Beyond access: Improving the odds of college success

Phi Delta Kappan

Volumn 81, Issue 9, 2000, Pages 688-692

  Gladieux, Lawrence E ^a   Swail, Watson Scott ^b  

^a SRI International ^*

^b SRI INTERNATIONAL   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 1542634218     PISSN: 00317217     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (21)

1. In November 1988, the William T. Grant Foundation Commission on Work, Family and Citizenship issued a report titled The Forgotten Half: Pathways to Success for America's Youth and Young Families.
2. Ten years later, a group of foundations sponsored a retrospective analysis to determine whether conditions had improved for this population. The Forgotten Half Revisited was published by the American Youth Policy Forum in November 1998 and is available from the AYPF at 202/775-9731.
3. See Lawrence E. Gladieux and Watson Scott Swail, The Virtual University and Educational Opportunity: Issues of Equity and Access for the Next Generation (Washington, D.C.: The College Board, 1999).
4. Laura I. Rendon, "Access in a Democracy: Narrowing the Opportunity Gap," paper presented at the Policy Panel on Access, National Postsecondary Education Cooperative, Washington, D.C., 9 September 1997, p. 7.
5. Clifford Adelman, "Diversity: Walk the Walk, and Drop the Talk," Change, July/August 1997, p. 41.
6. "Mathematics Equals Opportunity," white paper released by U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley, 20 October 1997 (http://www.ed.gov/pubs/ math/). The College Board's EQUITY 2000 program is a mathematics-based school reform strategy that grew out of similar research. In EQUITY 2000 school districts, students are required to complete first-year algebra by grade 9 and geometry by grade 10. They are provided with safety-net programs (such as Saturday academies) to help them succeed.
7. Over 92% of all eighth-graders in 1988 expected to go to college, as did 88% of all low-income students, according to Access to Postsecondary Education for 1992 High School Graduates (Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, 1997), p. 16, Table 8; p. 17, Table 9.
8. MPR Associates, Inc., of Berkeley, California, developed a four-year college-qualification index for the National Center for Education Statistics based on high school grade-point average, senior class rank, NELS 1992 aptitude test, SAT and ACT scores, and academic coursework. The index is used in Access to Postsecondary Education for 1992 High School Graduates.
9. Access to Postsecondary Education for 1992 High School Graduates, p. 28, Table 14.
10. Arthur Levine and Jana Nidiffer, Beating the Odds: How the Poor Get to College (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996), p. 143.
11. Arthur Levine and Jana Nidiffer, Beating the Odds: How the Poor Get to College Ibid., pp. 65, 139.
12. See Robert H. Fenske et al., Early Intervention Programs: Opening the Door to Higher Education (Washington, D.C.: George Washington University, 1997);
13. Watson S. Swail, "The Development of a Conceptual Framework to Increase Student Retention in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Programs at Minority Institutions of Higher Education," ERIC ED 396 921, 1995;
14. and Levine and Nidiffer, The Development of a Conceptual Framework to Increase Student Retention in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Programs at Minority Institutions of Higher Education," op. cit.
15. The TRIO programs are so named for three programs created by Congress during the mid-1960s: Upward Bound, Talent Search, and Student Support Services. Several related programs, including Educational Opportunity Centers, McNair Baccalaureate Achievement Program, Veterans Upward Bound, and Disability Student Support Services, have been added over the years. Yet as a group the programs continue to be referred to as "TRIO." (See http:// www.trioprograms.org for more information.)
16. Samuel M. Kipp III, "Demographic Trends and Their Impact on the Future of the Pell Grant Program," in Lawrence E. Gladieux, Bart Astor, and Watson Scott Swail, eds., Memory, Reason, and Imagination: A Quarter Century of Pell Grants (New York: College Entrance Examination Board, 1998).
17. Programs such as the University of North Carolina's MSEN program (Mathematics and Science Education Network, http://www.unc.edu/depts/msen/), for grades 6-12;
18. California's MESA program (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement, http:// mesa.ucop.edu/), for grades 4-12; and Xavier University's ChemStar, BioStar, and MathStar programs (high school) have had excellent success in motivating and preparing students from underrepresented groups for college. College/community partnerships such as these do work.
19. Quoted in Lawrence E. Gladieux, "'A Diverse Student Body': The Challenge of Equalizing College Opportunities," Journal of College Admission, vol. 152/153, 1996, p. 8.
20. Some prominent examples include the Emerging Scholars Program (ESP), based at the University of Texas at Austin, which uses peer interaction to form strong, cohesive study groups that encourage academic excellence and problem solving; the Supplemental Instruction Program developed at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and now in place at more than 1,100 campuses across the country, which provides tutoring-like experiences for students on campus; and the University of South Carolina's Freshman Seminar Program, originally developed to help retain African American students through their freshman year.
21. Quoted in Lawrence E. Gladieux and Thomas R. Wolanin, Congress and the Colleges (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, 1976), p. 28.