Miranda Hayes didn't expect to graduate from high school, much less attend college. She faced extreme verbal bullying and demeaning comments from teachers when she got to high school in Pueblo, Colorado. Facing severe anxiety, Miranda was resigned to dropping out after her first year of high school. "School wasn't for me," she says.

Like many students, it wasn't that school wasn't for Miranda, it was that she needed to be connected with the right educational opportunity. For Miranda, that opportunity was the Gateway to College program at Pueblo Community College, where she received her high school diploma and went on to enroll as a full-time student studying web development and design. She earned a 4.0 GPA. Now she attends Colorado State University Pueblo, studying communications while working part time as a classroom tutor and office aid for Pueblo Community College's Gateway to College program.

The program at Pueblo Community College is part of Achieving the Dream's national Gateway to College network, which serves students who have dropped out of high school or are significantly off track to complete their high school education. Gateway has helped more than 10,000 students like Miranda complete their high school diplomas in college-based programs while simultaneously earning credits toward postsecondary credentials. Gateway to College offers valuable lessons about how we might reimagine the nation's dual-enrollment programs, which now enroll over 1.5 million students — but have the potential to serve significantly more students and better serve those who are racially minoritized and economically marginalized.

Research has consistently demonstrated significant benefits for dually enrolled students, including improved academic achievement in high school, increased likelihood of enrolling in college and better credit accumulation and college completion. Programs such as dual enrollment and early college could be an important tool for helping many more first-generation, economically marginalized and Black, Latinx and Indigenous students get on a pathway to college. But studies indicate serious equity gaps in access and participation for these programs.

Read the full article about higher education students struggling by Karen A. Stout and Nick Mathern at Higher Education Dive.