First Lady Dr. Jill Biden said North Carolina is a leader when it comes to providing opportunities for students to earn college credit and connect to careers while still in high school. 

Dr. Biden visited North Carolina April 15 to discuss innovative learning programs, like dual enrollment, that are bridging gaps between the classroom and careers.

The visit is part of President Biden’s .

In his , the president allocated $7.2 billion to establish or expand programs that would allow students to earn postsecondary credits through career-connected dual enrollment while still in high school. 

According to a statement from the Office of the First Lady, “The funds would be provided as matching dollars to states to initiate or expand efforts to spur greater enrollment in dual enrollment programs.”

The First Lady’s North Carolina visit included a stop at where she met with educators and students to learn about the college’s dual enrollment efforts. Following the briefing, Dr. Biden visited Pitt’s biotechnology lab and automotive bay and heard from high school students working toward postsecondary credentials.

Dr. Biden then visited alongside Gov. Roy Cooper.

Before welcoming the First Lady to the podium, Gov. Cooper explained how the state’s dual enrollment program,  (CCP), is a tool to help high school students fast track their education and career goals. “That’s why we’re all here today,” Dr Biden said. “North Carolina has been a leader in providing those (dual enrollment) opportunities and is exemplary in transforming high school into a place that prepares students for jobs.” 

More than across North Carolina participated in CCP during the 2022-23 academic year. 

A showed dual enrollment was up 12% from the previous year. The most notable increase was across the Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathway – jumping 21% from the last academic year. The CTE pathway is often aligned with high-skill and high-demand jobs, providing opportunities for students to learn a variety of academic and technical skills.

After her remarks, Dr. Biden and Gov. Cooper joined a panel of educators and dually enrolled high school students from three North Carolina community colleges to discuss their experiences with CCP. 

Panelists highlighted how CCP is a chance to identify career interests and begin earning college credit that will help them in a future job. The four students on the panel are taking college courses aligned with various careers, including EMT certification, business administration, electrical engineering, manufacturing, and computer science.

The students said CCP has given them opportunities to explore careers and the confidence that they could succeed in a college setting.  

“I can be successful in these types of environments,” said Giovanni Robinson, a dually-enrolled student at GTCC. 

As for connecting students to careers, community colleges are doubling down on their efforts to support students by providing opportunities to become pre-apprentices.

and , both represented on the panel, are among many of the state’s community colleges that are coordinating CCP in ways that meet the needs of industry in their communities. 

is one example of cross-sector partnerships that bring together K-12 districts, community colleges, and employers. It’s an approach that leverages dual enrollment and the state’s apprenticeship program to carve out pathways for students to earn college credit, income, and skilled training. 

In her closing remarks, panel moderator Amy Loyd, assistant secretary for the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education at the U.S. Department of Education, thanked the audience and expressed gratitude for the chance to learn from the state. 

“We really are delighted to learn from North Carolina and lift up the great work of your great state as a model and exemplar for all of our country to learn from as we’re thinking about how we create career pathways for all young people,” Loyd said.

North Carolina’s Career and College Promise explained

Career and College Promise (CCP) is a dual enrollment program that allows high school students to take college courses tuition-free in North Carolina. 

CCP includes three pathways: college transfer, career and technical education (CTE), and Cooperative Innovative High Schools (CIHS), which include early colleges. The pathways are structured and provide students opportunities to earn credits that often lead to certificates and associate degrees.  

The state has long been a leader in dual enrollment programs — dating back over 30 years when the first iteration of the program launched.

When CCP was , it was done in such a way that students could earn a credential in less time than would normally be required. And regardless of their path – obtaining a degree, earning college transfer credits, or pursuing a credential to transition to the workforce – students would save time and money, both of which are linked to an increased . 

Research has consistently found that Career and College Promise benefits students, parents, and North Carolina as a whole.

A showed students who participated in CCP had higher high school graduation rates and higher postsecondary enrollment rates than those who did not. The study compared CCP students to a similar group of students who did not participate in CCP over seven years.

Students in college transfer or CTE pathways were 9% more likely to enroll in a North Carolina public college after high school. CIHS students were 27% more likely to enroll in a North Carolina public college after graduating.

The study also found that economically disadvantaged students and those from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups benefited most from CCP. You can read more about CCP below.

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A group of Hunter High School students and educators welcomed first lady Jill Biden in a visit to the school, part of her whirlwind trip to Utah on Tuesday.

