Dual Enrollment Equity Pathways: A Research-Based Framework for Expanding College and Career Opportunity for Underserved Students
On this page
This is the framework the field now argues about. Griffin and colleagues interviewed staff at six community colleges and twelve partner high schools and set out four practice areas that distinguish a deliberate dual enrollment program from a course catalogue. The target of the argument is what the authors call à la carte dual enrollment, where a student picks one course at a time with nothing connecting them. The framework treats that as the default and the problem, and proposes recruiting, alignment to a program of study, early advising, and supported instruction as the fix.
- Who published it
- CCRC, 2024
- Authors
- Sarah Griffin, Jessica Steiger, Aurely Garcia Tulloch, John Fink, and Davis Jenkins
- What it is
- Research report
- Where the data comes from
- National
What it found
- The framework names four practice areas: recruiting underserved students, connecting courses to degree and career paths, early advising, and quality instruction with support.
- It is built from interview data at six community colleges and their twelve high school partners.
- It treats à la carte course-taking, where a student picks one course at a time, as the thing it is trying to replace.
What it does not show
- It describes practice at colleges chosen for their success. It does not measure how much any of it changed student outcomes.
- Interview data at eighteen institutions cannot tell you how common these practices are anywhere else.
How the study was done
Interviews at six community colleges and twelve partner high schools that had expanded dual enrollment access and early college success for underrepresented students, published July 2024.
Why this matters to a family
If your teen’s school offers one course at a time with no plan behind it, this is the research naming that as the weakest version of the program.
Sources
Rules change. These were checked September 2026. Confirm the current version with your school before you act on any of it.
Reading the evidence before a decision?
Save this page and it sits on your own My FastTrack page alongside your state's deadlines and the tools. Deciding which of these findings apply to one teen, in one state, aiming at particular colleges, is what a roadmap engagement settles.