National Policy Organizations Launch Intensive Efforts to Address the Nation's Low...

National Policy Organizations Launch Intensive Efforts to Address the Nation's
Low College Completion Rates

Research and recommendations will inform policies and programs designed to
better prepare young adults for today's economy

Leading national policy organizations announced today new efforts to identify
why so many young Americans drop out of college and to propose new policies
and practices necessary to help low-income, African-American, and Hispanic
students complete their educations. These efforts are funded by more than $6.4
million in grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Today, a two-year or four-year college degree or certificate is a prerequisite
for economic success. Recent college graduates with a four-year degree can
expect to earn roughly $17,000 more per year than a similarly aged worker who
has only a high school diploma.

Despite the tangible economic incentives to finish college, completion rates
in America have been flat since the 1970s. Where the United States was once
first in the world in postsecondary completion rates, it now ranks tenth. In
fact, only about half of all freshmen entering baccalaureate programs will
earn their degrees within six years, according to a new study by the American
Enterprise Institute (AEI), which the Gates Foundation partially funded.

Until recently, reform efforts and national policies have focused on
increasing access to higher education for more students, particularly among
low-income and minority populations. But access means little if students never
earn the credential that will open the door to high-paying jobs and a better
life.

"For too long, federal, state, and institutional policies have ignored the
academic and financial realities of the majority of American college
students," said Hilary Pennington, director of Education, Postsecondary
Success and Special Initiatives at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "It's
time to identify and support innovative ways to help more young people
complete college in a reasonable amount of time and at a reasonable cost."
While many factors influence whether a student completes college, the AEI
report, Diplomas and Dropouts, suggests that the policies and practices of the
colleges matter, too.

"Many colleges blame their low graduation rates on their students, citing poor
high school preparation and the need to enroll a diverse array of
undergraduates," said Frederick M. Hess, lead author of the AEI's report.
"Graduation rates should certainly be considered in the context of a school's
admissions criteria, but we cannot give colleges and universities a free pass
on the extent to which they fulfill their most basic mission -- to ensure that
qualified students earn a bachelor's degree."

One factor affecting graduation rates is cost: Tuition and fees at public
four-year institutions have increased more than 4 percent each year over the
last decade. The College Board's Rethinking Student Aid project has been
examining ways to improve the effectiveness of the student financial aid
system in order to reduce the enrollment and graduation rate gaps between
affluent students and those from less privileged backgrounds. The grants
announced today will support that ongoing effort.

"The current financial aid system was conceived in the 1950s and developed
incrementally over the years," said College Board President Gaston Caperton.
"We need to advocate and advance innovative practices that are better designed
for the realities of today's families and can demonstrate that paying for
college can be made less complicated, resulting in significant increases in
enrollment and completion."

But cost is only one factor, and it may not even be the most important one.
Many groups are already working toward figuring out what changes colleges can
make to their internal policies to help boost completion rates, especially
among minority and low-income students.

"By failing to adopt student-friendly policies, we are missing out on a huge
human capital opportunity, particularly among Latino students," said Sarita
Brown, co-founder and president of Excelencia in Education. "Fortunately,
there is an emerging group of institutions making those needed changes. Now is
the time to focus on the tactics that produce student success while continuing
to push for innovation."

In a recent speech to Congress, President Obama emphasized how low graduation
rates threaten our nation's competitiveness. He challenged colleges and
universities to improve, promising that, "by 2020 America will once again have
the highest proportion of college graduates in the world."

"More and more Americans realize that college completion has broad and
quantifiable impacts on society as a whole," said Michelle Asha Cooper,
president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy. "Specifically, future
economic growth, innovation, and leadership will depend on our ability to
sustain excellence in higher education."

Part of that solution means making sure college freshman are ready for the
rigors of their postsecondary educations and helping them when they are not.

Federal and state policies that support student success and college completion
are also needed.

"Many low-income youth and adults have to balance work, family, and school to
meet their immediate basic needs, yet there are too few policies in place to
support these students' educational and career aspirations," said Julie
Strawn, senior fellow at the Center for Law and Social Policy. "These students
can be successful if we adopt policies that recognize and are tailored to the
realities of their lives."