The majority of Hunter High students were dismissed in the afternoon, but some, including choir group The Madrigals and student council members, stayed to perform or to shake the first lady’s hand, sporting school T-shirts and jackets.

At the high school, Jill Biden, who is also a teacher, highlighted educator wellness in one of Utah’s most diverse areas, in front of 140 Hunter High employees in the school’s commons. Posters with teacher appreciation messages decorated the walls.

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In a quick visit to the Beehive State, Biden visited Hunter High School in West Valley City with Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General, and Abby Cox, Utah’s first lady. She was also scheduled to attend .

“Today first lady Cox and I are here to tell you that you are not alone,” Biden said, “that we understand, that we are working to honor this profession to give you the support that you deserve.”

Sometimes it feels like the weight to educate people across the country “is too heavy to carry,” Biden said, especially after the pandemic as students have needed support for more issues in addition to academic performance.

She praised the president’s initiatives to address mental health and academic needs of students, including passing a bipartisan gun safety law and a student loans forgiveness program.

“But he can’t do this alone. And here in Utah, he doesn’t have to, thanks to the work of your governor and your first lady,” Jill Biden said, adding that Utah has taken “a big step” to ensure that teachers are properly compensated.

Jill Biden also highlighted the work of Utah’s first lady, Abby Cox, also an educator, to address exhaustion and burnout among teachers and school staff.

Educator wellness is one of Cox’s . As some educators in Hunter work with children in the foster care system and those with intellectual disabilities, the state is working with these communities to ensure their success.

“Dr. Biden and I have this passion for educators in common. She has been an advocate for teachers for as long as she’s been a teacher, and it’s been a long time,” Cox said. “So I love this opportunity that she and I have to come together in a shared purpose and a shared goal of uplifting our educators making sure that you have the tools and resources that you need to be successful.”

Biden touched down on a cold Salt Lake City day and hurried to her motorcade Tuesday afternoon. She arrived an hour later than scheduled, a delay she later attributed to an inch of snow in Washington D.C., a fact she could laugh at in Utah.

Biden was greeted by first lady Abby Cox and her 17-year-old daughter, Emma Kate. Temperatures at the private hangar off Salt Lake City International Airport hovered around freezing at Biden’s arrival, attended by local media.

Following her visit to Hunter High School, the first lady was scheduled to attend fundraising events in Park City.

“It’s super special that we were chosen,” Jordan Martinsen, an English teacher at Hunter High, said during the school event. “(The fact) that she’s a teacher herself makes it a more genuine message because she’s kind of been there and done that.”

While she was receptive to the message, she’s still waiting for more action from the state to address educators’ wellness, she said.

“I love this school, and I love this district. So I’m not going anywhere,” she said. “They talked about a lot of really nice, lovely things. Sometimes that’s not the day-to-day reality, but I did like the message and I think it’s nice to be reminded that there’s people on your side.”

Parallel to West Valley City, which according to the is a minority-majority community, Hunter High’s school body is predominantly composed of students of color, which make up 66% of its population – 50% of them are Hispanic – according to 2022 data.

About 48% of students were also reported to be economically disadvantaged, according to the Granite School District.

“Compensation is a part of meeting teachers’ needs, but it’s also about instructional support,” Granite School District superintendent Rich K. Nye said on Tuesday. “What does it look like to have, say, a literacy paraprofessional in the room, or an interventionist in the room, or a school psychologist, or licensed clinical social worker to be able to meet the needs of the students?”

The district has grown its mental health resources available for teachers through insurance plans or its own wellness clinics, Nye said.

The district has also prioritized strategies to address teachers’ retention concerns, prioritizing the recruitment of educational support professionals, and taking into account their interests and that they represent the communities’ demographics.

Biden, according to her , has championed different educational initiatives to open up more opportunities to all students, such as universal preschool and more affordable higher education chances, including free community college.

In her , Biden walked through Glendale Middle School, located on Salt Lake City’s west side and also known for its, where she met with students and spoke about her commitment to raise teachers’ compensations and recruit more staff of color.

The first lady was set to depart Utah Tuesday night for San Francisco, where she’s scheduled for additional fundraising events for the Biden Victory Fund and other community meetings. Jill Biden will visit San Francisco and Healdsburg in California, in addition to Columbus, Ohio.

McKenzie Romero contributed to this report.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Utah News Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor McKenzie Romero for questions: info@utahnewsdispatch.com. Follow Utah News Dispatch on and .

Some of these children also struggled with a language barrier — as did their parents — making the switch to remote learning even tougher, according to UnidosUS, the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, which released the study July 11 at its conference in San Antonio. 

