The College Completion Agenda:  State Policy Guide

NCSL Resources NCSL Postsecondary Education Resources Print Friendly Version

Today we face a crisis across the educational landscape: High school completion rates are dropping. Achievement gaps persist, with significant disparities for students from low income families and for minority students. Greater numbers of students are enrolling in U.S. colleges and universities, yet the proportion of individuals earning a postsecondary degree or credential continues to decline. The proportion of adults with postsecondary credentials is not keeping pace with that of other industrialized nations, and the United States is facing an alarming education deficit that threatens our global competitiveness and economic future.

There are formidable challenges at every level of the system that confront students who aspire to enroll and succeed in college. In 2007, the College Board formed the Commission on Access, Admissions and Success in Higher Education to study the educational pipeline as a single continuum and identify solutions to increase the number of students who graduate from college and are prepared to succeed in the 21st century. The commission found that a “torrent of American talent and human potential entering the educational pipeline is reduced to a trickle 16 years later as it moves through the K–16 system.” In short, too many students fall through the cracks at each point of the P–16 pipeline. Led by William “Brit” Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, the commission established 10 interdependent recommendations to reach its goal of ensuring that at least 55 percent of Americans hold a postsecondary degree by 2025. To improve our college completion rates, we must think P–16 and improve education from preschool through higher education. State legislators and policymakers can play a large role in advancing each of the recommendations.

The College Board and the National Conference of State Legislatures joined together to produce a practical policy guide for state legislators to pursue each of the commission’s recommendations. The guide acts as a road map toward increasing the number of Americans who attain a postsecondary degree and empowering legislators to be an even more positive and active force in education reform.

Each of the commission’s recommendations is the focus of a chapter in the State Policy Guide. The ten recommendations are:
 

1. Provide a program of voluntary preschool education, universally available to children from low-income families
2. Improve middle and high school college and career counseling
3. Implement the best research-based dropout prevention programs
4. Align the K–12 education system with international standards and college admission expectations
5. Improve teacher quality and focus on recruitment and retention
6. Clarify and simplify the admission process
7. Provide more need-based grant aid while simplifying and making financial aid processes more transparent
8. Keep college affordable
9. Dramatically increase college completion rates
10. Provide postsecondary opportunities as an essential element of adult education programs

Each chapter includes:

• Brief background information on the topic;
• A list of questions that state legislators need to ask about conditions in their own states;
• An overview of current and relevant research;
• Specific strategies for dealing with the problems;
• The cost implications of the policy strategies (including low- , medium- and high-cost options);
• Examples of policies that are currently being implemented in the states; and
• Short- , medium- and long-term action steps state legislators can take.