Spotlight On: Early Commitment Financial Aid Programs
Study of “early commitment” financial aid programs to be released in Summer 2005
As part of its ongoing effort to explore research gaps in the area of financial aid for underrepresented students, the Pathways to College Network is conducting a study of “early commitment” financial aid programs -- initiatives designed to provide students in middle school and early high school with a promise of financial aid for postsecondary education if they meet certain academic and social requirements. Examples of such programs include Indiana’s 21st Century Scholars Program, Eugene Lang’s "I Have a Dream" initiative, and the Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program. Lead partners in this work are The College Board and the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. The final report will be released in Summer 2005. [more]

Colorado leaders kick off College in Colorado marketing campaign
On January 18, over 650 business leaders, legislators, college presidents, high school principals, counselors, and other stakeholders joined Colorado Governor Bill Owens and Rick O’Donnell, Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education, for the launch of the College in Colorado campaign. This multi-stage college access marketing campaign is designed to raise awareness of educational opportunities among Colorado students. Pathways conducted a session at the launch event with 150 secondary school practitioners, featuring the College Readiness for All Toolbox. Colorado is one of several states in which Pathways is piloting the Toolbox. [Press release]

College Ready New England P-16 Alliance Launched
The New England Board of Higher Education has been awarded a $128,500 planning grant by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation to launch the College Ready New England P-16 Alliance – a unique six-state partnership to promote students' readiness for postsecondary success. College Ready New England is in part an outgrowth of the Pathways regional policy forum in New England. The Education Resources Institute and the New England Regional Office of the College Board also provided support for this initiative. [Press release, available 2/1/05]

Success stories: Pathways principles and College Readiness Framework in the field
If you have other success stories, please share them with us. E-mail cheng@teri.org.

• The Muncie Community Schools district in Indiana is working with Ball State Univ. to create a pathway to college for low-income students starting in 7th grade, using the Pathways College Readiness Framework as a central focus of their model.
• The California State Univ. Center for the Advancement of Reading used A Shared Agenda and portions of the College Readiness for All Toolbox to train leaders of a statewide professional development effort, Reading Institutes for Academic Preparation, sponsored by the Office of the Chancellor.
• The Northwest Education Loan Association distributed copies of A Shared Agenda at a funders briefing for foundations in the Northwest. The goal was to have college access and success programs become an integral part of the foundations’ community initiatives and plans.
• The Partnerships for College Access and Success (a collaboration between the Lumina Foundation for Education and the Academy for Educational Development) adopts the six Pathways guiding principles, adding a seventh that emphasizes the importance of community partnerships.
• "The Pathways principles and other materials have significantly helped us understand the landscape of these issues and the challenges we face." -- from a researcher at the Univ. of South Carolina who is helping to start a major collaborative effort in the state to enhance opportunities for students to successfully move through an educational pipeline that starts in K-12 and continues on through college graduation.

Pathways to College Network in Boston Herald Op Ed
On January 2, 2005, the Boston Herald published an opinion piece by Ann Coles, Senior Vice President of College Access at The Education Resources Institute and the Director of Pathways. Titled “Early prep for college makes higher ed accessible for all,” the op-ed emphasizes the importance of putting students on track for college by providing all of them with the kind of rigorous college-prep curriculum currently provided only to some. [Read the article]