In the nation today, 4.6 million young adults ages 16 to 24 are out of school and unemployed. More than one-third live in poverty. For these young people, commonly referred to as opportunity youth, building skills and gaining work experience are key to upward mobility. However, they face significant barriers to entering the labor market.…

Over the past several decades, college tuition has nearly tripled, adjusting for inflation, and federal student aid has shifted from a predominantly grant-based system to one dominated by loan aid. These two factors have conspired to create a debt-for-diploma system, affecting young adults' choices about college, including where they enroll and…

The SREB Fact Book on Higher Education includes data on the population and economy, enrollment, degrees, student tuition and financial aid, faculty and administrators, revenue and expenditures. With more than 100 tables of detailed information, the Fact Book is one of the nation's most respected and most comprehensive collections of comparative…

In Fall 2004, the Pell Institute released the first "Indicators of Opportunity in Higher Education." The inaugural report was well-received, including praise from the higher education community, press coverage, and policymaker discussions of the issues and data presented in the report. We present this second report with the goal of…