Download or read book Making College Work written by Harry J. Holzer and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2017-08-15 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Practical solutions for improving higher education opportunities for disadvantaged students Too many disadvantaged college students in America do not complete their coursework or receive any college credential, while others earn degrees or certificates with little labor market value. Large numbers of these students also struggle to pay for college, and some incur debts that they have difficulty repaying. The authors provide a new review of the causes of these problems and offer promising policy solutions. The circumstances affecting disadvantaged students stem both from issues on the individual side, such as weak academic preparation and financial pressures, and from institutional failures. Low-income students disproportionately attend schools that are underfunded and have weak performance incentives, contributing to unsatisfactory outcomes for many students. Some solutions, including better financial aid or academic supports, target individual students. Other solutions, such as stronger linkages between coursework and the labor market and more structured paths through the curriculum, are aimed at institutional reforms. All students, and particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, also need better and varied pathways both to college and directly to the job market, beginning in high school. We can improve college outcomes, but must also acknowledge that we must make hard choices and face difficult tradeoffs in the process. While no single policy is guaranteed to greatly improve college and career outcomes, implementing a number of evidence-based policies and programs together has the potential to improve these outcomes substantially.

Download or read book Increasing Opportunities in Higher Education for Disadvantaged Students written by Kenneth A. Martyn and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Increasing Opportunities in Higher Education for Disadvantaged Students written by Alexander E. Barkan and published by . This book was released on 1958 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Increasing Opportunities for Disadvantaged Students Final Report written by Kenneth A. Martyn and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Equity and Quality in Education Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2012-02-13 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across OECD countries, almost one in every five students does not reach a basic minimum level of skills. This book presents a series of policy recommendations for education systems to help all children succeed.

Download or read book Passing the Torch written by Paul Attewell and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2007-04-05 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The steady expansion of college enrollment rates over the last generation has been heralded as a major step toward reducing chronic economic disparities. But many of the policies that broadened access to higher education—including affirmative action, open admissions, and need-based financial aid—have come under attack in recent years by critics alleging that schools are admitting unqualified students who are unlikely to benefit from a college education. In Passing the Torch, Paul Attewell, David Lavin, Thurston Domina, and Tania Levey follow students admitted under the City University of New York’s “open admissions” policy, tracking its effects on them and their children, to find out whether widening college access can accelerate social mobility across generations. Unlike previous research into the benefits of higher education, Passing the Torch follows the educational achievements of three generations over thirty years. The book focuses on a cohort of women who entered CUNY between 1970 and 1972, when the university began accepting all graduates of New York City high schools and increasing its representation of poor and minority students. The authors survey these women in order to identify how the opportunity to pursue higher education affected not only their long-term educational attainments and family well-being, but also how it affected their children’s educational achievements. Comparing the record of the CUNY alumnae to peers nationwide, the authors find that when women from underprivileged backgrounds go to college, their children are more likely to succeed in school and earn college degrees themselves. Mothers with a college degree are more likely to expect their children to go to college, to have extensive discussions with their children, and to be involved in their children’s schools. All of these parenting behaviors appear to foster higher test scores and college enrollment rates among their children. In addition, college-educated women are more likely to raise their children in stable two-parent households and to earn higher incomes; both factors have been demonstrated to increase children’s educational success. The evidence marshaled in this important book reaffirms the American ideal of upward mobility through education. As the first study to indicate that increasing access to college among today’s disadvantaged students can reduce educational gaps in the next generation, Passing the Torch makes a powerful argument in favor of college for all.

Download or read book Priorities in Higher Education written by United States. President's Task Force on Higher Education and published by . This book was released on 1970 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Increasing Opportunities for Disadvantaged Students written by Kenneth A. Martyn and published by . This book was released on 1967 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Keeping College Affordable written by Michael S. McPherson and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Congress debates the reauthorization of the basic federal student aid legislation, and as governors and state legislators cope with increasingly severe budgetary problems of their own, the issues of preserving college opportunity and sharing the burden of college costs are particularly critical and timely. This book assesses the role of government subsidies for higher education—especially but not exclusively federal student aid—in keeping college affordable for Americans of all economic and social backgrounds. The authors examine the effects of student aid policies of the last twenty years. They address several vital questions, including: Has federal student aid encouraged the enrollment and broadened the educational choices of disadvantaged students? Has it made higher education institutions more secure and educationally more effective—or has it raised costs and prices as schools try to capture additional aid? Has federal student aid made the distribution of higher education's benefits, and the sharing of costs, fairer? And what are the likely trends in patterns of college affordability? Drawing on their analysis, the authors highlight some of the principal dimensions of policy choice on which the debate has focused, as well as some that have been relatively neglected. Building upon their conclusion that student aid works, they propose reforms that would bolster the role of income-tested aid in the overall student financing picture. McPherson and Schapiro recommend a number of incremental reforms that could improve the effectiveness of existing federal aid programs and present a proposal to replace a substantial fraction of state-operating subsidies to colleges and universities with expanded federal aid.

