College Access: What helps to promote student access to college? - Access related research titles from the ECS Research Studies Database. Links embedded in titles will take you to each study's major findings and recommendations....

Postsecondary Institutions and Price of Attendance in 2011-12; Degrees and Other Awards Conferred: 2010-11; and 12-Month Enrollment: 2010-11 - This First Look presents preliminary data findings from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) fall 2011 collection, which included three survey components: Institutional Characteristics for the 2011-12 academic year, Completions covering the period July 1, 2010, through June 30, 2011, and data on 12-Month Enrollment for the 2010-11 academic year. (NCES, July 2012)...

A Blueprint for Success: Case Studies of Successful Pre-College Outreach Programs - This is a companion document to the TG-funded "2012 Directory of Pre-College Outreach Programs," published in March 2012 by EPI. This document is a collection of 10 case studies of successful pre-college outreach programs around the US, providing an inside and detailed view at how they operate and what makes them successful. (Education Policy Institute, April 2012) ...

Make Me a Match: Helping Low-Income and First-Generation Students Make Good College Choices - This policy brief describes the College Match Program, which was developed by MDRC in partnership with the Chicago Public Schools to help low-income and first-generation students choose the right college. College Match places young adult advisers in high schools to help moderately- to high-achieving students who are prepared for college but need advice and support with making their college decisions. The policy brief details encouraging early findings from a pilot of this program in three Chicago high schools. It concludes with a discussion of issues related to further expansion, modification, and testing of the model. (MDRC, April 2012)...

2012 Directory of Pre-College Outreach Programs - This directory includes information on 374 programs from around the United States that serve low-income, students of color, and other students who are historically underrepresented in postsecondary education. Education Policy Institute, March 2012)...

The College Match Program (CMP) - The College Match Program (CMP) was designed to respond to the phenomenon "undermatching." Students are most likely to success and graduate when they attend the most academically demanding institution that will admit them--yet data show that too many students (particularly low-income and minority) apply to less-selective programs. (MDRC, 2011)...

Opportunity Adrift: Our Flagship Universities Are Straying From The Public Mission - The report examines how well the nation’s most prestigious, or flagship, public universities are serving the student populations of their respective states. Its findings suggest that many of the nation's top public universities are giving millions of dollars in financial aid to students from relatively wealthy families, rather than to those who urgently need it. (Kati Haycock, Mary Lynch and Jennifer Engle, The Education Trust, January 2010)...

The Challenge to States: Preserving College Access and Affordability in a Time of Crisis - This report presents a list of recommendations for policy-makers, governing boards and campus and system leaders to preserve college access and affordability. The authors suggest that stakeholders who determine the use of federal stimulus funds use the resources to protect access and affordability and to leverage improvements in productivity, efficiency and quality. (National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, March 2009)...

Promise Lost: College-Qualified Students Who Don’t Enroll in College - The importance of promoting college access for all college-qualified students will continue to grow as the United States grapples with the challenges and opportunities of a global economy. This report provides an overview of the key factors in college access. The report presents the results of the national survey of non-college-goers. College-qualified students who enrolled in college are compared with those who did not enroll. There is discussion of differences among groups of non-college-goers. A secondary survey of counselors discusses counselors’ perceptions of the barriers to college enrollment. Finally, there is discussion of the results of the surveys, the policy implications and suggestions for further research. (Institute for Higher Education Policy, Ryan Hahn and Derek Price, November 2008)...

Deciding on Postsecondary Education: Final Report - Part of learning to attract non-traditional students into institutions of higher learning may be gaining an understanding of how they decide whether and where to go to college. Researchers for the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative found that unlike traditional students who take years in the process of gathering information on possible colleges, underserved students tend to make the whether/where decision at the same time. While much of the information they need is on the Internet, Internet access may be more limited for them. Further, they seek different sources for information – low-income students tend to rely on high school counselors and unsolicited marketing materials, while traditional students get advice from parents with higher levels of education and income. The authors suggest colleges and states consider marketing and research to ensure that information and resources for non-traditional students and their families are accessible and comprehensible. (Keith MacAllum, Denise Glover, Barbara Queen, and Angela Riggs, National Center for Education Statistics, December 2007)...

College Access for Working Poor: Overcoming Burdens to Succeed in Higher Education - Expanding access to higher education is critical to improving the lives of the working poor, as jobs in today’s economy increasingly require some higher education. This report takes one of the most comprehensive looks to date at the higher education experiences, financial challenges, and attendance and completion rates of the working poor. (Courtney McSwain and Ryan Davis, Institute for Higher Education Policy, July 2007)...

Opening the Door to the American Dream: Increasing Higher Education Access and Success for Immigrants - In this report from the Institute for Higher Education Policy, the issue of immigrants and higher education is analyzed. The authors argue that increasing access into higher education for immigrants would have significant implications for the immigrant population and the country as a whole. (Wendy Erisman and Shannon Looney, Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2007)...

Recession, Retrenchment and Recovery: State Higher Education Funding & Student Financial Aid Volume II - This report examines 25 years of data regarding financial access to higher education. In a state-by-state comparison, the report details higher education financial access during recessions and policy strategies for the states that maintained access. Also included are suggestions for improvement and success extrapolated from the data and policymaker interviews. (Allison S. Ambrose, Edward R. Hines, Ross A. Hodel, Kathleen F. Kelly, Christopher E. Mushrush, Sheila J. Pruden, W. Paul Vogt, Center for the Study of Education Policy, Illinois State University National Association of State Student Grant Aid Programs, State Higher Education Executive Officers, October 2006)...

State of Decline? Gaps in College Access and Achievement Call for Renewed Commitment to Educating Californians - This report is the second in a series of reports analyzing the performance of California higher education in the areas of preparation, participation, completion, affordability and benefits. It presents data related to these categories of performance by region and by race/ethnicity. (Colleen Moore and Nancy Shulock, Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy, October 2006) ...

College Rankings Reformed: The Case for a New Order in Higher Education - U.S. News and World Report's annual ranking of colleges and universities has become the de facto higher education accountability system in the United States, despite its deeply flawed ranking system. Instead of ranking institutions on how well they educate their students and how well they prepare them to be successful after college education their students, it ranks them based on three factors: fame, wealth and exclusivity. The author argues that new data and technology offer an opportunity to really measure how well colleges and universities are preparing their undergraduate students. (Kevin Carey, Education Sector, September 2006) ...

Perceptions of College Financial Aid Among California Latino Youth - This policy brief discusses findings of a survey of California Latino youth perceptions of college financial aid that revealed: 98% of respondents felt it was important to have a college education; 38% of respondents did not feel the benefits of college outweigh the costs; not being able to work and incurring debt were the opportunity costs associated with going to college; over half of all respondents erroneously thought students have to be U.S. citizens to apply for college financial aid; few respondents could accurately estimate the cost of attending either the University of California or the California State University; and there is a lack of familiarity with government grants for education. The following policy implications are discussed: (1) delivery of translated financial aid information is not sufficient, (2) misperceptions about the affordability of college need to be addressed, and (3) greater awareness about government loan and grant programs is needed. (Maria Estela Zarate and Harry P. Pachon, The Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, June 2006) ...