Best Education Practices and the College Completion Agenda

From the Report Summary: "The College Completion Agenda 2011 Progress Report notes progress in several of the indicators for completing college. . . . The report shows that high school graduation rates are increasing while fewer students are dropping out of school; this is a positive trend for the nation. Thirty-one states now have alignment between high school standards and college and workplace expectations (up 15.8 ppts), and colleges and universities are increasingly using technology to simplify the admission process for students seeking to access college. Most important, persistence rates are up for full-time students, and there has been an increase in the three- year graduation rates of associate degree–seeking students across the country. Currently, only the District of Columbia has achieved the 55 percent goal, with 64 percent of its young adults holding a postsecondary degree; Massachusetts is the leading state at 53.9 percent. Although the national college completion rate for 25- to 34-year-olds is 41.1 percent, disaggregating the data by race/ ethnicity shows a different picture. Although 69.1 percent of Asians in that age range have earned an associate degree or higher, only 19.2 percent of Hispanics, 29.4 percent of African Americans and 48.7 percent of white students have done so."

The full report has many more detailed charts and graphs and provides disaggregations by state, gender and/or race/ethnicity. State reports are also available and can be downloaded along with the full report at completionagenda.collegeboard.org

Implications for the MAEOPP Center: The promising and best education practices identified through the MAEOPP Best Education Practices Center are important contributions and national models for improving academic success for students, especially those that are first-generation, low-income, and historically-underrepresented. The report issued by the College Board demonostrates that while some progress has occurred, the gulf between students of color and white students is still enormous. Helping national policy makers and other educational leaders understand how successful TRiO programs are filled with individual education practices that work together to produce higher student outcomes. These successful TRiO progrms serve as incubators of the practices needed for collete completion is important for improving the overall success of the U.S. and its citizens in a highly competitve markeplace.