The Concurrent Courses Initiative was created to demonstrate the feasibility of using dual enrollment programs to enhance college and career pathways for low-income youth who are struggling academically or who are within populations historically underrepresented in higher education. Funded by The James Irvine Foundation, the Concurrent Courses Initiative provides support to eight secondary and postsecondary partnerships in California as they develop, enhance and expand their career-focused dual enrollment programs.

Dual, or concurrent, enrollment provides high school students with the opportunity to enroll in college courses and earn college credits. While dual enrollment has often targeted accelerated students who demonstrate readiness for college-level coursework, it is increasingly seen by educators and policymakers as a strategy to help a wider range of students make the transition from high school to college. In addition, educators have long looked to career and technical education to engage high school students and to reduce dropout rates. Thus, there appears to be great potential in combining these two approaches.

The Concurrent Courses Initiative, funded through June 2011, is being managed and evaluated by the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Teachers College, Columbia University. The Career Ladders Project (CLP) provides technical assistance to the Initiative partners through direct assistance with ongoing implementation, exchange of effective practices among the initiative’s partners, and identification of common challenges and emergent solutions in offering effective concurrent enrollment programs.  

Additional support is provided by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences through the National Center for Postsecondary Research (NCPR) for student tracking and to determine the feasibility of conducting an experimental evaluation. NCPR is housed at CCRC and operated in collaboration with partners MDRC, the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, and faculty at Harvard University.