AB 288 The College and Career Access Pathways Act
Assemblymember Chris Holden


SUMMARY
AB 288 establishes the College and Career Access
Pathways Act to authorize California Community
College districts to enter into formal partnership
agreements with local school districts to expand access
to concurrent enrollment opportunities for high school
students. The partnership agreement shall outline the
terms of their partnership, such as the schedule of
eligible courses that can be offered, thresholds for the
academic readiness of pupils, protocols for sharing and
joint facilities use, etc…

BACKGROUND
California has a long history of concurrent enrollment,
whereby high school students are eligible to
concurrently enroll in college courses to receive
instruction necessary to pass the California High School
Exit Exam, take general education courses, or enroll in
occupational courses. A concurrent enrollment study by
the James Irvine foundation1 have concluded that these
programs effectively help low achieving students
integrate into a college environment, increase the
likelihood a degree program will be completed,
decrease the length of time to complete a degree
program, and stimulate interest in higher education
among high school students.
One of the more prominent concurrent enrollment
programs is the College Promise Partnership Act,
signed into law in 2011. This act authorizes Long Beach
Unified School District and Long Beach Community
College District to form partnership agreements that
expand the scope of concurrent enrollment. More
specifically this legislation expanded the law on
concurrent enrollment to grant districts flexibility:



To remove barriers that disincentive historically
underserved students from enrolling in dual
enrollment programs.
To grant priority enrollment to high school
students participating in a career pathway.

According to the Long Beach College Promise study2
Long Beach City College has seen a 500% increase in
students from Long Beach Unified School District
(LBUSD) that have completed college level English and
a 200% increase in students from the LBUSD
completing college level math and those students did
not require remediation once they started classes at
Long Beach City College.
Recent reports from the California Community College
system reveal a 74 percent remediation rate with new,
incoming freshman for English and Math. Data also
shows that there is only a 43.6 percent chance that
students needing remedial English will actually move on
to college level English. For college level math that
statistic lowers considerably to 30.6 percent.
Understanding these numbers is compelling districts to
revise pathway programs to ensure that students
needing remediation are reached earlier in the process
and that remediation is wrapped around a pathway that
ensures students succeed.

EXISTING LAW
Under existing law, high school pupils may be granted
admission to CCC courses as special part-time or fulltime students with the authorization of the K-12 district
governing board, with the principal’s permission, and
parental consent (Education Code §48800). Authorized
students are those who would benefit from “advanced
scholastic or vocational work.”(Education Code §48800,
et. seq.)
Long Beach Unified School District and the Long Beach
Community College District are allowed under current
law to form concurrent enrollment partnerships to
include focused curricular pathways in general
education, career technical education, or a degree.
(Education Code §48810-48814.).
Seal, Taylor, Goady. “The Long Beach College Promise.” Long
Beach Unified School District, Long Beach Community College,
and California State University, Long Beach (2014).
2

Hughes, Rodriguez, Edwards, Belfield. “Broadening the Benefits
of Dual Enrollment.” The James Irvine Foundation (2012).
1

To allow high school students who are not
seniors to concurrently enroll in college
coursework.

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 5. Promote Accountability for student learning
by granting school districts more authority to
monitor a student’s progress and obtain student
academic records from the participating
community college.

THE SOLUTION
The CCAP seeks to build upon existing concurrent
enrollment efforts, the career pathways trust, and the
Long Beach College Promise to better prepare high
school students for college and career success.

6. Increase Transparency by requiring Career
Access Pathway partnerships to be adopted at
a public, regularly scheduled meeting of each
respective governing board to ensure that
members of the public have an opportunity to
weigh in.

The goals of AB 288 are to:
1. Expand Access to concurrent enrollment
programs for students by specifically
authorizing college courses to be offered on a
high school campus exclusively to high school
students.

7. Gather Data that is more consistent and
reliable from school and community college
districts to allow for better analyses of
concurrent enrollment programs and to ensure
that school districts are not displacing high
school teachers by inviting community college
courses.

2. Increase exposure to college coursework and
environments for underserved students by
specifically authorizing community college
districts that have formed a Career Access
Pathways partnership to grant limited priority
enrollment to those students.
a. Numerous studies have shown that
concurrent
enrollment
effectively
assists marginal achieving student’s
transition into college coursework.
3. Accelerate learning for students by creating a
framework that allows students who
demonstrate competency to up to 15 units of
community college coursework instead of 11
units.
a. This will allow students who may need
to take a lab and lecture course the
ability to do so while continuing with the
courses they need to complete their
pathway program.
4. Build Pathways that fill projected labor market
needs and uniquely customized to the student
populations to be served. In many cases,
career pathways need to be developed in
coordination with regional needs instead of a
one-size fits all approach. AB 288 creates a
framework that provides districts flexibility to
design Career Access Pathway partnerships
that work for students, parents, and teachers.

Support/Opposition
Support:
Chancellor of the CA Community Colleges (Sponsor)
Sacramento Pathways to Success
Los Rios Community College District
California Community College League
Los Angeles Community College District
Peralta Community College District
Joint Author:
Minority Leader of the Assembly Kristin Olsen
Co-Authors:
Assemblymember Shirley Weber
Assemblymember Luis Alejo
Assemblymember Miguel Santiago
Assemblymember Kevin McCarty
Assemblymember Catherine Baker
Assemblymember Rocky Chávez
Contact: Addison Peterson, Legislative Aide
Office of Assembly Member Chris R. Holden
916-319-2397    916-319-2141 (fax)

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