Dallas County Community College District and Dallas Independent School District will share a network approach to the expansion of dual credit and Early College High Schools, involving all DCCCD Colleges, 23 high schools, a joint steering committee of faculty and administrators, and industry partners from 63 regional and national companies.

As a result of this presentation, participants will be able to: 1) Convey the network approach used by DCCCD and Dallas ISD to the expansion of dual credit and Early College High Schools 2) Distinguish the Pathways to Technology (P-Tech) Early College High model from the traditional ECHS

DCCCD initially began the development of guided pathways through its partnerships with Dallas County public schools interested in expanding dual credit and Early College High Schools. Chancellor May and Dr. Michael Hinojosa, Superintendent of Dallas Independent School District set the vision and direction for such an expansion by designating a steering committee of District administrators from DCCCD and Dallas ISD composed of representatives from involved Colleges and high schools. Dallas ISD, which had four Early College High Schools with three DCCCD Colleges in 2015-16, planned for the implementation of 18 new Early College High Schools by 2017-18, taking the expansion to scale. A new model, Pathways to Technology (P-Tech) was adapted to incorporate career and technical education certificates and degrees and industry partners to support the students’ career development and pathway to employment. Each high school has two to three industry partners (such as American Airlines, Hospital Corporation of America, Bank of America, AT & T, Microsoft, and 50 others) associated with the career pathways. Over 50 certificate and degree pathway maps were developed to align the high school and college requirements to ensure that the students would graduate with both a high school diploma and college credentials. Over 900 9th grade students at the first eight Dallas ISD P-Tech schools completed the first year of dual credit college courses in 2016-17 with over 87% course success rate (grades of A-C) and 96% retention rate to 10th grade. By Fall, 2017, over 3,000 Dallas ISD students were at 24 Early College High Schools partnered with all seven DCCCD Colleges. A total of 31 Early College High Schools and Collegiate Academies (Dallas and other ISDs) and over 15,000 total dual credit college students are supported each semester by DCCCD Colleges through tuition scholarships, instructional and support services. Each DCCCD College contributed to the development of dual credit course pathways in collaboration with Independent School Districts that lead to certificates, degrees and/or seamless transfer. DCCCD also worked with the North Texas Community College Consortium and its 20 community college members to partner with 15 regional universities in the development of pathways for career and technical education students completing Associate of Applied Science degrees to transfer college credits and complete Bachelor of Applied Arts and Science degrees.