The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) maintains that it should be the goal of all educators and policymakers to understand, support, and facilitate the transition of children and youth with disabilities to post-school life. This includes supporting children and youth to achieve their respective goals regarding postsecondary education and…

Over a century of research on postsecondary learning has documented that students often struggle with the academic literacy demands of college. Academic literacy tasks are the subset of all academic tasks that involve reading and writing and are rooted within larger cultural practices. These demands are challenging, complex, and varied, so…

The National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD) affirms the importance of transition as a critical component of successfully progressing from secondary school to college or university for students with learning disabilities. Although NJCLD has addressed secondary to postsecondary education transition planning in a previous paper,…

Mike Rose is a professor in the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. He has taught in a wide range of educational settings - from elementary school to adult literacy and job training programs--and has directed an Educational Opportunity (EOP) tutorial center. He is an author and member of the National Academy of Education and…

Community college transfer--rooted in the notion that any individual, regardless of background or academic preparation, could enroll at an open access college, transfer to a four-year institution, and earn a bachelor's degree--is the most transformative educational experiment of the century. Even for a nation that prides itself on second chances,…

In a higher education career that has spanned over four decades Hunter Boylan has served as a gang control worker, a TRIO Program Director, a community college and university instructor, a learning center director, and an academic advisor and counselor, just to name a few of his roles. He is the author of 7 books and over 100 articles, book…

In this article Trinity College vice president for enrollment and student success, Angel Pérez addresses the nation's inability to offer consistent college preparation, academic rigor and counseling across varying socioeconomic communities. Research has highlighted the fact that standardized tests do more to keep low-income students out of top…

With more and more students making community college the starting point of their postsecondary education, there is potential in the pipeline; tapping into it promises great rewards. Transfer has long been integral to the community college mission, but navigating the path to the four-year degree continues to be a challenge. Transfer students have…

This commentary explores pedagogical, societal, and political aspects of the college/career readiness reform movement as it impacts students in secondary classrooms. The authors begin with a snapshot of the students often left in the shadows of educational reform efforts, leaving them academically underprepared and destined for college…

Educators, researchers, and policymakers across the political spectrum agree that the nation must send more of its young people to college and find ways to help them graduate--especially young people from low-income families. To that end, in 2010, MDRC and a group of partners developed College Match, an innovative school-based college advising…

There's broad commitment to ensuring that all high-school graduates are college- and career-ready, but heated debate about the best means of achieving that goal. The big question is, how can schools both respect the diversity of students' interests and ambitions and set a high bar for all? In this forum, two longtime advocates of high…

Too often, students reach college without the learning, critical thinking, and literacy skills they need to succeed in higher education. Recent educational trends that promote teaching to the test, short reading and writing assignments, group work, and technological resources contribute to students' difficulties transitioning to college-level…

This article advocates for increased attention on the college admission letter to strengthen conditionally admitted students' academic self-efficacy as they begin the college experience. Although first communications are often considered perfunctory, the language of admission materials has strong potential to help at-risk students begin college…

Much ink has been spilled debating the role of the intellectual. William Tierney's article "Beyond the Ivory Tower: The Role of the Intellectual in Eliminating Poverty" in the August/September 2013 issue of "Educational Researcher" adds to this literature. In his article, Tierney presents recommendations to the education…

Although using the five-paragraph formula to teach essay writing is a ubiquitous practice--and many K-12 teachers defend it--Campbell argues that having students write according to this formula does more harm than good. The formula's tight structure stops the very critical thinking students need to do to strengthen their cognition and their…