Early College: A Solution to the Postsecondary Enrollment Decline
SANTA BARBARA, Calif., One of the main issues facing academia today is the consistent decline in postsecondary enrollment and college and career readiness. The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center states that from 2019 to 2022 postsecondary institutions lost about 1.1 million students, or about 6% of total enrollment, while undergraduate student enrollment fell by over 1.2 million students, or almost 8% of total enrollment. As a result, postsecondary leaders are scrambling to come up with strategies to boost overall postsecondary enrollment and training.
At the recent, 2023 Get Focused Stay Focused Conference held at the University of California, Santa Barbara campus, educators from across the country came together to learn about strategies that can reverse this trend and ensure that all students, no matter what their background, have a vision of themselves as learners who can aspire to a degree or industry certification.
Instructors, counselors, principals, and administrators learned how college campuses, schools, and districts can collaborate on a proven dual enrollment strategy resulting in equity in college and career readiness through the success of the Get Focused Stay Focused program.
The new California Community College Chancellor, Dr. Sonya Christian, has issued a call to action to enroll every 9th grader in the state into their first dual enrollment college course. She witnessed the success of the Get Focused Stay Focused 9th grade dual enrollment course during her tenure as the President of Bakersfield College and Chancellor of the Kern Community College District and hopes to see that 9th grade early college strategy replicated across the state allowing students to graduate from high school with at least 12 college credits.
“Dual enrollment is an effective strategy for guided pathways, student success, equity, matriculation, and completion,” said Kylie Campbell, Director of Outreach Services and Early College at Kern Community College District, in her keynote speech at the opening conference session.
Campbell highlighted that in the state of California, only six percent of freshmen, eight percent of sophomores, 12 percent of juniors, and 14 percent of seniors participated in a dual enrollment course in 2021-2022.
Yet since implementing the Get Focused Stay Focused program in a county with one of the highest poverty rates in California, the dual enrollment numbers at Bakersfield College have grown significantly. With over 12,500 high school students participating in dual enrollment during the 2022-2023 school year, Bakersfield College now has the largest dual enrollment program in the state.
“Since establishing Get Focused Stay Focused as a dual enrollment course in 2016, our program started taking off,” said Campbell, referencing a graph that showed enrollment numbers jumping 30 percent at the Kern County Community College District. “Every year since then we’ve added new high school partners, and those partners have added 10th, 11th, and 12th grade options as they build out their early college pathways.”
She cited McFarland High School as an example of this dramatic increase. In areas with a rural and agricultural base, postsecondary enrollment is often sparse. However, McFarland’s partnership with Kern Community College District is working to counter that trend. At McFarland, 86 percent of 9th grade students participated in dual enrollment this past year, compared to only six percent of 9th graders across the state.
All Kern students, no matter what their academic record, start with a dual enrollment Get Focused course in the 9th grade where they create a 10-year skills-based education and career plan that provides a road map to enhance their education. Once they complete this coursework, they understand the value of education and training and the path to economic self-sufficiency. This past June, 175 Kern County students graduated with an associate degree from community college—days or weeks before receiving their high school diploma. Each student started with the Get Focused course, using the Career Choices and Changes and My10yearPlan.com. They now have the added benefit of two years of college tuition savings.
“Dual enrollment can play a powerful role in improving student outcomes and can help students save time and money and also develop confidence in their ability to enroll in and be successful in higher education,” said Mindy Bingham, best-selling author of the Career Choices series and awardee of the Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition for Innovative Approaches to Curricula by the United States Congress and The Breaking Traditions Award from the Equity Council of the national Association for Career and Technical Education. “Rethinking dual enrollment and making it more accessible for every student is essential to expanding postsecondary opportunities and increasing college and career readiness for all.”
All students, including those who are underrepresented in postsecondary education such as students of color and students from low-income backgrounds, will thrive by making dual enrollment more readily available in a time where postsecondary enrollment is declining. “Once they realize they can do college level work, and through that effort develop a 10-year skills-based education and career plan, that opens the door to an “I can do this!” mindset,” says Bingham.
Academic Innovations, the curriculum partner of the Get Focused Stay Focused nonprofit, is an award-winning, mission-oriented educational publisher based in Santa Barbara and known for its nationally acclaimed Career Choices series and My10yearPlan.com®, cutting-edge classroom technology, and relevant professional development.
Get Focused…Stay Focused!® is an award-winning, scalable, cost-efficient program that promotes high school graduation, postsecondary completion, and successful entry into the workforce through creation of a 10-year plan. Based on the Freshman Transition Standards of George Washington University, the freshman ‘Get Focused’ course utilizes the award-winning Career Choices series, and culminates with the development of an online, skills-based, 10-year career and education plan that is updated throughout the four years of high school.
To arrange for an interview on these topics, contact Gavin Rhoades at gavin.rhoades@academicinnovations.com
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
