It’s a fact. To have the best chance of gaining economic parity within our society, education and/or training after high school is a necessity. Yet for far too many high school students, the vision of themselves continuing their education, whether it is at a university, community college, or in a certificate or industry-approved training program, in their minds is beyond their reach, much less their understanding of how to achieve that goal.

 

 

“If as a country we want to help all of our citizens achieve equity, the conversation must include strategies to ensure ALL students have the same opportunity to achieve economic equality,” 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. “This can be done by embracing the new California Community College Chancellor’s plan to enroll every ninth grader student in a college course through dual enrollment.” Known as the ninth grade strategy, every incoming freshman is enrolled in a college course and develops a college education plan which includes at least 12 college credits while in high school.

Dual enrollment provides students the opportunity to take college courses while still in high school. This educational strategy has been shown to be an effective strategy for not only equity but also high school and college completion, matriculation into postsecondary education and training, and student success in Guided Pathways. Currently, only 6% of ninth graders take dual enrollment in California during their first year in high school.

Under the leadership of Kylie Campbell, Director of Outreach Services and Early College for the Kern Community College District, the Get Focused…Stay Focused!® program initiated at Bakersfield College in 2016, has evolved to an institutionalized strategy for student success. In the last seven years, since the district pioneered the Get Focused…Stay Focused!® program starting in the ninth grade, the results in growth of dual enrollment have been phenomenal as the graph below shows––from serving 4,216 students to 34,086 students.

 

 

This past June, 175 Kern County students graduated with an associate degree from community college—days or weeks before receiving their high school diploma. And they all started with the ninth grade Get Focused…Stay Focused!® course.