Even With Affirmative Action, Blacks and Hispanics are More Underrepresented at Top Colleges Than 35 years Ago

Equitable access to a higher education remains elusive. A recent New York Times article revealed that Black and Hispanic freshman are more underrepresented at the nation’s elite colleges today than they were 35 years ago.

Policy Levers Leading the Way to Reentry for Incarcerated Students

We know that postsecondary education changes lives and provides a stepping-stone to prosperity. Though we recognize education’s transformative power, those who stand to benefit the most are often cut off from access—especially individuals in the criminal justice system.

Mobility Report Cards: The Role of Colleges in Intergenerational Mobility

In their recently updated working paper, Mobility Report Cards: the Role of Colleges in Intergenerational Mobility, authors Raj Chetty, John Friedman, Emmanuel Saez, Nicholas Turner, and Danny Yagan analyze the role colleges play in upward income mobility.

From the Brookings Blog: The For-Profit Student Debt Dilemma

A recent blog post from The Brookings Institution discusses findings from their report on trends in student borrowing across sectors. Overall, the authors found that patterns for borrowing in the for-profit sector are similar to the private nonprofit sector in that students enrolled in these institutions are much more likely to borrow, tend to borrow larger amounts, and supplement federal funding with money from non-federal sources.

Goodwin College: Inspiring a Call for Community-Based Education

When Goodwin College moved to its present location in East Hartford, Connecticut, the university committed philosophically to creating something new to the region: a community-based educational organization that would become a vital part of the daily life of the town. Goodwin President Mark Scheinberg explains how that is working out.

Geography and College Attainment: A Place-Based Approach

Place is an influential determinant of college opportunity and success. But geography should not be destiny. States and higher education institutions should adopt policies and practices that recognize place-based disadvantage, according to Roman Ruiz and Laura W. Perna of the University of Pennsylvania.

Strengthening the College Pipeline for Young Men of Color in California

A new report by The Education Trust – West, the California based office of The Education Trust, examines the barriers to educational opportunities for young men of color in California. The report incorporates interviews with male students of color, their parents, educators and school administrators with research to provide a picture of their experiences in the education pipeline.

Building Family-Friendly Campuses: Strategies to Promote College Success Among Student Parents

While the share of parents enrolled in college has been steadily growing—according to the most recent data, the proportion of students with dependent children has increased 30 percent from 2004-12—the share of parenting students who complete college remains low. Melanie Kruvelis of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research looks at steps institutions can take to better understand and support students with families.

Understanding Foster, Juvenile Justice and Crossover Youth

The American Youth Policy Forum recently released their Understand Foster, Juvenile Justice, and Crossover Youth microsite and blog series, which aim to increase understanding of the barriers these populations face.

Food Is a Basic Need: Dealing With Hunger on College Campuses

Wick Sloane writes that more data is needed on the issue of campus hunger before a comprehensive solution can be advanced—and on that score, an upcoming study from Government Accountability Office is a welcome development. This is the second post in a new series, Beyond the Margins: Meeting the Needs of Underserved Students.