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December 2006

Pathways to College Network receives funding for Research Program

The Pathways to College Network recently received grants totaling $715,000 from Lumina Foundation for Education, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Time Warner, Inc. to support three research projects to inform policy and practice regarding college-going among underserved populations. The projects represent a unique collaborative approach to answering key questions about college preparation, access, and success.

Effective Tools for Evaluating the Outcomes and Impact of Outreach Programs and Practices
Lumina Foundation and the Gates Foundation are supporting the development and dissemination of a research-based toolkit that will provide a set of common instruments that college outreach programs can use to assess program elements and outcomes. The instruments will also allow researchers to conduct studies of similar issues across programs. The project will be directed by the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education.

Learning in Higher Education: Are Disadvantaged Students Catching Up or Falling Further Behind?
Led by the Social Science Research Council, this project will identify variations in cognitive growth in higher education with a specific focus on the learning rates of students from underrepresented minority groups and disadvantaged family backgrounds. It will build on the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) project of the Council for Aid to Education. The study is funded by the Ford Foundation and Lumina Foundation.

Unbundling Youth, Family, and Community Involvement in College Access: On the Ground in Austin, Texas
The purpose of this study is to broaden our understanding of the influence that young people, families, and communities can have on college access. The project will involve field research in Austin to document family and community involvement in college access issues and gauge the effectiveness of involvement strategies. The Central Texas Sustainability Indicators Project and the Forum for Youth Investment are overseeing the project, which is supported by the Gates Foundation and Time Warner, Inc.

New Reports

Tough Choices or Tough Times
This provocative report comes from the National Center on Education and the Economy’s New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce. In response to the changing global economy, the Commission recommends a radical restructuring of American secondary education, including requiring all students to take a state ‘board’ examination at the end of 10th grade. Those who pass will receive a high school diploma; if they score high enough, they will be guaranteed admission to a two-year postsecondary program or the opportunity to continue in high school and prepare for admission to a selective college. The Commission also proposes legislation that will provide working adults with the education necessary to pass the Board Examination, thus allowing this population the opportunity to attain a college education.
[read the executive summary]

Reinventing the American High School for the 21st Century: A Position Paper
In this paper, the Association for Career and Technical Education makes a series of nine recommendations to help bring high schools in line with 21st century needs, including establishing a clear system goal of career and college readiness for all students, creating a school culture that stresses personalization, creating incentives for students to pursue the core curriculum in an interest-based context, and promoting linkages between career and technical education and high school redesign efforts.
[read the report]

Public Education and Black Male Students: The 2006 State Report Card
The Schott Education Inequity Index, which is the basis of this state-by-state “report card,” highlights disparities in the quality of education provided to African-Americans by comparing high school graduation rates of Black and White non-Hispanic males. According to estimates based on NCES data, 55% of African-American males in 2003-04 did not receive diplomas with their cohort. Much of the problem is concentrated in a few large cities, such as New York City, Chicago, Detroit, and Dade County.
[read the report]
The Pathways to College Network
http://www.pathwaystocollege.net