Full Description
Despite decades of substantial investments by the federal government, state governments, colleges and universities, and private foundations, students from low-income families as well as racial and ethnic minority groups continue to have substantially lower levels of postsecondary educational attainment than individuals from other groups. The State of College Access and Completion draws together leading researchers nationwide to summarize the state of college access and success and to provide recommendations for how institutional leaders and policymakers can effectively improve the entire spectrum of college access and completion.
Springboarding from a seminar series organized by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, chapter authors explore what is known and not known from existing research about how to improve student success. This much-needed book calls explicit attention to the state of college access and success not only for traditional college-age students, but also for the substantial and growing number of "nontraditional" students. Describing trends in various outcomes along the pathway from college access to completion, this volume documents persisting gaps in outcomes based on students' demographic characteristics and offers recommendations for strategies to raise student attainment. Graduate students, scholars, and researchers in higher education will find The State of College Access and Completion to be an important and timely resource.
Contents
Introduction: Improving Postsecondary Access, Persistence, and Completion in the United States: Setting the Stage
Anthony P. Jones
Improving College Access and Choice
Laura W. Perna and Elizabeth R. Kurban
Pathways to College for Underserved and Nontraditional Students: Lessons from Research, Policy, and Practice
Debra D. Bragg
Proficiency Approaches for Making More Students College and Career Ready
David T. Conley
The Role of Remedial and Developmental Courses in Access and Persistence
Bridget Terry Long and Angela Boatman
The Role of Finances in Postsecondary Access and Success
Donald E. Heller
The Potential of Community Colleges to Increase Bachelor's Degree Attainment Rates
Tatiana Melguizo, Gregory Kienzl, and Holly Kosiewicz
Longitudinal Pathways to College Persistence and Completion: Student, Institutional, and Public Policy Perspectives
Donald Hossler, Afet Dundar, and Douglas T. Shapiro
Access, Persistence, and Completion in the State Context
James C. Hearn, Anthony P. Jones, and Elizabeth R. Kurban
Non-Experimental Designs and Causal Analyses of College Access, Persistence, and Completion
Stephen L. DesJardins and Allyson Flaster
Conclusions: Improving College Access, Persistence and Completion: Lessons Learned
Laura W. Perna
