America’s college completion agenda is more urgent than ever.  As Degreeless in Debt found, rising college prices are putting more students between a rock and a hard place: the things they do to avoid borrowing too much – like delaying enrollment, enrolling part-time, or working full-time – also make it much harder for them to complete their degrees.   While controlling costs and expandContinue Reading »

Today marks the first day of Student Debt Week of Action. This makes Degreeless in Debt: What Happens to Borrowers Who Drop Out even timelier as I investigated what happens to a growing class of students who drop out of college, but have loans to repay.  Unlike their degree-holding peers, those who drop out are more likely to be unemployed and earn less money, making it harder for them to pay bContinue Reading »

There are currently 37 million adults who have some college but no degree.  Many of them, for one reason or another, have dropped out of college and have been working for years.  But they are being left behind in an economy that increasingly demands skilled and credentialed workers.  As President Obama described in his State of the Union address, growing industries in science and technology havContinue Reading »

I’ve written in the past (see here and here) about how early colleges are a great strategy to help high school students earn college credits toward both their high school diploma and college degree.   On average, these students earn 23 credits – amounting to nearly two semester’s worth of time and tuition.  Another group of students could also reap the benefits of prior college credit—but are rContinue Reading »

Photo Credit: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Yesterday, you approved an amendment sponsored by Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) to ensure postsecondary credits earned through early colleges would be earned “at no cost to students or their families.” This ensures low-income students would have free access to early colleges as part of the new Pathways to College grant program in theContinue Reading »

In Part 1 of our Pathways series, we discussed the details of the proposed Pathways to College grant program.  The question that remained was what does it all mean? Can it help students from lower-performing, high-need schools become ready for postsecondary success?

One of the most promising aspects of the new Pathways to College grant program is that it requires funds to be usedContinue Reading »

On Fox and Friends last Saturday, the president of Belmont University criticized early college high schools for “watering down the process” because “high schools have a role, they should play that role; and universities have a role.”

Unfortunately, this type of status quo thinking can impede innovations that help our neediest students.  Early college high schools were designed specificalContinue Reading »

Last week’s release of Academically Adrift has caused a stir in the higher education community because of its claim that “American higher education is characterized by limited or no learning for a large proportion of students.” But one of the book’s overlooked findings is that students who receive grants as their primary form of financial aid learn more than students who receive mostly loans.  Continue Reading »