In Wakulla County, more than a third of students participate in career dual enrollment, a program that lets them earn college credit and industry certifications before graduation, at no cost. In 15 Florida districts, no students do.
That gap is the subject of a new FCAN research paper, and the explanation isn’t the one you’d expect. It isn’t about which students want it.
Career dual enrollment lets Florida students in grades 6-12 take college-level, industry-aligned courses at no cost. Statewide participation has more than doubled since 2020, from about 3,000 students to nearly 6,600 last year. But growth alone doesn’t explain why some districts have built thriving programs and others have none.
To find out, FCAN interviewed district and postsecondary leaders in four of the state’s highest-participation districts: Wakulla, Washington, Orange and Taylor. They pointed to one thing: a district choosing to pay for staff whose only job was running the program.
Shelbi McCall, Director of Career and Technical Education, Adult Education and Big Bend Technical College in Taylor County, described the approach this way:
“We’re all invested in making sure our students know we’re invested in their future. We make it a point to talk to every student and help them see that college and career training are part of their path. There’s a real family feel here, and many of our students’ parents earned their credentials at Big Bend Technical College. They see firsthand how those credentials can lead to a career.”
Districts with participation in the double digits share a few things in common:
- A staff member whose sole job is coordinating CDE schedules across every high school and college involved
- Transportation that gets students to a technical college campus
- Partnerships that let a certificate count toward a future degree.
Districts without these report low-to-no participation, though not because their students lack interest. Alachua and Palm Beach, both at zero, still produced thousands of industry certifications last year through other programs.
CDE isn’t the only path to a postsecondary credential, and it shouldn’t be. But for students who want this pathway, whether it’s available to them right now depends more on their district than on them.
The full research paper breaks down five years of participation data, course success rates by career cluster and district-by-district numbers for all 67 counties.