One hundred years ago, Chocolate Magnate Milton S. Hershey and his wife Catherine signed the deed of trust creating the Hershey Industrial School in the heart of their Pennsylvania farming community. They had no children of their own and wanted to help orphan boys get a good education. The couple eventually left their entire fortune to the school.…

This article paints a comprehensive portrait of the demographic, financial, and educational characteristics of Pennsylvania postsecondary students who are adult learners, and identifies rural-urban differences within this group. The study analyzed data from the 2010-11 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (n = 610,925), supplemented by…

Transitions to postsecondary education for GED graduates are a growing concern for educators and policy makers. This article analyzes the educational, demographic, and financial characteristics of Pennsylvania postsecondary students with a GED credential compared with traditional high school graduates, and identifies rural-urban differences within…

Increasing the number of college students who graduate prepared for participation in the workforce and civil society will require a redoubling of efforts to improve college-going and completion rates for students traditionally underrepresented by higher education--individuals from low-income backgrounds and young people of color, who currently…

Despite some cuts to the nation's oldest Federal College Access Programs, known as the TRIO programs (e.g., Upward Bound), new education policies have emphasized college and career readiness. In 2010, Congress approved the College Access Challenge Grant Program, which aims to increase the number of low-income students who are ready for college.…

Part of Carlow University's social justice mission is a commitment to providing access to education. This commitment can lead the institution to admit students who are not prepared for college-level work. As a result, the university recently removed a sequence of developmental classes because it lengthened the time to graduation, and there was no…

More high school students today are graduating college-ready, career-ready or both, thanks to an emphasis by modern business and industry, strong support from states and more rigorous learning experiences at schools across the nation. It has been said many times, but now it is sinking in. From hospitals to factories, employees need to know how to…

Nearly 60 percent of incoming community college students are unprepared for college-level work and must take at least one pre-college, "developmental" course, usually in math or English, before enrolling in any credit-bearing classes toward a degree. Within developmental education, students are most likely to need help with mathematics,…

This report provides educators and policymakers with information they can use to celebrate their successes, understand their unique challenges, and set meaningful goals to increase opportunity for all students. It is important to note that while AP® Exams are valid measures of students' content mastery of college-level studies in specific academic…

Almost 7 million young Americans (age 16-24) are insufficiently attached to school or work. Based on conservative estimates, we can generate over $1 billion just by helping a mere 0.1 percent earn a high school credential and complete their first year of college through Back on Track Designs. This brief lays out the cost of setting up these GED-…

National and regional trends mask important variation among states in the supply of high school graduates. This profile provides brief indicators for Pennsylvania related to: current levels of educational attainment, projections of high school graduates into the future, and two common barriers to student access and success--insufficient academic…

In fall 2001, the University of Pennsylvania opened a public elementary school a few blocks away from its West Philadelphia campus. With the opening of this school, Penn joined the list of colleges and universities that have recently gone into the business of operating elementary or secondary schools. In each situation, the university role differs…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore salient nonacademic factors related to social, economic, and cultural aspects together with traditional academic factors that influenced college retention. The study design employed a mixed-methods sequential explanatory method design, collecting quantitative data for correlation and…

The financial benefits of a college degree are clear. Philadelphians with 1-3 years of college earn a third more than high school graduates over a working lifetime, and four-year degree-holders earn twice as much. Furthermore, college-goers contribute substantially more in tax revenues to support services provided through local, state and federal…

The CollegeKeys Compact[TM] is a national call to action to school districts, colleges and universities, state education agencies, and nonprofit organizations to identify, share and expand programs and practices that address the needs and challenges of low-income students and help them get ready for, get into and get through college. The College…