What happens when you remove every barrier: lessons from Ray Unified School District

Like most rural districts, it runs lean. And yet, Ray Unified is offering its high school students college-level courses taught by Arizona State University faculty, at no upfront cost to families and with no GPA or application requirements. Students in music, pre-nursing and architecture tracks are earning widely transferable college credits while still in high school.

That did not happen by accident.

The access gap Pinal County knows well

“Pinal County sits directly south of Maricopa County, in close proximity to ASU, yet many communities within the county face persistent access gaps when it comes to college credit opportunities,” said Audrey Moreno, senior director of Accelerate ASU. “It is a rapidly growing region with diverse student populations, including many first-generation college-bound students.”

Traditional dual enrollment models compound that gap and typically requires a community college nearby with credentialed teachers on staff and enough students to fill a section. When those conditions are not met, dual enrollment becomes something that exists for other schools, in other zip codes. Research shows what is at stake: dual enrollment students are twice as likely to enroll in college as their matched non-dual enrollment peers and 40% more likely to complete a degree within six years.

How Accelerate ASU made it workable

Accelerate ASU delivers Universal Learner Courses (ULCs), college-level courses designed and taught by ASU faculty, directly through partner schools. Districts do not need to hire or credential new instructors and there are no enrollment minimums. These dual enrollment courses run online, fitting into the school’s existing schedule rather than requiring a new one.

For students, the transcript risk is removed entirely. Students can attempt college coursework with confidence. If they earn an A, B or C, they have the option to add the course to their official ASU transcript. 

For Ray Unified, this meant the district could offer dual enrollment across multiple subject areas without adding headcount, renegotiating schedules or asking families to pay before their student had a result in hand.

From idea to implementation

Accelerate ASU’s expansion into Pinal County was supported by a partnership with the Ellis Center for Educational Excellence at the Arizona Community Foundation, which helped bring multiple schools into the program at the same time rather than building district by district.

“A philanthropic partnership with ACF created the conditions for innovation,” Moreno said. “It allowed us to move from idea to implementation in a thoughtful, supported way.”

Accelerate ASU courses are affordably priced, and schools set their own policies on whether to cover that cost, pass it to families or pursue outside funding. The model is designed to work within a normal district budget. Philanthropic support, when available, can help a district move faster or reach more schools at once.

What this looks like at scale

Ray Unified’s five-year goal is for 75% of its students to participate in dual enrollment. Not as an honors track but rather as a standard part of high school.

That kind of culture shift is exactly what Accelerate ASU is designed to support. When students complete college coursework in high school they arrive on campus with momentum, with proof of their own capability and, in many cases, with credits already banked. For first-generation college-bound students, that head start can be the difference between enrolling and hesitating.

For districts facing the same constraints as Ray Unified, the practical lesson is clear. The barriers to dual enrollment are real but they are not fixed. A model that removes credentialing requirements, upfront costs and enrollment minimums changes what is possible, even in the most resource-constrained communities.

Ray Unified is still early in that journey. But students in Kearny are already completing college coursework, building confidence and arriving at the question of what comes next with more options than they had before.

That is what expanded access looks like in practice.

The full story, including the students behind these numbers, is told in “A Pathway to What Comes Next” at the Arizona Community Foundation newsroom. 

To explore what this looks like for your students or school, visit accelerate.asu.edu.