Research shows that earning college credit while in high school increases students' chances of going to college directly after high school and of earning a college credential. Research also makes clear, however, that access to early postsecondary opportunities is uneven, with lower rates of participation among students of color, those from…

Dual enrollment (DE), in which high school students take college courses and earn both high school and college credit, has great potential to help make the high-school-to-college transition more effective and equitable--and to do so on a large scale. There is strong evidence that DE improves academic outcomes for students, including completing…

A growing number of community colleges and four-year universities are seeking to improve student outcomes by redesigning academic programs and student support services following the guided pathways approach. These institutions are mapping out highly structured, educationally coherent program pathways for students to follow by starting with the end…

The idea behind guided pathways is straightforward. College students are more likely to complete a degree in a timely fashion if they choose a program and develop an academic plan early on, have a clear road map of the courses they need to take to complete a credential, and receive guidance and support to help them stay on plan. However, most…

In 2011, working groups from across the eight campuses of Miami Dade College (MDC) conducted a wide-ranging examination of why many students were not completing their programs. These groups identified a number of reasons for student attrition. Students were unclear about how to progress through programs--they had too many course and program…

Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) is an innovative program and strategy developed by the Washington (WA) State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) in conjunction with the state's 29 community colleges and five technical colleges. Its goal is to increase the rate at which adult basic education and…

Increasingly jobs that pay more than subsistence wages and offer opportunities for career advancement require at least some training beyond high school, even at the entry level. Bridge training programs are designed to prepare individuals without the requisite basic skills for postsecondary training leading to career-path employment and further…

One of the generally accepted premises of current economic thinking is that a large and expanding proportion of growth is tied to what has come to be known as the "knowledge economy" or equivalently, the innovation sector. Despite recent U.S. Census Bureau data indicating that Latinos now constitute the largest minority group of the U.S.…