• State Education Pipeline Data Systems: Lessons Learned and Next Steps - The purpose of this project is to determine what can be learned from states that have linked secondary, postsecondary, and workforce entry unit record data systems and to recommend how such P-16 pipeline data systems can be designed and used to improve student success, especially in making crucial transitions from one level to the next.
• Effective Tools for Evaluating the Outcomes and Impact of Outreach Programs and Practices - This project will develop a research-based toolkit that provides a common set of instruments that outreach programs can use to assess program elements and measure their effectiveness in improving students' readiness for college.
• What Should Mathematics Teachers Know and Do? - This study will measure teacher content knowledge and instructional practices relevant to the teaching and learning of college-preparatory mathematics, in order to identify the mix of knowledge and practice that is most beneficial for student achievement in these courses.
• Learning in Higher Education: Are Disadvantaged Students Catching Up or Falling Further Behind? - This study will identify variation in students' cognitive growth in higher education, with a specific focus on the rate of learning of students from racial minority groups and less advantaged family backgrounds.
• Portable Financial Aid and College Choice - This project will endeavor to answer the question of how financial aid programs with awards that are portable across state lines influence student choice of institution and whether the influences vary according to student income level or race/ethnicity.
• Unbundling Youth, Family, and Community Involvement in College Access: On the Ground in Austin, Texas - The purpose of this project is to broaden our theoretical and practical understanding of the roles and influence that families, the community, and young people themselves can have on college access.

QUESTIONS THAT MATTER:
Setting the Research Agenda on Access and Success in Postsecondary Education

Questions that Matter is the result of 18 months of vigorous debate and discussion by some of the country's top researchers and higher education leaders as part of the Social Science Research Council's Transitions to College project. With support from Lumina Foundation for Education, the Transitions to College project reviewed 20 years of literature related to postsecondary access and success across 10 academic disciplines - including American History, Anthopology, Demography, Economics, Education Research, Law, Political Science, and Sociology - to identify today's most pressing areas for inquiry related to postsecondary access and success.

Questions That Matter not only lays out a broad agenda for future research but also articulates a range of research questions to guide further inquiry in the areas of College Preparation, Access, Affordability, and Retention/Success. Examples of these questions include:

1. How do relationships with peer groups, mentors, significant adults, and community entitites within and without high schools impact the college preparation and expectations among subgroups of students?
2. How have reform-minded policy interventions (such as Advanced Placement and college-readiness curricula) affected college-going among disadvantaged students?
3. To what extent do credit constraints and income level directly and indirectly affect college enrollment and success?
4. What kind of generic skill accumulation matter for degree completion and how can we monitor and measure attainment of these advanced skills?