This chapter examines the experiences of five high school students previously enrolled in dual enrollment courses, and discusses the perceived benefits and disadvantages of these experiences from the student perspective.

Policy, financial, and transportation barriers have limited participation in dual enrollment for marginalized (low-socioeconomic, first-generation, and ethnic minority) students in Oklahoma. This chapter presents a collaborative effort by education and community leaders that has successfully eliminated these barriers and increased the number of…

Emerging early college models are providing opportunities for high school students to accrue college credits and experience themselves as successful college students. The states of Michigan and New York are at the forefront of state-level efforts to offer early college models to a wider range of high school students. This chapter features early…

The purpose of this chapter is to describe teacher, counselor, and principal perceptions of a concurrent enrollment program collaboratively administered by a large, Midwestern community college and area high schools. Data come from surveys sent to these stakeholders as part of concurrent enrollment program accreditation through National…

This chapter provides an overview of results from a recent qualitative study of two Middle College High Schools in Kentucky. The qualitative study utilized Rapid Assessment Process to identify essential elements needed to implement and maintain educational partnerships.

Content standards have been identified in America as a solution to the declining rate of student success in the public education system. But content standards are not a "silver bullet," for a number of reasons. This chapter presents an intersegmental approach to vertical curriculum alignment that returns questions of student readiness to…

There is a growing consensus that the United States and its regions, including the Midwest region, will increasingly compete on innovation. This also is widely recognized in the business world. There is also growing consensus that innovation talent--the human talent to drive and support innovation--will be a major key. Despite this consensus,…

For more than two decades, the vision of a statewide system of student mobility has driven Ohio's articulation and transfer initiatives, which guarantee that specific courses will be applied to degrees and certificates at public two- and four-year postsecondary institutions. This chapter outlines how Ohio developed a comprehensive, guaranteed…

In 2010, California's then-governor Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 1440, called the "Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act" (Padilla, 2010), into law. This bill mandated that the state's 112 community colleges (CCCs) develop a new type of associate degree, an "associate degree for transfer," that specifically prepares a student for admission…

Across the country, increasing numbers and more varied students are taking part in accelerated learning options that provide college-level credit during high school. These options increase the likelihood that students currently underrepresented in higher education will enroll in postsecondary education. Community colleges lead the way in making…

This chapter presents lessons learned from a community college in Arizona in implementing dual-enrollment partnership programs.

This article examines a partnership that developed among a superintendent, a community college administrator, and a four-year college administrator to deliver secondary and postsecondary education to a Midwestern high school district and its neighboring communities. This partnership helped transform the process of transition from high school to…

This chapter describes examples of local pathways and statewide policies that align community college standards and curricula with those at high schools and four-year colleges and universities.

This chapter presents an overview of Florida's Accelerated Mechanism Program, identifies challenges that resulted from shifting intentions behind dual enrollment policies, and shows how evolving state policy has influenced the strategies used by one college to successfully enroll underserved students and support their transition to college.

Middle and early college high schools offer traditionally underserved students the opportunity to simultaneously engage in high school and college classes, with the goal of attaining both a high school diploma and an associate degree within five years. This chapter describes how two such schools support students as they confront the complexities…