Download or read book Investing in the Health and Well Being of Young Adults written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2015-01-27 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Young adulthood - ages approximately 18 to 26 - is a critical period of development with long-lasting implications for a person's economic security, health and well-being. Young adults are key contributors to the nation's workforce and military services and, since many are parents, to the healthy development of the next generation. Although 'millennials' have received attention in the popular media in recent years, young adults are too rarely treated as a distinct population in policy, programs, and research. Instead, they are often grouped with adolescents or, more often, with all adults. Currently, the nation is experiencing economic restructuring, widening inequality, a rapidly rising ratio of older adults, and an increasingly diverse population. The possible transformative effects of these features make focus on young adults especially important. A systematic approach to understanding and responding to the unique circumstances and needs of today's young adults can help to pave the way to a more productive and equitable tomorrow for young adults in particular and our society at large. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults describes what is meant by the term young adulthood, who young adults are, what they are doing, and what they need. This study recommends actions that nonprofit programs and federal, state, and local agencies can take to help young adults make a successful transition from adolescence to adulthood. According to this report, young adults should be considered as a separate group from adolescents and older adults. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults makes the case that increased efforts to improve high school and college graduate rates and education and workforce development systems that are more closely tied to high-demand economic sectors will help this age group achieve greater opportunity and success. The report also discusses the health status of young adults and makes recommendations to develop evidence-based practices for young adults for medical and behavioral health, including preventions. What happens during the young adult years has profound implications for the rest of the life course, and the stability and progress of society at large depends on how any cohort of young adults fares as a whole. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults will provide a roadmap to improving outcomes for this age group as they transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Download or read book The Privileged Poor written by Anthony Abraham Jack and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-01 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An NPR Favorite Book of the Year Winner of the Critics’ Choice Book Award, American Educational Studies Association Winner of the Mirra Komarovsky Book Award Winner of the CEP–Mildred García Award for Exemplary Scholarship “Eye-opening...Brings home the pain and reality of on-campus poverty and puts the blame squarely on elite institutions.” —Washington Post “Jack’s investigation redirects attention from the matter of access to the matter of inclusion...His book challenges universities to support the diversity they indulge in advertising.” —New Yorker “The lesson is plain—simply admitting low-income students is just the start of a university’s obligations. Once they’re on campus, colleges must show them that they are full-fledged citizen.” —David Kirp, American Prospect “This book should be studied closely by anyone interested in improving diversity and inclusion in higher education and provides a moving call to action for us all.” —Raj Chetty, Harvard University The Ivy League looks different than it used to. College presidents and deans of admission have opened their doors—and their coffers—to support a more diverse student body. But is it enough just to admit these students? In this bracing exposé, Anthony Jack shows that many students’ struggles continue long after they’ve settled in their dorms. Admission, they quickly learn, is not the same as acceptance. This powerfully argued book documents how university policies and campus culture can exacerbate preexisting inequalities and reveals why some students are harder hit than others.

