Fifty States of Achieving the Dream

In each state where Achieving the Dream colleges are located, the initiative is working with lead organizations to develop policies that will enhance student success. Achieving the Dream: State Policies to Enhance Access to and Success in Community Colleges Across the United States reports the results of a state policy audit undertaken to help guide that effort. The policies that states have in place are analyzed with respect to key community college practices in three main areas: access, success, and performance accountability. In addition, the report examines how the effectiveness of those policies was judged by state and local community college leaders.

Aligning Postsecondary Expectations and High School Practice: The Gap Defined

A study released by ACT, Inc., Aligning Postsecondary Expectations and High School Practice: The Gap Defined, points to a gap between what high schools are teaching students and what colleges want incoming students to know. The study finds that there are specific differences between high school instruction and postsecondary expectations in every major curriculum area. Because of this and other discrepancies, states are now working to better align high school standards, tests and curricula with college expectations, and creating "P-16" or "P-20" councils to help coordinate goals and activities across the various levels of education. To bring states closer to meeting the goal of ensuring that a high school education prepares its graduates for the challenges of postsecondary education and the workforce, the study recommends ten action steps, including establishing core course requirements for high school graduation, measuring student progress with college readiness assessments, and beginning to measure college readiness earlier.

Science Education That Makes Sense

In Science Education that Makes Sense, the American Educational Research Association looks at research and science education and international comparisons of U.S. achievement, and provides policymakers with actionable recommendation. It concludes that instruction that invites students to make sense of science by explaining complex ideas, uses the power of technology to provide a window on scientific processes, guides students to explore compelling problems, and focuses on key ideas can sustain interest in science and promote lifelong learning.

Career and Technical Education

The Association for Career and Technical Education has released a report exploring the role of Career and Technical Education (CTE) in dropout prevention and recovery. The brief argues that high quality CTE can help more students persist in and complete high school by preparing them for the postsecondary education and training that will be critical to future economic successes, increasing student engagement, building positive relationships, and providing innovative delivery methods.

The Working Poor and College Access

College Access for the Working Poor, a report from the Institute for Higher Education Policy, documents that despite the fact the working poor who take college courses think of themselves as students first and employees second, their work place commitments, financial stressors and familial obligations pose particular challenges to full-time attendance and degree completion. The report tracks specific barriers to college access faced by the working poor and their children, and offers a number of recommendations to combat their college-going woes. Recommendations include tax relief, targeted support for single parents, a revision of the federal financial aid need analysis, and additional outreach programs and institutional support.

Returning to Learning

Increasing global economic competition and the rapid pace of technological change are revolutionizing the skills and educational qualifications necessary for individual job success and national economic well-being. Adult students, however, are often left out of discussions of higher education policy. The Lumina Foundation for Education, as part of the Emerging Pathways project, has released a report to begin addressing the challenges of documenting, discussing and understanding adult students. Returning to Learning: Adults’ Success in College is Key to America’s Future describes today’s adult learners and how they currently fit into the postsecondary world, identifies areas of concern, and makes a number of recommendations for change.