Our new California Community College Chancellor, Sonya Christians, has put forth the ambitious goal of enrolling every ninth grader in a college course, reinvigorating efforts to strengthen dual enrollment programs across the state. Ahead of the curve is the Centinela Valley Union High School District (CVUHSD), which has been working to bolster their dual enrollment courses with El Camino College (ECC) throughout the pandemic with the support of K12 Strong Workforce Partnership (SWP) funding.
At the end of the 2020 school year, students from the CVUHSD went online and remained so until the Fall of 2021. Recognizing the need to strengthen the existing support systems to better serve the students during that difficult time, the district focused on creating resources and implementing support processes to help ensure their students’ success, particularly in dual enrollment courses.
With K12 SWP funding and in collaboration with ECC, the CVUHSD developed and implemented a “Dual Enrollment Faculty Success” program where high school instructors collaborated on both curriculum and student support alignment. Before the start of the college semester, high school and ECC instructors met to review pertinent information such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), available Student Support Services, campus updates, and ECC and CVUHSD calendars. K12 SWP funds also helped CVUHSD fund a college counselor to meet with students on their separate high school campuses every week throughout the school year.
To engage dual enrollment students and develop their skills and habits that promote dual enrollment success, the district also implemented a “Dual Enrollment Success Camp.” The virtual “Camp” is currently housed on the ECC’s website, which you can find here, and consists of modules that the CVUHSD high school teachers or ECC instructors assign in advance of the start of the dual enrollment class coursework. With these new resources developed thanks to the collaboration between the CVUHSD and ECC, high school students in the district are better prepared to become El Camino College students after graduation.