Download or read book Advancing Equity written by Graciela Perez and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Talented students from underserved backgrounds face many barriers to attaining higher education. Two of the most significant impediments are the low quality of primary and secondary schools they attend and the lack of access to top-tier universities providing sufficient financial aid and targeted support. Lower levels of educational attainment are linked to higher unemployment rates, lower earnings, and higher risk of poor-health outcomes. This dissertation builds upon the extant body of literature evaluating the effectiveness of large-scale interventions that pursue a more egalitarian, inclusive, and diverse educational system. Specifically, I assess the effectiveness of education policy efforts in (i) improving the quality of teachers to equalize low-income students' educational opportunities at earlier stages of schooling, and (ii) increasing the representation of low-income, high-achieving students at top-tier universities. My research is concerned with the effectiveness of education policy efforts in Chile, a middle-income country in Latin America with high levels of educational attainment but social class segregation of students that undermines the provision of equal opportunities. The country has implemented innovative policies and programs to address educational inequity, yet the impacts of these programs have not been systematically studied. This dissertation aims to fill this gap. The findings can be used by policymakers, university officials and administrators as well as governmental agencies. In the first paper, "The Effects of Educational Supports for the 'Missing One-Offs' in Vocational High Schools, " I study a two-year early-college program that prepares low-income, high-achieving students from underserved vocational public high schools to enter and graduate from the most selective universities in Chile. A growing body of evidence suggests that vocationally focused programs of study substantially improve high-school completion and longer-run economic success. However, the corresponding recommendations to expand vocational programs may have unintended, negative consequences for low-income, academically successful students who have the capacity and motivation to attend highly selective universities (i.e., the "missing one-offs"). This study contributes to the understanding of these issues by examining an innovative, college-preparatory program targeted to academically successful Chilean students attending vocational high schools serving lower-income communities. This program, Escuela Desarrollo de Talentos (EDT), provides academic and social-emotional support aligned with admission to selective universities. I examine the educational effects of EDT program participation using a fuzzy regression-discontinuity design based on its eligibility rules. I find that the EDT program did not increase the probability of graduating from high school but did increase performance in math courses. I also find corresponding evidence suggesting that EDT participation increased math performance on college entrance exams and shifted students away from further postsecondary vocational training and towards matriculation at elite universities. In the second paper, "The Effects of Priority Admissions in Elite Universities for High-Achieving, Low-Income Students, " I study the effectiveness of a special admissions quota program at the University of Chile, Sistema de Ingreso Prioritario de Equidad Educativa (SIPEE), that assigns seats to underrepresented students, prioritizing those from more disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. By lowering the required university entrance exam score threshold, the University of Chile admits intellectually talented students who, due to their family or high school backgrounds, cannot surmount the barrier of minimum curriculum knowledge required by this exam. Based on the score threshold required in admissions, I use a regression-discontinuity design to assess the educational effects of the SIPEE program on its first four cohorts of beneficiaries (2012 to 2015). I find evidence that SIPEE eligibility increased the probability of underserved students' application to the University of Chile degree programs. Also, matriculation and retention rates significantly increased in seven of the 37 degree programs (commercial engineering, public administration, history, psychology, architecture, agricultural engineering, and engineering). Depending on the degree program, the increase in the likelihood of matriculation ranges between 0.3 and 2 percentage points, and the increase in the likelihood of retention ranges between 0.2 and 1.3 percentage points. Overall, the most effective degree programs in increasing matriculation provide academic support to ease the transition between high school and college for low-income, high-achieving students admitted via SIPEE. Teachers are one of the most important resources for equalizing opportunities and improving outcomes in schools. Unfortunately, a growing body of evidence indicates increasing quality-teacher shortages and that these high-quality teachers are unequally distributed among schools. Disadvantaged students are more likely to experience the adverse effects of teacher shortages and turnover related to this unequal teacher distribution. In the third paper, "Building a Teacher Pipeline: Evidence from a Merit-Based Tuition Scholarship, " I study a public policy that addresses the pipeline of Chilean teachers. This program (Beca Vocación de Profesor, BVP) provides a full-tuition scholarship for high-performing individuals who apply to university teacher education programs and requires them to teach in publicly funded schools after graduation. I examine the educational and labor effects of BVP program adoption using a regression-discontinuity design based on the program's merit-based eligibility rules. Using a comprehensive dataset that tracks individuals' progression from high school to higher education and to their future jobs, I assess the causal effect of the BVP program on the 2011 to 2014 cohorts of all applicants to higher education in Chile. As a result of the BVP program, I find that matriculation in teacher education programs increased by 2 percentage points (i.e., 25% of the total enrollees in the four cohorts), teacher degree attainment increased by 1 percentage point (i.e., 22% of the total of the new certified teachers produced in the four cohorts), and the number of teachers working in schools increased by 1 percentage point (i.e., 27% of the teachers working in schools from the four cohorts). The vast majority of these new teachers end up working in publicly funded schools. This represented 4,124 new teachers working in publicly funded schools due to BVP program eligibility and 56,324 new teachers as a result of actually receiving the BVP scholarship. In the first four cohorts of grantees, the resulting supply of teachers increased by almost 30 percent. This study contributes valuable empirical evidence to the policy debate surrounding effective ways to improve teachers' recruitment and the allocation of higher-quality teachers to under-resourced schools. This research has implications for how selective universities can play a more active role in mitigating achievement gaps rooted in unequal educational opportunities and meet goals for increasing student body diversity. Similarly, policies that increase the number of quality teachers and promote their early assignment to public schools have the potential to improve learning opportunities, especially for marginalized students. The conclusions of this dissertation contribute policy-relevant information on the effectiveness of programs designed to equalize educational opportunities and improve academic outcomes for underserved students.

