New grants awarded to support Pathways Communications Campaign and College Access Marketing

Our thanks to the GE Foundation, Lumina Foundation for Education, and The Sallie Mae Fund for their generous support of the Pathways to College Network in 2006. GE Foundation gave $100,000 for one year and Lumina Foundation gave $500,000 over three years to support the communications campaign described below. The Sallie Mae Fund gave $25,000 to support the ongoing improvement of our college access marketing website and tools.

Pathways Network Launches Communications Campaign

The Pathways to College Network was established with the belief that organizations and associations working collaboratively on a common agenda to improve college access and success could make a tangible difference in the lives of underserved students. In 2004, the publication of A Shared Agenda, a report summarizing research findings regarding effective policies and practices for improving college success, created the Network’s “common agenda.” It reminds us why our work matters, where the challenges lay, and what research shows can be done to overcome those challenges.

Over the next few years, the Pathways Network will undertake a multi-faceted communications campaign to promote the implementation of what A Shared Agenda summarized so compellingly – the principles and recommendations that research offers to lower barriers to college access and success. As part of the Network’s effort to create an environment of urgency and action around these issues, we will establish “Action Networks” to help advocates keep up with the successes and challenges on the ground and utilize media and communication channels to capture stakeholder interest. In order to ensure that people know about and make good use of all of Pathways’ no-cost resources, such as our Toolboxes, Websites, and Reports, we also will market them aggressively and continue to improve them so they are as easy-to-use and relevant as possible.

In all of these efforts, the engagement of our partners in the Pathways common agenda is paramount. We will work with each partner to integrate the principles and recommendations of A Shared Agenda into their everyday work, and to reach their members and constituents with strong and consistent messages about what they can do to improve college access and success. Lumina Foundation for Education and the GE Foundation are generously supporting this work.

Good Reads: New Reports

Return on investment: Educational choices and demographic change in California's future
From the Campaign for College Opportunity, this report - the most comprehensive of its kind - analyzes the actual costs and benefits to the state of California of investments in college opportunity. A key finding of the study, conducted by UC Berkeley researchers Henry Brady, Michael Hout and Jon Stiles, is that for every dollar the state invests in educating more college students, the state receives three dollars in net return.
[Read the report | Visit the Campaign's website]

Income of U.S. workforce projected to decline if education doesn't improve
From the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, this policy alert shows how current demographic trends indicate a projected decline in educational attainment and personal income over the next 15 years. The projected declines can be reversed only by making a stronger commitment to raising educational levels among all residents, especially those in fastest-growing segments of the population.
[Read the report]

Changes in patterns of prices and financial aid
The major finding of the study, based on IPEDS, is that during the period 1999-2002 both the median price of attendance and the median value of total aid increased as a faster rate than inflation at public 4-year institutions and private not-for-profit 4-year institutions. At public 2-year institutions, however, net prices not only increased at a slower rate than did sticker prices, but they also increased at a slower rate than inflation. The analysis also confirmed the value of examining different types of prices and net prices when researching college costs and financial aid, as they may lead to different conclusions.
[Read the report]

Remedial education: One-third of incoming college students unprepared by K-12 high schools
This report to the Governor and General Assembly of Colorado reports the remediation rate of first-time college students in the state for 2003-2004 as 30% - nearly one-third of all students. The subject with the most students assigned to remedial instruction was mathematics, but the largest increase over the previous year was in writing. The National Center For Education Statistics states that remediation, specifically in reading, is the "most serious barrier to degree completion" for students.
[Read the report]

The Pathways to College Network
http://www.pathwaystocollege.net