Launch

The Program of Practice

Adult learners pursuing a high school diploma or GED often face significant barriers both in completing their secondary education and in transitioning to postsecondary education.

Adult learners often balance employment, family responsibilities, transportation challenges, and financial constraints while pursuing their educational goals. These competing demands can extend the time required to complete a high school diploma or GED and create additional barriers to enrolling in college after completion. Without intentional transition supports, many students delay or forgo postsecondary education altogether.

Many students are also unaware that California Senate Bill 554 allows adult education students to concurrently enroll in community college coursework, tuition-free, while completing their secondary education. As a result, students frequently miss opportunities to accelerate their educational progress, earn college credit at no cost, and build confidence as college students before completing their diploma or GED. Lack of awareness of these tuition-free opportunities can prevent students from taking advantage of a pathway designed to reduce both the financial and educational barriers associated with pursuing higher education.

Within our regional adult education programs, staff identified a need to increase awareness of SB 554 opportunities and create a more seamless pathway between adult education and college. Concurrent enrollment offers a unique solution by allowing college coursework to count toward both college credit and adult school completion requirements. This dual-credit approach enables students to make progress toward a high school diploma or GED while simultaneously earning college credit, reducing overall time to completion and accelerating entry into postsecondary education and career pathways.

The Launch Program was developed to address these challenges by increasing awareness of SB 554 opportunities, strengthening collaboration between adult education centers and Los Medanos College, and creating a structured transition pathway that allows adult learners to begin earning college credit while completing their high school diploma or GED. By accelerating educational progress, eliminating tuition costs for participating students, and reducing barriers to college access, the program helps students achieve their academic and career goals more efficiently.

The Response

The Launch Program is a collaborative transition initiative between Los Medanos College and regional adult education centers designed to connect adult learners directly to postsecondary education opportunities. Through the program, students enrolled in High School Diploma (HSD) and GED programs can concurrently enroll in Los Medanos College courses while completing their secondary education requirements.

The program was intentionally designed to reduce barriers, accelerate educational attainment, and increase student awareness of opportunities available through SB 554. Students receive information about concurrent enrollment, assistance with admissions and registration processes, and guidance in selecting appropriate college coursework aligned with their educational and career goals.

To expand awareness and participation, Launch utilizes a coordinated outreach strategy that includes informational flyers distributed through partner adult education centers, features in adult education course schedules mailed throughout the community, and promotion through the Los Medanos College 2025-2026 Community Report. These efforts have significantly increased visibility of the program and strengthened connections between adult education and higher education.

By allowing students to begin their college journey while still enrolled in adult education, Launch reduces the traditional gap between earning a diploma or GED and entering postsecondary education, creating a more efficient and supportive pathway to college and career success.

The Unique Features of the Program

The Launch Program is a dual-enrollment transition model designed specifically to bridge adult education and postsecondary education through California Senate Bill 554. Unlike traditional adult education structures that require students to complete a high school diploma or GED prior to entering college, Launch intentionally integrates college coursework into the adult education experience, allowing students to simultaneously earn high school completion credit and college credit. This dual-credit structure accelerates educational progress, reduces time to completion, and strengthens student momentum toward career and academic goals.

A defining feature of the program is its tuition-free concurrent enrollment model, which removes a significant financial barrier for adult learners. By enabling students to access college coursework at no cost while still enrolled in adult education programs, Launch expands equitable access to higher education for populations that have historically been underrepresented in college pathways.

The program is also distinguished by its intentional, multi-channel outreach and awareness strategy. Information about Launch is embedded in adult education center materials, distributed through flyers and mailed schedules, and highlighted in Los Medanos College publications such as the annual community report. This coordinated communication approach has proven essential in increasing awareness of SB 554 opportunities and driving sustained growth in participation over time.

Another key feature is the program’s shared-site dual enrollment infrastructure. Through College and Career Access Pathways (CCAP) agreements, Los Medanos College offers courses at regional alternative education high school sites that are also accessible to adult education students enrolled in GED or high school diploma programs. The college currently offers two CCAP courses through Antioch Adult Education and five CCAP courses through Pittsburg Adult Education in collaboration with alternative education high schools. This shared-site model reduces transportation and scheduling barriers while creating integrated access points that serve both alternative education and adult learners within the same instructional environments.