Download or read book Economic Inequality and Higher Education written by Stacy Dickert-Conlin and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2007-06-21 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The vast disparities in college attendance and graduation rates between students from different class backgrounds is a growing social concern. Economic Inequality and Higher Education investigates the connection between income inequality and unequal access to higher education, and proposes solutions that the state and federal governments and schools themselves can undertake to make college accessible to students from all backgrounds. Economic Inequality and Higher Education convenes experts from the fields of education, economics, and public policy to assess the barriers that prevent low-income students from completing college. For many students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, the challenge isn't getting into college, but getting out with a degree. Helping this group will require improving the quality of education in the community colleges and lower-tier public universities they are most likely to attend. Documenting the extensive disjuncture between the content of state-mandated high school testing and college placement exams, Michael Kirst calls for greater alignment between K-12 and college education. Amanda Pallais and Sarah Turner examine barriers to access at elite universities for low-income students—including tuition costs, lack of information, and poor high school records—as well as recent initiatives to increase socioeconomic diversity at private and public universities. Top private universities have increased the level and transparency of financial aid, while elite public universities have focused on outreach, mentoring, and counseling, and both sets of reforms show signs of success. Ron Ehrenberg notes that financial aid policies in both public and private universities have recently shifted towards merit-based aid, away from the need-based aid that is most helpful to low-income students. Ehrenberg calls on government policy makers to create incentives for colleges to increase their representation of low-income students. Higher education is often vaunted as the primary engine of upward mobility. Instead, as inequality in America rises, colleges may be reproducing income disparities from one generation to the next. Economic Inequality and Higher Education illuminates this worrisome trend and suggests reforms that educational institutions and the government must implement to make the dream of a college degree a reality for all motivated students.

Download or read book Students at a Disadvantage in Higher Education written by Nora Holland and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Breaking Through the Access Barrier written by Edward P. St. John and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-10-18 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Breaking Through the Access Barrier argues that the policies designed to address inequalities in college access are failing to address underlying issues of inequality. This book introduces academic capital formation (ACF), a groundbreaking new theory defined by family knowledge of educational options and the opportunities for pursuing them. The authors suggest focusing on intervention programs and public policy to promote improvement in academic preparation, college information, and student aid. This textbook offers: a new construct–academic capital–that integrates and draws upon existing literature on influencing access to college practical advice for better preparation and intervention real student outcomes, databases, and interviews taken from exemplary intervention programs empirical research illuminating the role of class reproduction in education and how interventions (financial, academic, and networking) can reduce student barriers quantitative and qualitative analysis of the importance and effectiveness of several major policy interventions. Written for courses on higher education policy and policy analysis, readers will find Breaking Through the Access Barrier offers valuable advice for working within new policy frameworks and reshaping the future of educational opportunities and access for under-represented students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Download or read book Improving Opportunities to Engage in Learning written by Nalita James and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-05-20 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Improving Opportunities to Engage in Learning investigates the experiences of mature adult learners returning to formal education. The book challenges the policy discourses in which Access to Higher Education survives by suggesting that continuing education is more about determination by students to alter their identities and career opportunities than meeting narrow performative criteria of financial targets. Chapters explore students’ struggles with institutional and social structures in the current political and socio-economic climate, before identifying how the transformation of their learner identities is facilitated in the courses by collaborative cultures and supportive tutors. The book addresses a research gap in knowledge about students’ and tutors’ experiences of Access to Higher Education courses, presenting a broad perspective on the importance and difficulties of such courses through listening to the voices of students and tutors undertaking a variety of Access to HE pathways. The authors argue that despite success on their courses benefiting the national economy as well as students individually, the social and financial costs of continuing education is almost entirely shifted onto students’ shoulders by policymakers. Despite the costs, students can still see Access to HE as a chance to improve their lives, reflecting the neoliberal discourse of personal responsibility and risk embedded in broader national social and policy discourses. Improving Opportunities to Engage in Learning will be of great interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the fields of further and higher education, widening participation, social justice and sociology of education, and education policy and politics.

Download or read book Pathways to Academic Success in Higher Education written by Edward P. St. John and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-07-02 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pathways to Academic Success in Higher Education examines two major challenges facing the nation. The first is preparing high school students for college, a reform that has been tackled largely through state policy initiatives. The second is creating new pathways to academic success for underrepresented students in higher education, a challenge that must be addressed within a decentralized system of higher education. Part one: Presents and documents key findings from research on K-12 education policy. Part two: Provides action research using a state data system to inform colleges and universities. Part three: Focuses on the future of policy and organizational initiatives to improve opportunity. This book integrates studies conducted over nearly a decade and offers guidance on how best to understand and promote retention and success once students have gained access.