What if one dual enrollment course could bring hundreds of new students to your college?

Turn California’s Personal Finance Mandate into a Dual Enrollment Opportunity

Beginning in Fall 2027, California high schools will begin implementing the new Personal Finance graduation requirement mandated by AB 2927. Unlike most dual enrollment courses, Personal Finance isn’t an elective for only a segment of students.

Every student will need to take Personal Finance.

That creates a unique opportunity for California community colleges to help their high school partners meet a new state graduation requirement while potentially bringing hundreds—or thousands—of students into your college through dual enrollment.

Consider the potential
1 High School
5 High Schools
300
potential dual enrollment students
1,500
potential dual enrollment students

And these aren’t simply prospective students. They become enrolled college students earning college credit—and establishing a relationship with your college before graduating from high school.

Calculate the enrollment opportunity for my college →

How can we scale dual enrollment to accommodate ALL students?

The traditional question
How many sections can our college faculty possibly teach?
The scalable question
How many of our high school partners could offer this course?

Structure the college course so that qualified high school teachers can become approved dual enrollment instructors and teach the course as part of the regular high school schedule. This creates the potential for an equitable dual enrollment model that reaches all students—not simply the students who traditionally participate in dual enrollment.

Show me how the all-student model works →

A–G Approved!

Another major barrier already addressed

Lifestyle Math has already received A–G approval as a Personal Finance course, so an important model already exists to help other California high schools work through the approval process.

Your college

Expands dual enrollment access across your partner high schools with a scalable course that can reach more students without adding complexity.

Partner high schools

Give students a course that does more: Meets California’s Personal Finance requirement, provides early college credit, and helps students build a stronger foundation for college success.

Beyond financial literacy

Why not use the required Personal Finance course to accomplish more?

Lifestyle Math integrates:

Personal
Finance
+
Career
Exploration
+
Educational
Planning

Students begin with a question that makes financial literacy immediately relevant:

“What will the life I want actually cost?”

As students learn essential financial concepts, they research the real-world costs of the adult lifestyle they envision. From that work, each student calculates a personal Lifestyle Number—the income they’ll need to support the life they want—and use that number as the starting point for more effective career exploration and educational planning.

01Calculate a personal Lifestyle Number.
02Explore careers that interest me.
03What do those careers pay? Will they support the life I want?
04What education, credential, or training will I need?
05What will that education cost—and how will I pay for it?

The required Personal Finance course helps students see the connection between the choices they make today and the life they want tomorrow. As they plan for the careers they want, they also discover why postsecondary education and training can be an important step toward making that life possible.

Why Lifestyle Math is different →

ONE COURSE. MULTIPLE INSTITUTIONAL PRIORITIES.

A Lifestyle Math dual enrollment initiative can help your college:

Increase enrollment

A high school graduation requirement creates the potential for enrolling substantial numbers of students through one course.

Scale dual enrollment

Qualified high school instructors can teach the course, eliminating the need for the college to staff every high school section.

Expand equity & access

Bring college credit to students who may never have considered—or had access to—dual enrollment.

Build your enrollment pipeline

Students begin their relationship with your college before high school graduation.

Strengthen high school partnerships

Help your partner districts solve an immediate and approaching curriculum need.

Support college & career readiness

Students discover the connection between the life they want, the career that can support it, and the education needed to get there.

INCREASED FUNDING

Expanded dual enrollment can also generate additional FTES and potential state apportionment.

A California College Is Building the Model

Using Lifestyle Math, a California community college is developing a dual enrollment Personal Finance course option for its high school partners.

Academic Innovations is documenting the process so other California community colleges don’t have to start from scratch.

The emerging model addresses the practical questions that determine whether this can actually work at scale:

Where should the course reside academically?
Who can qualify to teach it?
How can high school teachers become approved dual enrollment instructors?
How does it fit within dual enrollment/CCAP?
How does the course address the state Personal Finance graduation requirement?
How does A–G approval support high school adoption?
How can the program expand from one high school to an entire service area?

ONE REQUIRED COURSE. HUNDREDS OF STUDENTS. A PIPELINE FOR GROWTH.

Could This Model Work at Your College?

You don’t have to build the model from scratch—and you don’t have to commit to anything to explore the opportunity.

01How many high schools does your college serve?
02How many students in those high schools will need Personal Finance every year?
03What if those students could earn college credit through your institution?

We can help you calculate the potential enrollment opportunity and explore how a scalable Lifestyle Math dual enrollment model could work with your high school partners.

Calculate the enrollment opportunity for my college →

Want to explore first?

Links to learn more about how your college can turn California’s Personal Finance graduation requirement into a dual enrollment opportunity—for ALL students.

Academic Innovations LLC

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