing Equitable Dual Enrollment: Initial Findings from the Dual Enrollment for Equitable Completion Initiative, RDP Consulting — DE4EC’s learning and evaluation partner — examines how DE4EC practitioners “purposefully included historically marginalized students in dual enrollment opportunities.” The report offers insights and recommendations on approaches to achieve more equity-focused dual enrollment programs, emphasizing the importance of diverse outreach and enrollment strategies with inclusive messaging and underlying the need for strong communication, coordination, and collaboration among institutional partners.
In January 2024, RDP Consulting published Ready, Set, Launch – Baseline Academic Outcomes for Students Participating in Dual Enrollment for Equitable Completion Partnerships Compared to Their Peers, 2015–2020. This study examined the academic outcomes of students participating in dual enrollment programs offered by the initiative’s 10 community colleges and their partner high schools in the period before its launch. The quantitative analyses compared dual enrolled participants’ high school and postsecondary outcomes to their non-dual-enrolled peers in recent years and notable highlights for priority student groups (i.e., first-generation, Black/African American, and Hispanic/Latina/o/x students).