Centering Racial Equity in California Dual Enrollment Programs

• In Event: Research as Repair: Advancing Educational Justice Through the Critical Study of Policy Implementation

Abstract

California faces a challenge where, at the current rates, only about a third of its 9th graders will attain a bachelor's degree, further exacerbating economic disparities, among Black and Latinx Californians (Johnson & Cuellar Mejia 2020a). Dual enrollment (DE) programs expanded into law in 2015 (AB-288) and 2023 (AB-368) offering California high school (HS) students the opportunity to engage in college-level courses, play a crucial role in expanding educational opportunities and remedying state-wide college readiness including attainment concerns (Pompelia, 2020).

In 2015, Assembly Bill 288 was signed by the California legislature, which established the College and Career Access Pathways (CCAP), to encourage the formation of DE partnerships between school districts and community college districts to expand DE opportunities for underrepresented in higher education (Kurlaender et al., 2021). AB 102, later passed in 2022, enabled community colleges and HS districts to expand their CCAP partnerships, allowing more students to participate in DE. While DE has received significant legislative backing, Black and Latinx students are still not participating and being provided the needed racially equitable supports and services to succeed in DE (Salazar, 2024).

As DE continues to acquire state support towards addressing state-level college attainment concerns, this necessitates interrogating the implementation of DE. Specifically, how HS and DE staff make sense of racial equity within DE and integrate racial equity into services, supports, and collaborations to address the underrepresentation of Black and Latinx students in DE programs. To understand these voids braiding Critical Policy Analysis and the theory of Racialized Organizations is instrumental (Ray, 2019; Young & Diem, 2014). These theories provide insight into the development of DE services, supports, and collaborations, and how they both benefit and marginalize Black and Latinx students. Additionally, they enable an understanding of how race influences the relationship between DE staff, HS staff, organizational practices, conditions, and commitments to serving Black and Latinx students. Precisely, how DE and HS staff rectify or perpetuate inequities through DE services, supports, and collaborations.

To understand the underrepresentation of Black and Latinx students in California DE programs, it is necessary to interview and observe DE and HS staff's claims on promoting racial equity through services and supports at HS sites where DE is implemented. This includes observing the experiences of Black and Latinx DE students and interviewing them to understand the services they accessed and whether they consider these resources racially equitable or race-neutral.

These insights play a role in helping DE staff engage in exploratory conversations on interrogating practices and how racial equity is operationalized within DE. Additionally, identifying the necessary conditions in HS sites that promote principals, counselors, and teachers to become actively involved in collaborative efforts, understand DE’s functions, and promote DE to students. To comprehend the intended commitments to racial equity, and the equitable services and supports described by DE and HS staff, it is crucial to observe these realities firsthand and how they align with the actual experiences and insights of Black and Latinx students.

Authors

• Rogelio Salazar, University of California - Los Angeles

• Andrea Angelika Pimentel, San Diego State University