Adaptable materials drive career learning
As dual enrollment continues to grow nationwide, policymakers and practitioners are asking important questions about quality. How can states ensure that students are academically prepared? How can programs be aligned across institutions? How can pathways better connect to college completion, workforce readiness, and economic opportunity?
This month, the #GoOpen National Network, ISKME, and the College in High School Alliance released the report: State Policy Guidance: A Roadmap to Strengthen Dual Enrollment Through Alignment, Affordability, and Open Educational Resources. The guidance offers eight practical policy recommendations to help states strengthen dual enrollment through affordability, alignment, and open educational resources.
The recent Beyond Rigor report from the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP) advances this conversation by encouraging states to think beyond course-level rigor and focus more intentionally on readiness, relevance, and system-level quality. The report highlights the importance of strong partnerships, student supports, alignment, and coherent pathways. These are critical priorities for the future of dual enrollment.
Yet one aspect of implementation often receives less attention: instructional materials.
For students and families, participation costs do not end with tuition. Textbooks, digital platforms, courseware subscriptions, access codes, and supplemental materials can create significant barriers. For educators and institutions, instructional materials influence far more than affordability. They affect curriculum alignment, accessibility, transferability, faculty adoption, and the ability to connect learning experiences to local workforce and community needs.
This is why GoOpen’s new dual enrollment recommendations begin with a focus on hidden costs and instructional materials. Instructional resources should be viewed as part of the infrastructure that supports high-quality dual enrollment programs. When materials are expensive, difficult to adapt, or disconnected from pathway goals, implementation becomes more challenging. Conversely, when resources are affordable, accessible, and adaptable, they can strengthen coherence across systems and expand opportunities for students.
Adaptable instructional materials are particularly important as states increasingly emphasize career-connected learning, workforce readiness, and learner mobility. Programs need the flexibility to align content with local labor market needs, emerging technologies, and evolving credential pathways. Educators need resources they can customize for different student populations and learning contexts. Students need equitable access to the materials required to succeed.
The goal is not simply to reduce costs, although affordability remains an important outcome. The larger opportunity is to recognize instructional materials as a strategic lever for quality. Just as states are working to strengthen policies related to advising, transfer, and program design, they can also consider how instructional materials policies support access, alignment, and implementation.
As the field continues to build on the important work outlined in Beyond Rigor, GoOpen’s recommendations offer a complementary perspective: strengthening dual enrollment quality requires attention not only to pathways and partnerships, but also to the instructional infrastructure that makes those pathways work in practice. When states move beyond textbooks and address instructional materials as part of a coherent policy strategy, they create stronger conditions for rigor, readiness, relevance—and ultimately, student success.
Read the guidance. Explore the eight recommendations and consider how they can advance student success in your setting.