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. Offered with the nonprofit National Education Equity Lab, 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.
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 winter/spring 2025 and past course offerings.
From our launch in fall 2021 through fall 2024:
96 schools
across 19 states and Washington DC
Winter and spring 2025 courses
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.
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.
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.
Courses taught in previous years
Between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.: Race, Religion, and the Politics of Freedom
(Winter/spring 2023, 1 school; winter/spring 2024, 7 schools)
Introduction to Bioengineering
(Winter/spring 2023, 9 schools; winter/spring 2024, 3 schools)
Introduction to Computers
(Fall 2021, 16 schools; fall 2022, 15 schools; fall 2023, 12 schools; fall 2024, 18 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
(Spring 2022, 1 school; winter/spring 2023, 5 schools; winter/spring 2024, 6 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.
Our dual-credit programs in the news
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Spotlight on Varun Madan, undergraduate computer science student at Stanford Engineering
Varun Madan, a teaching fellow for CS 105: Introduction to Computers, shares what drew him to Stanford and what he finds rewarding about teaching and mentoring high schoolers. -
New Stanford courses in pipeline for high schools in low-income communities
Stanford Digital Education plans to double the number of courses it offers in Title I high schools by 2027. -
Stanford Digital Education creates AI curriculum for high schools
With support from high school teachers in New York and California, the program combines lesson plans, eventually to be available online, with the Google ‘AI Essentials’ course. -
Easing the ‘jump’ from high school to college: how teaching fellows support a Stanford course
Teaching fellows provide dynamic and empathetic guidance to high school students in Professor Lerone A. Martin's course, ‘Between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.’ -
How higher education can win back America
Michael Roth, Wesleyan's president, argues in the New York Times that universities can recover the public's good will by bringing opportunities to new groups of learners. -
Universities recognized for strengthening pathways to higher education from underserved high schools
Carnegie Corporation of New York and Ed Equity Lab hosted an event to thank partners for their leadership in expanding opportunities for students in under-resourced communities.
Contact us
Are you interested in collaborating with us, designing a course, serving as a teaching fellow, or bringing a Stanford course to your Title I (or Title I eligible) high school? Please reach out.
Priscilla Fiden, Associate Vice Provost and Chief of Staff
Stanford Digital Education
pfiden@stanford.edu
