“Across these measures, California appears to be changing the conditions that shape who gets access, who is served, and what helps students stay on track once enrolled in college,” the scholar, Royel M. Johnson, associate professor of higher education at the University of Southern California, stated in a policy brief released Tuesday by USC’s Pullias Center for Higher Education, where Johnson is director.
“The next questions are which bills become law, how they are implemented and whether students experience meaningful differences as a result,” Johnson continued.
For the brief, Johnson examined five broad policy areas: dual enrollment; community college baccalaureate degrees; state-level designations of institutions as “serving” a specific population; access for young people who grew up in foster care or became involved in the juvenile court system; and timely delivery of financial aid.
On the topic of dual enrollment, Johnson’s brief concludes that a pair of bills could widen student access to college courses while still in high school, but that they may not require the kind support necessary for students to take advantage of that widened access.
AB 1871 would – among other things – eliminate the requirement for students to obtain a recommendation from their principal to participate in dual enrollment.
Johnson describes the principal recommendation requirement as a “discretionary gate.”
