This book from JFF and Harvard Education Press argues that in today’s highly competitive, global economy, all young people need a postsecondary education. Yet only one in ten students from the lowest economic quintile in the United States currently earns a postsecondary credential. This timely and instructive book explores policies and practices that would quickly enable a larger number of low-income and first-generation college students to earn postsecondary degrees. Minding the Gap calls for a system that thoroughly integrates secondary and postsecondary education—a system in which a college degree is the goal for all students. To order, contact the publisher, Harvard Education Press, at 1.800.437.1437 or visit them online.

Interspersed with end-of-school-year and graduation news stories, there has been a recent spate of stories about stressed-out students and parents, competitive college admissions, a high school wall filled with college-rejection letters, the "new SAT," expensive tuition and onerous high-school course loads.

And from reading local newspapers about the rarified atmosphere in Palo Alto schools, one gets the impression that this is the typical experience for college-bound high-school students across the nation.

Nothing could be further from the truth, because about 70 percent of high-school graduates go on to college within two years of graduation -- although many must do some catch-up remedial work once they get there.

I directed a seven-year study (Stanford University's "Bridge Project") that culminated in a popular report: "Betraying the College Dream: How Disconnected K-12 and Postsecondary Education Systems Undermine Student Aspirations."

We found that 80 percent of the U.S. students attend postsecondary institutions that accept all qualified applicants (most of the California State University system) or are open enrollment.
About 40 percent of first-time freshman enroll in a community college that accepts all applicants over 18.

The main initial problem these students face is failing a placement exam and having to enroll in remedial courses to start their higher-education experience. The California State University remediation rate is nearly 60 percent for incoming freshmen, and community-college remediation rates are even higher.

California State universities admit more than 90 percent of students without looking at SAT scores because sufficient grades qualify the student for admission. Many four-year institutions around the United States are much easier to get into than Cal State.

Tuition and fees for a full-time student are relatively low -- at San Jose State, tuition is $2,958 and community-college fees in California are $300. But many low-income college students need aid and do not know how to apply for federal or state assistance, as the number of counselors advising students in California is near the bottom nationwide.

Eighty percent of college-bound minority students in California enroll in community colleges. The 159 most selective colleges in the United States enroll only 11 percent of their students from below the median income of U.S. families.

When UC cut a few thousand admitted students because of state budget cuts, I was besieged with media phone calls asking for comment.

That same week California community colleges cut between 50,000 to 100,000 students, but no one called -- no one seemed to care.

Many of these students have family responsibilities, attend only part-time and "stop out" to earn more money for their education. Forty-five percent of California's K-12 public-school students are Latino, and this percentage increases for the foreseeable future. There are four times as many Latino students in community colleges as there are in UC, the California State universities and all private colleges in California combined.

I also question how stressed out most high-school seniors really are from hard academic work.
UCLA surveys a national sample of incoming freshmen at four-year (not two-year) colleges each year. Nearly every year the hours of study by high-school seniors go down and grades go up. Sixty-five percent of high-school seniors report doing five hours or less homework per week. In 1983, 47 percent did six hours of homework per week, but by 2002, only 35 percent did.
High-school students do work a lot, but much of it is in off campus jobs at 15 hours per week or more.

My study reveals that these students at "broad-access colleges" -- such as California State universities and community colleges -- do not receive clear signals about college readiness.
They believe community colleges must accept anyone, and view it as a "souped-up high school." They do not realize community colleges design their courses to qualify for transfer to University of California credit.

Students at minimally selective four-year colleges usually do not take math in their senior year of high school, and think Cs and Bs in high school are sufficient for freshman work.
Only 22 percent of entering community-college students who want a four-year degree actually get one, nationwide. At minimally selective four-year colleges, fewer than half finish their degree.

The top 15 percent of U.S. students are well-prepared and more than 85 percent of them complete degrees.

I have observed that in my 36 years at Stanford entering freshmen keep getting better academically. Their research skills are impressive. But 88 percent of eighth graders want a college degree, since they know college will help them in a competitive job market. Unless broad access postsecondary education and high schools work more closely together to help them succeed, their college dreams will evaporate.

The attached speech by me is a good overview of the policy context for community colleges in California. It addresses many issues including college completion, labor force skill trends, and transitions from high school to community colleges.

http://www.stanford.edu/group/bridgeproject/Failure%20to%20Complete%20College1.ppt

Labels: College Completion

The following is a guest entry to my blog by Dan Bassill of Cabrini Connections:

School starts in a few weeks and volunteer-based organizations all over the country are beginning to look for people who will share time, talent and dollars to help them connect with at-risk kids who need help in college preparation and completion..

