1st Edition

The State of College Access and Completion Improving College Success for Students from Underrepresented Groups

Edited By Laura W. Perna, Anthony Jones Copyright 2013
    256 Pages
    by Routledge

    252 Pages
    by Routledge

    Despite decades of substantial investments by the federal government, state governments, colleges and universities, and private foundations, students from low-income families as well as racial and ethnic minority groups continue to have substantially lower levels of postsecondary educational attainment than individuals from other groups. The State of College Access and Completion draws together leading researchers nationwide to summarize the state of college access and success and to provide recommendations for how institutional leaders and policymakers can effectively improve the entire spectrum of college access and completion.

    Springboarding from a seminar series organized by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, chapter authors explore what is known and not known from existing research about how to improve student success. This much-needed book calls explicit attention to the state of college access and success not only for traditional college-age students, but also for the substantial and growing number of "nontraditional" students. Describing trends in various outcomes along the pathway from college access to completion, this volume documents persisting gaps in outcomes based on students’ demographic characteristics and offers recommendations for strategies to raise student attainment. Graduate students, scholars, and researchers in higher education will find The State of College Access and Completion to be an important and timely resource.

    1. Introduction: Improving Postsecondary Access, Persistence, and Completion in the United States: Setting the Stage
      Anthony P. Jones
    2. Improving College Access and Choice
      Laura W. Perna and Elizabeth R. Kurban
    3. Pathways to College for Underserved and Nontraditional Students: Lessons from Research, Policy, and Practice
      Debra D. Bragg
    4. Proficiency Approaches for Making More Students College and Career Ready
      David T. Conley
    5. The Role of Remedial and Developmental Courses in Access and Persistence
      Bridget Terry Long and Angela Boatman
    6. The Role of Finances in Postsecondary Access and Success
      Donald E. Heller
    7. The Potential of Community Colleges to Increase Bachelor’s Degree Attainment Rates
      Tatiana Melguizo, Gregory Kienzl, and Holly Kosiewicz
    8. Longitudinal Pathways to College Persistence and Completion: Student, Institutional, and Public Policy Perspectives
      Donald Hossler, Afet Dundar, and Douglas T. Shapiro
    9. Access, Persistence, and Completion in the State Context
      James C. Hearn, Anthony P. Jones, and Elizabeth R. Kurban
    10. Non-Experimental Designs and Causal Analyses of College Access, Persistence, and Completion
      Stephen L. DesJardins and Allyson Flaster
    11. Conclusions: Improving College Access, Persistence and Completion: Lessons Learned
      Laura W. Perna

    Biography

    Laura W. Perna is Professor in the Graduate School of Education and Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Urban Research at the University of Pennsylvania, USA.

    Anthony P. Jones is Director of Policy Research for the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance in Washington, DC.