These grants build on the foundation's investments to help ensure that
students graduate high school academically prepared for success in college and
then continue on to earn a postsecondary degree or certificate with real value
in the job market by age 26.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In
developing countries, it focuses on improving people's health and giving them
the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United
States, it seeks to ensure that all people -- especially those with the fewest
resources -- have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school
and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff
Raikes and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and
Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.

Grants Announced Today:

-- American Enterprise Institute (AEI) will receive $1.25 million to
launch
a significant new research project, which will include commissioned
papers, major conferences, and a book about accountability in higher
education. These projects will be data-driven and non-ideological, and
will be designed to encourage a national conversation about
postsecondary accountability. Founded in 1943, AEI sponsors research,
conferences, and publications on issues of government, economics, and
social welfare. The Institute is committed to expanding liberty,
increasing individual opportunity, and strengthening free enterprise.
www.aei.org. Media Contact: Veronique Rodman, vrodman@AEI.org
-- The Center for American Progress (CAP) will receive $800,000 to study
and report on more than a dozen topics related to college completion.
CAP's work will result in policy recommendations that would bring
coherence to a fractured national system of higher education
institutions, give low-income students the targeted assistance they
need
to complete their educations, and bring accountability to institutions
that are receiving evermore public money but graduating fewer and
fewer
of their students. CAP was founded in 2003 and is headed by John D.
Podesta, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and professor
at the Georgetown University Law Center. CAP is designed to provide
long-term leadership and support to the progressive movement.
www.americanprogress.org. Media Contact: John Neurohr, (202) 481-8182,
jneurohr@americanprogress.org
-- Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) will receive $1.5 million to
support a new Center on Postsecondary and Economic Success within its
organization. The Center will promote federal and state policy
innovation to help low-income students, including working students,
out-of-school youth, and other nontraditional students earn marketable
postsecondary credentials through research, analysis, educational
activities, and technical assistance to states and anti-poverty
organizations. CLASP develops and advocates for policies at the
federal,
state, and local levels that improve the lives of low-income people.
www.clasp.org. Media Contact: Jenice Robinson, jrobinson@clasp.org
-- The College Board will receive $675,000 to create the Center for
Innovation and Advocacy. The Center will study policies and programs
that increase college access and success, with a focus on increasing
college completion among traditionally underrepresented students. For
example, the Center will support the College Board's ongoing
Rethinking Student Aid project, which aims to redesign the federal
student aid system to make it simpler, more efficient, and more
focused
on encouraging college success. The College Board is a national
not-for-profit education association comprised of more than 5,600
college, university, and school members driven by a simple but
powerful
mission statement: To connect students to college success and
opportunity. Each year the College Board serves 7 million students and
parents, 23,000 high schools, and 3,800 colleges through major
programs
in college admissions, guidance, assessment, financial aid,
enrollment,
teaching, and learning. www.collegeboard.org. Media Contact: Jennifer
Topiel, (212) 713-8052, communications@collegeboard.org
-- Excelencia in Education will receive $600,000 to raise awareness about
the significance of accelerating Latino college completion rates to
meet
the country's human capital needs through a new campaign, Enhancing
America's Future. This campaign will be developed through
high-level meetings with postsecondary policy leaders, benchmarking
national and state level Latino college degree completion, and an
outcomes-driven focus on dissemination of promising practices.
Launched
in 2004, Excelencia in Education is a national not-for-profit that
links
research, policy, and practice to support higher educational
achievement
for Latino students and all students. www.edexcelencia.org. Media
Contact: Wendy Cervantes, (202) 778-8323, wcervantes@edexcelencia.org

-- Institute for Higher Education Policy will receive $1.58 million over
three years to support research to improve policies related to
academic
excellence and degree attainment by publishing reports, issue briefs,
and fact sheets as well as connecting that research to policy and
practice. Key beneficiaries of this work will be federal and state
policymakers, media, higher education funders and organizations,
institutional leaders, and researchers. The Institute for Higher
Education Policy is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated
to
improving access and success in postsecondary education around the
world. www.ihep.org. Media Contact: Michelle Asha Cooper,
cooper@ihep.org

CONTACT: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Press: +1-206-709-3400,
media@gatesfoundation.org

/PRNewswire-USNewswire -- June 16/

SOURCE Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation