Blog: Educate Maine Conference

Dual Enrollment Works Best When Systems Are Built Around Students

At the end of 2025, I had the opportunity to attend the Educate Maine Conference alongside several of my colleagues. Spending time with students, state leaders, educators, and workforce partners was both energizing and grounding. It reminded me that while policies, programs, and credits matter, real progress happens when systems are designed around the lived experiences of students.

That belief is at the heart of Let’s Get Ready’s work—and it’s why our partnership with the University of Maine System (UMS) Early College stands out as a model for what’s possible when dual enrollment is paired with intentional, human-centered support, at a statewide scale.

Turning Access Into Opportunity

Across the country, dual enrollment has expanded rapidly, opening doors for students to earn college credit while still in high school. But access alone is not enough. Without guidance, students can struggle to understand how credits apply, how to navigate transitions, or how to translate early momentum into long-term success.

In partnership with UMS Early College, Let’s Get Ready works to ensure that every Early College student has access to a trained near-peer coach—someone who has recently navigated postsecondary systems and can help students plan, persist, and move forward with confidence. To date, this collaboration has supported more than 8,100 students, and the impact continues to grow.

A Partnership Built for Systemic Impact

What makes University of Maine System Early College a national exemplar is not just its reach, but its systems-level approach. Under the leadership of Dr. Amy Hubbard and her team, UMS Early College has designed dual enrollment with clarity, collaboration, and outcomes in mind.

Their work reflects core principles we believe are essential for dual enrollment programs nationwide:

A focus on long-term outcomes. Dual enrollment is treated as a starting point—not a standalone achievement—with clear pathways to degrees and job-connected credentials.
Seamless, statewide collaboration. Institutions and partners work together to reduce fragmentation and ensure students experience continuity as they transition into postsecondary education.
Clear pathways and supportive policy. Students and counselors are empowered with transparent information about credit transfer and program alignment, reducing inequities and wasted effort.

This kind of system design creates the conditions for coaching to be most effective—and for students to thrive.

Why Human-Centered Support Matters

At Let’s Get Ready, we believe coaching is not an add-on. It is a core infrastructure that helps students navigate complex systems, build self-advocacy skills, and stay connected to their goals during moments of transition.

Near-peer coaches support students academically, logistically, and emotionally—helping them understand not just what steps to take, but why those steps matter. When embedded into dual enrollment programs, this human-centered approach strengthens persistence, improves equity, and increases the likelihood that early college momentum leads to completion.

Our partnership with UMS Early College demonstrates how deeply integrated supports—aligned with system goals and policy context—can drive meaningful, scalable change.

A Commitment to Deep Partnership and National Leadership

As dual enrollment continues to grow nationwide, states and systems are asking an important question: How do we ensure these opportunities actually lead to success at scale?

Let’s Get Ready is committed to being a trusted national partner in answering that question. We work side-by-side with states, systems, and institutions to design data-informed partnerships that are aligned with broader policy and pathways goals and to embed the proven LGR coaching model in the student journey. Our aim is not just to support individual students, but to help partners build more equitable, student-centered systems.

As the state works toward the statewide goal of 60% of Mainers holding a degree or credential of value by 2025, I am so proud that LGR is a small part of the ecosystem, and I am grateful to University of Maine System Early College, Educate Maine, and the many collaborators advancing this work alongside us.

Dual enrollment is driving these outcomes across the state, and when dual enrollment is designed with students at the center—and partnerships are built for systemic impact—access becomes opportunity, and opportunity becomes success.