Cuyamaca College ESL success through Dual Enrollment

Public Policy Institute of California report highlights the success of the program

Article adapted from the September 2025 Report published by the Public Policy Institute of California.

Making Gains in Gateway English and ESL through Dual Enrollment

Rachel Yang Zhou, Hoyun Kim, Olga Rodriguez, Laura Hill, Eric Assan, and Daniel Payares-Montoya

Supported with funding from the California Community Foundation and the Gates Foundation.

In California and across the country, interest has surged in expanding access to dual enrollment (DE)—the opportunity to take college courses while in high school. Informed by abundant evidence of associated stronger high school and college outcomes, the state has enacted legislation to remove logistical hurdles and include historically underserved student populations.

In the past few years, California has supported K–12 and community college districts in these efforts, which includes Grossmont and Cuyamaca colleges. Moreover, system-level agreements and initiatives—including the Master Plan for Career Education, the CCC Roadmap, the UC and CSU Compacts, and the Golden State Pathways Program—increasingly promote increased access to DE and the completion of at least 12 college credits during high school.

Taking college courses while in high school—known as dual enrollment (DE)—gives students greater access to core subjects like English and math. In this study, and using Cuyamaca College as one of several case studies, researchers explore the challenges and opportunities of using dual enrollment English and English as a Second Language (ESL) as a strategy to improve access to and success in college, with results showing associations between participation in DE and improving student outcomes.

Case Study 1: Dual Enrollment ESL Partnership Success with Cuyamaca College and Mountain Empire High School

“The students get to see themselves challenged as college students, see themselves get enrolled as college students, see themselves get college credit, and then physically see themselves on that college campus. That is extremely transformative and in itself is education. So that’s the goal of this kind of program: to really help this population of students with resources that we may not have had previous to this program.” — Mountain Empire High School Teacher

Cuyamaca College ESL faculty had been restructuring the college’s ESL curriculum before the passage of AB 705 through grant funding from the California Acceleration Project. After implementing a pilot of the novel curriculum in 2016, the new sequence became the ESL option in 2017.

Mountain Empire High School historically has a large population of English Leaners (ELs), but struggled to support the exclusively Spanish-speaking EL students. The local region is very rural, with many students having limited access to internet. The majority of students also live an hour or longer away from the high school or college. Unsurprisingly, teachers noted very few of the students attending Mountain Empire historically saw college as an option post-graduation. The average college-going rate of Mountain Empire ELs between 2015–16 and 2021–22 was about 39 percent. Nearly all of those who pursue higher education (97%) enroll in community college.

In 2017, the Mountain Empire High School and Cuyamaca College’s ESL department began devising a way for the new curriculum to be made accessible to the EL students through dual enrollment. The high school teachers were invited to use the new Cuyamaca College curriculum. They would teach the college’s ESL sequence to their EL students through dual enrollment, and the college would compensate the teachers as their instructors through the high school district.

As of 2019–20, all EL students are taking Dual Enrollment ESL courses. This provided access to college coursework to a student population that has both geographical constraints against regularly visiting a college campus and unpredictable internet to enroll in online coursework. At present, DE ESL is taught exclusively by Mountain Empire’s English teachers, who are also invited once a year to teach the equivalent course on the Cuyamaca campus, which illustrates the level of support and quality of dual enrollment the students are receiving.

Because Mountain Empire uses Cuyamaca College’s ESL course sequence to meet ELD requirements, the high school places students in the appropriate DE ESL courses using the scores that high school ELs earn on their annual summative ELPAC (English Language Proficiency Assessments for California) assessments.

According to teachers and administrators, the DE ESL program also showed great promise for offering college-going opportunities to students in a very rural area who have never seen a college or seen themselves as college-going. As part of the program, students go on an annual field trip to explore the Cuyamaca campus and attend their identical ESL course taught by a college professor on the campus with mainstream college students.

Overall, this partnership demonstrates a rare and exemplary case where ELD and DE ESL integration, through much initial investment and close collaboration, could lead to consistent high school ELD outcomes but also introduce high school ELs in a rural area to college.

Read the complete Report, published online by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).

About Cuyamaca College

Cuyamaca College has been proudly serving the diverse community of East County since its opening in 1978. As a comprehensive educational institution, Cuyamaca College offers a wide range of opportunities for students through both transfer programs and career & technical education pathways. The college is deeply committed to social justice, ensuring that all students, regardless of background, have access to high-quality education and the resources they need to succeed. Offering 197 degrees and certificates, the college serves over 13,000 students annually, providing a student-centered approach to learning. Cuyamaca College delivers exceptional support services and is dedicated to ensuring students’ future success and long-term economic mobility through high transfer rates to universities and preparation for careers in their chosen fields.

About the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District (GCCCD)

The Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District (GCCCD) includes Grossmont and Cuyamaca colleges, which offer hundreds of degree and certificate programs, including Associate in Arts, Associate in Science, and Advanced/Basic Certificates. GCCCD is the largest provider of higher education and job training in East County, and is a top transfer pathway to San Diego State University. The colleges lead the way in developing educational programs, classes and services that meet the needs of the community of learners, and prepare students to meet changing community and workforce needs, while advancing social justice and economic mobility. Learn more and enroll at www.gcccd.edu/enroll.

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