“This report comes at a pivotal time as our schools and communities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, which disproportionately impacted Latino students and their families,” UnidosUS president and CEO Janet Murguía says in the foreword. “We cannot allow hard won educational gains to be reversed, yet we also know that the pre-pandemic status quo was not working as well as it should.” 

Latinos make up a formidable percentage of the K-12 population, growing from 9% in 1984 to 28% today. Some 94% of those under 18 are U.S.-born citizens and nearly three quarters are of Mexican descent. Despite stringent and sometimes hostile U.S. immigration policies, their numbers are increasing: Latinos are expected to hit 30% of the K-12 population by 2030. 

First Lady Jill Biden, who spoke at the conference Monday, said the White House stands in support of the Latino community. She touched upon the gun safety laws brought about by the tragic shootings in nearby Uvalde, the diversity of the Latino population as a whole and the goals that unite this group. 

“Yes, the Latino community is unique,” she said. “But what I’ve heard from you again and again is that you want what all families want. Good schools. Good jobs. Safe neighborhoods. You want justice and equality—the opportunity to build a better life for your families. It’s not only what all families want; it’s what all families deserve.”

Latino students have made substantial gains in recent decades on the education front, UnidosUS notes. Their on-time high school graduation rate increased from 71% in the 2010-11 school year to nearly 82% in 2018-19, an all-time high. Likewise, the number of Hispanic students enrolled in postsecondary programs jumped from 782,400 in 1990 to nearly 3.8 million in 2019, a 384% increase.

But both of these figures took a hit in recent years: The on-time Latino high school graduation rate dropped by .7% from 2020 to 2021, according to a data analysis from 25 states representing 57% of the student population. Even more troubling, Latino freshman enrollment in college shrunk by 7.8% in spring 2021 compared to the year before, marking the first such decline in a decade: The figure rebounded by 4% by the spring 2022 semester, UnidosUS found, but it remained below pre-pandemic levels. 

The trend is in keeping with that of the overall college population, which is down by more than 1.4 million undergraduates.

Not all academic indicators are available and many poor students were not tested during the height of COVID, but at least one critical test shows a lag: Latino students in 3rd through 8th grade saw greater declines than their non-Latino white peers on NWEA’s Measures of Academic Progress, an interim assessment administered in schools across the country.

But, UnidosUS writes in its report, the loss needs to be put in context. Latino students were more likely to attend high-poverty schools that participated in remote instruction for a longer period of time, often yielding a greater rate of learning loss for students, the organization found.

UnidosUS recommends improved data collection and analysis meant to identify academic weaknesses and improve results. It implores districts to honor student’s rights to their education — some schools have been sued for failing to enroll immigrant students whom they feel will not graduate on time — and include the voices of students and their families in shaping education policies and services. 

It also calls for a major increase in funding, a “bold and historical investment in Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act,” the federal formula grant program intended to support English learners by increasing funding from $831 million to $2 billion. 

“Since 2001, the population of English learners has increased by 35%,” the report notes. “However, Title III funding has not kept pace. When adjusted for inflation, funding has decreased by 24% since 2002.”

The group found Latino students are more likely than their peers to attend a low-rated school and to have a novice teacher. These children also have limited exposure to educators who look like them — just 9% of teachers are Latino — which is an important factor in student success. 

And language access remains a challenge: More than three quarters of the nation’s 5.1 million English language learners are Latino and a similar percentage speak Spanish at home.

Research shows students learning English typically make academic gains at rates similar to or higher than their peers, the study notes, but experience greater learning loss in the summer months when they are not in the classroom. The pandemic, which sent the nation’s entire school population home for months at a time, worsened this slide for Latino children, who were disconnected from their teachers and the technology their schools offered. Just two years prior to the pandemic, data shows nearly a third of Latino households lacked high-speed broadband internet and 17% did not have a computer in the home.

Despite many schools’ efforts to place a device in the hands of every child, Latinos remain at a disadvantage. Two years into the pandemic, 1 in 3 often or sometimes faced one of the following problems: They had to complete their homework on a cell phone, were unable to turn in their assignments because they lacked computer or internet access, or were forced to use public Wi-Fi to complete at-home work, UnidosUS reported.

And their lack of connectivity wasn’t the only problem, the group found: 50% of Latino parents reported having difficulty helping their kids with unfamiliar coursework and 58% had problems communicating with teachers, possibly because of a language barrier and schools’ failure to employ translators.