The Launch Program is also characterized by strong cross-system collaboration between Los Medanos College and regional adult education centers. This partnership-based structure ensures that adult learners receive consistent guidance, support, and encouragement from both adult education staff and college personnel, creating a more seamless transition into postsecondary education.

Finally, the Launch Program is highly replicable because it leverages existing institutional structures, including adult education partnerships, CCAP agreements, and SB 554 policy authorization. Rather than relying on new standalone infrastructure, the model builds on established relationships and systems, making it adaptable for other California Adult Education Program consortia seeking to strengthen transitions, increase college access, and accelerate student outcomes.

Together, these features position the Launch Program as a promising and scalable model for integrating adult education and community college systems to support equitable access, accelerated completion, and successful postsecondary transition.

The Outcome

Although the Launch Program is in the early stages of implementation, initial results demonstrate substantial and consistent growth in student participation and college credit attainment.

Since the program’s baseline term in Spring 2024, student participation has increased from 2 students to 23 students by Spring 2026, representing a 1,050% increase in enrollment. During the same period, completed college units increased from 6 units to 88 units, representing approximately a 1,367% increase in college credit attainment. These outcomes demonstrate that increased awareness of SB 554 opportunities, combined with intentional outreach and partnership efforts, is successfully connecting adult learners to postsecondary education pathways.

Term-by-term results show steady, sustained growth in participation and credit accumulation:

• Spring 2024: 2 students enrolled; 6 units completed
• Fall 2024: 7 students enrolled; 34 units completed
• Spring 2025: 12 students enrolled; 52 units completed
• Fall 2025: 14 students enrolled; 66 units completed
• Spring 2026: 23 students enrolled; 88 units completed

This progression reflects continuous term-to-term growth rather than a single-term increase, indicating that awareness, recruitment, and support structures have strengthened over time. The steady increase in enrollment suggests that adult learners are increasingly aware of tuition-free concurrent enrollment opportunities and are choosing to engage in college coursework while completing their high school diploma or GED.

Growth accelerated as outreach and marketing efforts were implemented and refined across terms, including informational flyers distributed through partner adult education centers, inclusion in adult education schedules mailed throughout the community, and promotion through the Los Medanos College 2025–2026 Community Report. These coordinated efforts contributed to increased visibility of the program and stronger connections between adult education and community college systems.

In addition to quantitative outcomes, student success stories highlight the program’s impact on confidence, persistence, and educational advancement.

One adult learner, while working toward a high school diploma and raising two children as a single parent, successfully enrolled in English 100 at Los Medanos College. The student described reaching college-level coursework as a significant milestone that demonstrated resilience, perseverance, and the ability to overcome personal and academic challenges.

Another student returned to school after more than thirty years away from formal education while balancing family responsibilities and recovering from health challenges. Through the transition pathway, the student enrolled in a Los Medanos College English course and earned an A grade, exceeding personal expectations and building confidence to continue taking college coursework. The student credited the opportunity to take college classes while completing a high school diploma as a key factor in pursuing further education.

While regional adult education programs provide strong instructional offerings, publicly available student transition testimonials are limited. The Launch Program helps address this gap by creating visible, structured pathways and documenting student progression into college coursework.

The program’s transition specialist reports that students completing Los Medanos College courses while enrolled in High School Diploma and GED programs earn both college credit and accelerated progress toward adult school completion requirements, creating a dual benefit that supports persistence and educational advancement.

These early outcomes demonstrate that the Launch Program is successfully increasing awareness and utilization of SB 554 opportunities, expanding access to tuition-free college coursework for adult learners, accelerating progress toward high school completion, and creating a scalable model that supports educational transitions, student confidence, and long-term academic success.

The Launch Program advances multiple CAEP objectives by increasing educational access, accelerating high school completion, promoting postsecondary transition, supporting career pathway entry, and strengthening collaboration between adult education and community college partners.