Cohort Results
2026 DESSE Respondents
The 2026 DESSE cohort results represent the aggregate responses of dual enrollment students from participating colleges across the country.
The 2026 cohort data set includes 58 institutions from 12 states and 16,702 student respondents.
Use the interactive dashboard to explore students’ experiences with dual enrollment, including how they learned about dual enrollment, how they got started, their academic and student support experiences, their engagement with instructors and coursework, their sense of belonging, and their educational and career goals.
The DESSE dashboards include four views
Executive
The Executive dashboard provides a high-level overview of selected DESSE findings, including students’ overall experiences, plans after high school, outreach and connection experiences, student support experiences, and academic support experiences.
Focus Areas
The Focus Areas dashboard allows users to examine results across 15 areas of the dual enrollment student experience:
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Demographic Comparisons
The Demographic Comparisons dashboard allows users to compare responses for selected groups of students. Available comparison categories include gender, race and ethnicity, first-generation status, eligibility for free or reduced-price meals, early-college high school status, and current grade.
Aggregate Demographics
The Aggregate Demographics dashboard provides an overview of the students who responded to the DESSE survey, including counts and percentages across key demographic characteristics.
The demographic summary cards at the top display the most frequently reported response for each of the six demographic characteristics used as filters throughout the dashboards, providing a quick snapshot of the respondent population.
Below the demographic summary cards, unweighted and weighted frequency tables provide the full distribution of responses for each demographic characteristic.
Navigating the Dashboards
Use the dashboard controls to:
- Move among the Executive, Focus Areas, and Demographic Comparisons, and Aggregate Demographics views
- Select a DESSE focus area
- Filter results by available student characteristics
- Review the number and percentage of students selecting each response option
See Understanding Survey Results for information about the respondents included in results, weighting, student-level comparison definitions, and other guidance for interpreting DESSE findings.
