Call for Proposals

2026 Conference Tracks

We invite proposals that align with our conference tracks, each designed to highlight a critical aspect of dual enrollment:

🎓 Accredited Program Practices

This track focuses on implementing and sustaining high-quality dual enrollment programs. Sessions highlight practices aligned with NACEP standards, accreditation processes, and approaches that ensure consistency, rigor, and continuous improvement across partnerships and delivery models. Note: This track is open to proposals from NACEP-accredited programs or programs actively pursuing accreditation.

🧭 Student Support & Advising  

This track explores how programs recruit, orient, advise, and support students throughout the dual enrollment experience. Sessions focus on student-centered practices that help students navigate college expectations, persist through coursework, and make informed academic decisions.

🔗College, Career & Workforce Connections

This track focuses on how dual enrollment connects secondary education, postsecondary pathways, and workforce preparation through intentional collaboration. Proposals highlight practical approaches to pathway design, partnerships with industry, and strategies that help students translate dual enrollment experiences into meaningful college and career outcomes.

🏛️Policy & Systems

This track seeks sessions that examine state, federal, system, and institutional-level policies that shape program structure, function, sustainability, and impact at scale in the nation. Proposals typically focus on topics such as statewide policy alignment, funding models, legislative advocacy, and policy implementation strategies, providing insights into how policy decisions influence program success.

📊 Research, Data & Evaluation

This track highlights research, data use, and evaluation strategies that help institutions understand program impact and strengthen practice. Sessions explore how evidence is used to assess outcomes, inform policy, and support continuous improvement in dual enrollment programs.

⚙️Program Operations & Innovation

This track covers the operational logistics of building and managing dual enrollment programs. Proposals often focus on staffing, funding, workflows, partnerships, technology, and innovative practices that support effective program management and adaptation.

🏫Secondary Leadership & Practice

This track elevates the role of secondary partners in delivering dual enrollment. Sessions highlight practical strategies, implementation experiences, and collaboration from K–12 perspectives that support students and strengthen partnerships. Note: This track is open to proposals from secondary staff and leadership. Proposals are reviewed by a jury of K–12 practitioners.

🌟Access, Outcomes & The Student Experience  

This track focuses on how dual enrollment programs translate access into meaningful outcomes through the student experience. Sessions highlight equity-focused practices that shape students’ academic journeys, reduce barriers, support completion, and improve academic and postsecondary success. Topics may include program design choices, affordability, placement and readiness practices, and structures that influence who participates and how students experience and benefit from dual enrollment.

We are looking for sessions that share one of the unique aspects of your program and go beyond just a program description

A successful session proposal will:

• Support NACEP’s Mission and Vision
• Share demonstrated best practices and/or new and emerging practices in research, policy, program design, advising, quality assurance, and equity-focused work.
• Include ways to engage session attendees
• Incorporate concrete steps for action or tangible takeaways for attendees
• Energize attendees to implement new practices that overcome specific challenges
• Clarity on the problem, issue, or approach that motivated your submission of a proposal (essentially, what is the problem you are trying to solve or help attendees solve)
• Modality of your program and applicability of the concepts shared to different program types prevalent in the nation, 
• identifying a unique aspect of your approach that adds to the conversation about national best practice (particularly if it is a common challenge for the field)
• Tips and tools to address common challenges that attendees can implement within their program or partnership, and/or 
• Results/outcomes/scale data that shows the impact of what you are sharing in your session.
• Complete every field. It is difficult to assess some proposal content due to missing information. Track, program mode, and audience are all very important to identifying content that meets the needs of our community and attendees.
• Select that you are willing to prerecord your session. Our final breakout offerings seek to be valuable to every attendee, whether they are in-person or online. Pre-recoding a session is not considered in initial proposal scoring but can be a factor in selecting sessions for the final event program.

• Sessions will take place on Monday, October 19, and Tuesday, October 20, 2026.
• Breakout Sessions will be 45 minutes in length.
• Breakout Sessions are intended for an audience of approximately 50-100 people, with no more than three speakers. These informative sessions make up the core of conference offerings.
• Presenters must register for the conference.