Stanford courses for under-resourced high schools

Since September 2021, Stanford Digital Education has pioneered a dual-credit course program in which students from high schools in low-income communities can earn Stanford credits, as well as credits from their high schools. The courses give students unique learning opportunities to master Stanford’s college-level material that was previously unavailable in high schools. The experience not only provides students with new subject matter but also boosts their confidence that they could thrive at Stanford and other selective colleges and universities. Most courses are offered in collaboration with the nonprofit National Education Opportunity Network, formerly the National Education Equity Lab.

Our dual-credit model is based in the high school classroom with a teacher, who leads the course in tandem with at least one Stanford teaching fellow. Students watch lectures from a Stanford faculty member asynchronously and engage in the same assignments as students in schools nationwide. They can also attend weekly office hours with teaching fellows via Zoom. The courses offer college-level rigor — covering the same material being taken by Stanford undergraduates — with the extra scaffolding needed by high school students.

View current (fall 2025) and past course offerings.

From our launch in fall 2021 through winter/spring 2025:

Fall 2025 courses

Black Life, Culture, and the Emergence of the Field from Emancipation to the Present

Instructor: Kimberly Thomas McNair, lecturer in African and African American Studies. This course introduces students to the intellectual history of African American Studies as a field of study — its genealogy, development, major debates, and global context. Texts include the writings of W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and James Baldwin, and others, as well as film, music, and new media. The course is offered in collaboration with the National Education Opportunity Network.

CS105: Introduction to Computers (limited run)

Instructor: Patrick Young, lecturer in computer science. Students gain an in-depth understanding of how the internet and computers work. They receive an introduction to CSS and HTML, gain practical skills in website design, and explore computer security, privacy, and the Internet of Things. The course is offered in collaboration with the National Education Opportunity Network.

Courses taught in previous years

All courses were offered in collaboration with the National Education Equity Lab (now the National Education Opportunity Network).

Between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.: Race, Religion, and the Politics of Freedom 

Instructor: Lerone A. Martin, professor of religious studies and director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. Students learn about the political and spiritual lives of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, to explore how they serve as important religious, political, and intellectual models for imagining the past and the present. 

(Winter/spring 2023, 1 school; winter/spring 2024, 7 schools; winter/spring 2025, 9 schools)

CS 105: Introduction to Computers

(Fall 2021, 16 schools; fall 2022, 15 schools; fall 2023, 12 schools; fall 2024, 18 schools)

Instructor: Patrick Young, lecturer in computer science. Students gain an in-depth understanding of how the internet and computers work. They receive an introduction to CSS and HTML, gain practical skills in website design, and explore computer security, privacy, and the Internet of Things. 

Introduction to Bioengineering 

Instructors: Drew Endy, associate professor of bioengineering, and Jenn Brophy, assistant professor of bioengineering. This course aims to give students a working understanding of how to approach the engineering of living systems to benefit all people and the planet. Find a sample syllabus and course materials on the Introduction to Bioengineering course website. 

(Winter/spring 2023, 9 schools; winter/spring 2024, 3 schools; winter/spring 2025, 10 schools)

Raise Your Voice: Learn to Write Successfully for College and Beyond

(Spring 2022, 8 schools; winter/spring 2023, 5 schools)

Searching Together for the Common Good

Instructor: Greg Watkins, lecturer and resident fellow. Through texts ranging from the writings of Confucius and Sophocles to Spike Lee’s film Do the Right Thing, this ethics course brings students into conversation with moral philosophers seeking to describe the common good. For more details, see the Searching Together for the Common Good course page. 

(Spring 2022, 1 school; winter/spring 2023, 5 schools; winter/spring 2024, 6 schools; winter/spring 2025, 10 schools.)

How Stanford teaching fellows contribute

Teaching fellows, also known as section leaders, play a critical role in Stanford’s National Education Equity Lab courses. Watch the videos below to learn how Marina Limon (section leader coordinator for Between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.: Race, Religion, and the Politics of Freedom) and Star Doby, Terrell Ibanez, and Julia Wang (teaching fellows/section leaders for Introduction to Computers) approach their work. 

You can also read teaching fellow Dasia Moore's reflections on teaching a section of the writing course Raise Your Voice, section leader Brian Sha in the Stanford Daily on challenges faced by students in his Introduction to Computers class, and an article about alumni supporting students in the same course.

Learn more about the teaching fellow role

Contact us

If you are interested in learning more about this program, please reach out.

Priscilla Fiden, Associate Vice Provost and Chief of Staff
Stanford Digital Education
pfiden@stanford.edu

We are pleased to be working with the National Education Opportunity Network