The number of students in the United States who did not complete high school decreased by 27% from 2008 to 2012 (Alliance for Excellent Education, America's Promise Alliance, Civic Enterprises, & The Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, 2015). This is a positive trend. High schools can help students complete school and…

Too often school leaders, teachers and counselors invest their energies into preparing students for college. In today's society, that's not enough. Students must be prepared for multiple options after high school including gainful employment. This newsletter looks at ways schools can ensure more students are college and career-ready by creating…

Community colleges have been engaged for the last sixty years in providing open access to public higher education to anyone with a high school diploma. Recently, disappointing success rates for developmental students have driven some colleges to reduce or restrict access to college based on standardized test scores. The operative phrase in most of…

A promising strategy for promoting successful college transition and increasing college completion rates is to help students avoid developmental coursework by preparing them for placement exams before they enroll in college. A lack of content alignment between high school exit exams and college entrance exams is one of many troubling disconnects…

One of the greatest challenges that community colleges face in their efforts to increase graduation rates is improving the success of students in their developmental, or remedial, education programs. This literature review seeks to examine research on developmental education strategies and reforms and identify the most promising approaches for…

In recent years, leaders of American cities have become progressively concerned about increasing the college-going and completion rate of their residents. Mayors and other community leaders in Memphis, Boston, Louisville, San Francisco and other cities have launched initiatives to increase college completion rates, mobilizing stakeholders from the…

The CollegeKeys Compact[TM] is a national call to action to school districts, colleges and universities, state education agencies, and nonprofit organizations to identify, share and expand programs and practices that address the needs and challenges of low-income students and help them get ready for, get into and get through college. The College…

This article explores challenges in ensuring effective student transition from school or college to university. It examines the complex liaison needed for students to progress to appropriate courses, settle into university life and succeed as higher education learners. Secondary data (international literature on transition and the formation of…

The financial benefits of a college degree are clear. Philadelphians with 1-3 years of college earn a third more than high school graduates over a working lifetime, and four-year degree-holders earn twice as much. Furthermore, college-goers contribute substantially more in tax revenues to support services provided through local, state and federal…

This 2016 directory identifies, describes, and contains evaluative data evidence-based practices that improve academic performance, close the achievement gap, and improve persistence towards graduation for low-income, first-generation, and historically-underrepresented 6th grade through college students. The directory was a production of the…

Purpose: The purpose of this directory was to identify, describe, and evaluate evidence that the education practices improve academic performance, close the achievement gap, and improve persistence towards graduation for low-income, first-generation, and historically-underrepresented 6th grade through college students. Method: The sample for the…

By offering information, counseling, and tutoring, college outreach programs attempt to smooth the path between high school and higher education for at-risk students. But do these program work? This paper uses longitudinal data from the Education Longitudinal Study to construct two quasi-experiments to assess the effectiveness of college outreach.…

This publication describes 23 programs that have been proven to help young people successfully complete high school and be prepared for success in postsecondary education and careers. These programs represent a wide range of interventions, including school-wide reform initiatives, community-based afterschool services, work-based learning…

Learning assistance meets the demands of rigorous college courses through highly varied activities and approaches. The historic role of learning assistance in the larger scope of U.S. higher education is significant though sometimes low profile. Learning assistance bridges access for a more diverse student body. From students' perspectives, it…

The purpose of this study, funded by Jobs for the Future through a grant to the Massachusetts Community Colleges Executive Office, was to: (1) provide an update on the status of developmental education within Massachusetts community colleges; (2) shed light on the alignment between research-based best practices to advance success among…