I've been blogging with Suzanne Morse, of the Pew Partnership for Civic Change, and today the title of her blog is New Wiki Articles on Dropout Projects, Mentoring, and Youth Engagement (http://smartcommunities.typepad.com/suzanne/2007/07/new-wiki-articl.html). I encourage you to visit the Act Now section of the Best Practices wiki(http://www.learningtofinish.org/doku.php?id=act_now) and look for ways that you can incorporate these ideas into company communications, your United Way campaign, or in sermons and media reports.

Now that school is fast approaching, I want to share some ideas with you that I hope teachers at high schools and colleges all over the couuntry will try to integrate into teaching and learning and service opportunities for students who don't live in poverty, but could be helping draw resources to tutor/mentor programs.

Below are links to some weblogs (blogs) written by student volunteers working with Cabrini Connections

a) http://nicolecabrini.blogspot.com/ - this is written by a 2007 graduate of Northwestern, who is serving a one year fellowship with Cabrini Connections

b) http://michaelcnt.blogspot.com/ - this blog was started in 2006 by an intern from Hong Kong Baptist University, who was with Cabrini Connections from June to August 2006. This summer Paul Wei, our second HKBU intern has added to it.

c) http://johnjenkins2315.blogspot.com/ - this blog is written by a local college student who helps with the Tutor/ Mentor Leadership Conferences

d) http://cabriniconnectionswritinggroup.blogspot.com/ - this blog is written by a volunteer who meets weekly with Cabrini Connections teens. It shares the writing that the teens are doing.

Each of these is a writing project that could be a service, learning and leadership development activity. As the Hong Kong student blog illustrates, the blog can be owned by successive groups of students going through high school and college. As the Learning to Finish Wiki illustrates, people from many places can contribute to building a strategy used by people from many other places.

As more students contribute to such blogs, and wiki, and web sites like http://www.tutormentorconnection.org/, they will build a more complex understand poverty, and learn to use their own skills and leadership to draw volunteers and donors to mentoring-to-career youth programs in Chicago, San Francisco, New York, London, Hong Kong and every other city in the world.

Once you begin to write about tutor/mentor programs, your next step is to point to links that help people shop for where they get involved. I encourage you to use the Program Locator and Program Links sections of the http:// http://www.blogger.com/www.tutormentorconnection.org T/MC web site, as well as national volunteer search engines, to find programs near where you work or live.

I encourage others to write about this idea and build it into their teaching and learning strategies for 2007-08 and beyond.

What we do now to help volunteers connect with kids, can help prevent drop outs, gang violence, and make a lifetime of difference for kids who have too few adult supports and learning activities in their own personal network.

The following represent the third of a three-part guest entry to my blog by Michael Staton who works with Batiq – a “social entrepreneurship company that is dedicated to revolutionizing education and creating more purposeful uses for technology.” In simpler terms, Batiq preps students for college.

Staton interviewed students at Stanford and UC Berkeley. Students were asked to describe behaviors of a successful college student. Then all behaviors were grouped and assigned an attribute name. According to these focus groups, nine attributes, overall, describe a successful college student. Attributes are listed in the order from their perceived commonness -- from the most common to the least. Attributes seem to build on each other and become more difficult to obtain requiring more wisdom and skill as the list progresses. The attributes are listed as: Inquisitive, Adaptive, Self-Motivated, Insightful, Passionate, Committed, Creative, Professional, and Synergetic.

Successful students also have a professional attitude and demeanor, even for school. They understand appropriate behavior and dress, and can communicate articulately to different audiences using different voices. They have worked with people from different backgrounds, and shown themselves a valuable team member. They have earned the trust of organizations and supervisors by their punctuality, their consistent commitment, and their exemplary productivity. They have shown commitment to their organizations, but also worked with and mobilized other organizations with mutual interests towards the same common goal.

While being professional is the ability to work within organizations, being synergetic is the ability to lead organizations for superior outcomes. Exemplary individuals can bring people together with seemingly little in common and bridge cultural or communicative gaps. They can articulate a common goal that did not preexist, and clearly identify roles for each person or organization. They see the value in every person, and bring out the productivity and energy of all involved by using each according to their individual strengths and goals. Individual weaknesses are mitigated through strong leadership and individual conflicts are mediated by offering effective compromises or win-win solutions. Synergetic leadership is often founded upon strong integrity and excellence in the other eight areas.

One may conclude that students’ college persistence, college completion and college success would all increase along with an increasing count of the attributes described above.

Labels: College Preparation, Successful College Student