At 17 years old, Maria Ruiz is getting ready for two graduations at the end of the school year.
In June, the senior will stand on the stage to accept her diploma from Middle College High School in Santa Ana.
But a few weeks before that, she will don the robes of Santa Ana College to receive her associate degree for completing her first two years of college.
“It was an opportunity I couldn’t let go of,” said Ruiz, who is the first person in her family to attend college and who hopes to study veterinary medicine at a university next fall. “There were times that it was hard, and you have to put in a lot of work, but my mom and dad both saw the opportunity and all the money we would save.”
Ruiz is one of a growing number of California high school students who participate in dual enrollment programs, which allow students to take community college classes while still in high school.
Founded almost two decades ago, Middle College High School is on the campus of Santa Ana College, and as part of its mission, students seek to earn at least 30 transferable college units or their A.A. degrees. Most of its students have parents who never attended college, but nearly all of its graduates go on to attend four-year universities.
“It makes sense,” said Kathleen Apps, Middle College’s principal, who noted that Middle College’s students are “immensely successful” in their college classes, keeping their GPAs at 3.1 and above. “You give the kid a taste of college, and they’re going to want more. And the more credits they have under their belts, the more apt they are to finish.”
The program helps take a big bite out of the cost of college. Middle College High School students do not have to pay tuition for their college classes or shell out for textbooks. At the cost of $46 per community college unit, graduates like Ruiz save anywhere from $1,380 to $2,760.
Then after they graduate, they are often able to enroll as juniors or sophomores in college. And if they choose to continue at Santa Ana College they get an additional year of school tuition free, thanks to a program that started this year in which the college gives every SAUSD graduate one year of tuition-free education.
Nationally, about 1.4 million high school students participated in a dual enrollment program in the 2010-11 school year. According to the California Community College Chancellor’s Office, the number of students who take at least one college-level course during high school is rising, with almost 50,000 students taking one in the 2014-15 school year.
Part of the growth comes from a statewide push to create more programs like Middle College High School in hopes of encouraging more at-risk students to pursue higher education, and to help their families save money on tuition costs. Research shows that students in dual enrollment programs are more likely to earn both a high school diploma and a college degree.
State lawmakers passed the College and Career Pathways Act, which took effect this year and increased the number of community college units a high school student can take from 11 to 15 units per semester.
The law also allows college courses to be taught on high school campuses to high school students. (In the past, traditional high school students had to go to community college campuses after school or in the summer to take classes, and they needed a waiver from parents or counselors if they were under 18.)
The Santa Ana Unified School District is moving to expand its dual enrollment programs beyond Middle College High School to include programs at two of its comprehensive high schools, Godinez and Century high schools.
Lucinda Pueblos, assistant superintendent of the Santa Ana Unified School District, said setting up the programs presents its own challenges. The high schools can hire their own teachers to teach the college classes, but to be credentialed to teach community college the teachers need to have a master’s degree in the course they teach.
But bringing the programs to comprehensive high schools is a bonus for students who still want the “traditional high school” experience along with earning college credits. Middle College High School, for example, doesn’t compete in CIF sports, nor does it have a marching band, though its students can play in Santa Ana College’s orchestra.
“We know that when students are challenged right, many of them can do it,” Pueblos said.
Dual enrollment programs are typically aimed at students who are “in the middle,” not the superstar students who would fill up AP or IB classes but who fall either in the lower end of advanced classes or high end of basic coursework, Apps says. The vast majority of the 344 students at Middle College High School this year are the first in their family to attend college.
They are students like Alexis Rodriguez-Mejia, a 15-year-old sophomore who pushed his parents to let him enter the lottery for Middle College High School. He wants to attend an Ivy League school like Harvard University and become an attorney someday.
“We knew this was the right fit for me. The first time I went into a college class, I felt really excited and confident,” Alexis said.
