Category Archives: Access

Access

$125K Prize Launched to Promote College and Vocational Success

Does your organization help low-income youth access and complete college or vocational degrees?

You may be eligible for financial support to help you reach more students.

The Evergreen National Education Prize—launched by The Greenwald Family Foundation in conjunction with the Nudge4 Solutions Lab at the University of Virginia—will award $125,000 to an organization that can demonstrate evidence of increasing college or vocational success for low-income students and that has a plan to scale its program’s impact.

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Access, Advocacy, Financial Aid

‘Verification Melt’ Keeps Students from College Dreams

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A little over half of all students who were eligible for the Pell Grant were selected for verification in 2015-16.

The procedure, which requires students to submit additional paperwork to prove their income, inserts an extra step into the financial aid process. And in an op-ed published by The Hill this week, Justin Draeger—president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators—voiced concerns that verification keeps some students from attending college.

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Academic Performance, Access

Low-Income Families Play a Powerful Role in the Success of Their Students

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Financial assistance is crucial to the academic success of low-income college students, but according to new research, family support may be even more influential.

A study published recently in Research in Higher Education showed that students with a strong familial cheering section did better at navigating college life and classes.

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Access, College Admission, College Readiness

Report: Bar Set Too Low for Students with Disabilities

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Many students with disabilities can graduate from high school and go on to college, yet an investigation by The Hechinger Report reveals that a disproportionate number of young people on Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) suffer from low expectations when it comes to postsecondary planning.

“Interviews with more than 100 parents, students, advocates, and experts across the country painted a picture of a special education landscape where transition planning and services are largely neglected,” reporters Sarah Butrymowicz and Jackie Mader wrote in an article published late last year. “Students with disabilities who could pursue higher education or meaningful employment are instead living at home and working low-wage jobs.”

Others are unemployed or pushed into professions that don’t match their interests.

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Access

College Access Documentary Now Streaming Online

What does it take to overcome your circumstances and make it to college?

Roadtrip Nation, along with Better Make Room and the ACT Center for Equity on Learning, wanted to find out. So they sent three first-generation college students, Esther, Ikie, and Estephanie, on a road trip around the country. The trip was turned into a documentary titled Beating the Odds.

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Access, College Readiness

Do You Know When to Nudge? Watch Our Facebook Live Broadcast with Ben Castleman

In recent years, we’ve learned more about successful strategies for boosting college access and academic success.

But for many schools, communities, and colleges, bringing those interventions to students has proven challenging, researcher Ben Castleman said Tuesday during a NACAC Facebook Live broadcast.

A new guide— Nudges, Norms, and New Solutions — seeks to fill that gap. The resource is available free of charge and offers step-by-step advice to help educators increase college access, help students file for financial aid, and stay on track academically.

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Access

Survey: Americans Think US Higher Education System Must Change

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Americans believe in the power of higher education, but most say that colleges aren’t functioning the way they should.

According to a recent survey of 1,600 US adults commissioned by the Washington, DC-based New America think tank:

  • Seventy-five percent of Americans say that it is easier to be successful with a college degree.
  • But only a quarter of those surveyed agree that the higher education system “is functioning just fine the way it is.”

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Access

#NACACreads: Book Club Examines Racism in America

Beverly Daniel Tatum’s classic book —Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? — is chock-full of hard truths.

And when participants in Monday’s #NACACreads chat gathered online to discuss the bestseller, they confronted many of those realities and shared ideas for how to make things better for the students they serve.

“Prejudice is one of the inescapable consequences of living in a racist society. Cultural racism — the cultural images and messages that affirm the assumed superiority of Whites and the assumed inferiority of people of color — is like smog in the air,” Tatum writes in the book, revised in 2017. “Sometimes it is so thick it is visible, other times it is less apparent, but always, day in and out, we are breathing it in.

“None of us would introduce ourselves as ‘smog breathers’ (and most of us don’t want to be described as prejudiced),” she added. “But if we live in a smoggy place, how can we avoid breathing the air?”

Counselors and admission professionals from across the country joined in the discussion. Here are highlights from the hour-long chat.

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