Only 47 percent of low-income high school students enroll in college or trade school immediately after graduating, and only 18 percent of African-American and 19 percent of Hispanic high school graduates earn a bachelor’s degree by their late twenties, according to U.S. Department of Education statistics.
To help combat this problem, the department is partnering with six national foundations and 16 of the nation’s leading education organizations to improve opportunities for students from all backgrounds through the Pathways to College Network.
Pathways participants will work together to identify the most effective ways of helping underprivileged youth prepare for, get into, and complete college.
"The goal is to create a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts so that even the children from the most disadvantaged families have a strong shot at a college degree," Education Secretary Richard W. Riley said.
The six foundations underwriting the program are the KnowledgeWorks Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, the GE Fund and the Lucent Technologies Foundation. The U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) will also provide financial support.
The money will be administered by Boston-based The Education Resources Institute (TERI) with support from California's Occidental College.
"We need to figure out what works best —- whether it’s scholarships, mentoring, tutoring, changing educational policy, or a combination of these things —- then get this data into the hands of those running programs and schools and making policy," says Gatson Caperton, president of The College Board, one of the leading organizations in the network.
Network members have three goals as top priorities. The first is to identify policies and practices, inside and outside of schools, that are the most effective at putting students at the elementary and middle grade levels on the path to college.
The second goal is to create alliances between college and community-based outreach programs, such as Upward Bound and K-12 school reform efforts.
The third goal is to increase underserved students’ academic preparedness and build their educational goals through a national campaign.
"If we provide effective programs that help open the doors to a college education, more young people for whom college may not have been possible will see a clear pathway to -— and benefit from —- attaining a college degree," said Dr. Arnold Mitchem, president of the Council for Opportunity in Education.
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