Mississippi’s public high school graduation rate was just 75.5 percent in 2012–13, according to the latest data available from the U.S. Department of Education — well below the national average of 81.4 percent. Without a high school diploma or technical credentials, people face low-paying job prospects, even at a time like this, with relatively low […]

Five years ago, when Vicky Smith became president of McHenry County College (MCC), in Illinois, she held a meeting. In the room were MCC administrators, math and English instructors, the regional county K–12 superintendent and several district superintendents and curriculum directors. The college’s administration told the group that 57 percent of recent high school graduates […]

A more intense spotlight on college costs, student readiness and equal access is helping to increase the nationwide interest in programs that let high school students earn college credits. These programs are growing at a rate of about 7 percent per year, according to the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP). Adam Lowe, executive […]

When Carlos E. Santiago, commissioner of higher education for Massachusetts, joined the state agency, in early 2013, a task force was already in place to transform developmental math. Needless to say, the data that helped form the task force was abysmal: 60 percent of students who entered community college in 2010 needed remediation in math […]

In recent weeks, at least six major education organizations have urged rethinking developmental education and adopting a more holistic approach to college placement. A recent report, A Call to Action to Improve Math Placement Policies and Processes, released jointly by Jobs for the Future, The Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas at […]

Students who take accelerated learning programs in writing and math at the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC), in Maryland, are more likely to advance to upper-level classes than are their peers who take standard remedial classes, research reveals. This success has inspired hundreds of other colleges to adopt similar programs. Like other community colleges, […]

With a major assist from the public-schools superintendent, North Carolina’s Sandhills Community College has scored a record number of applicants for its dual-enrollment program, drawing from high school students in the county of the college’s main campus. The dual-enrollment program is part of the statewide Career and College Promise initiative that launched in January 2012. […]

Editor’s Note: This article is the second in a two-part series on successful programs that are preparing high school students for the rigors of college study. Read the first here. Last year, when some 5,500 students completed their associate degrees at South Texas College (STC), about 1,500 students did so two weeks before high school […]

Editor’s Note: This article is the first of a two-part series on successful programs that are preparing high school students for the rigors of college study. Look for the second article on the 21st-Century Center tomorrow morning. The first group of Vermont high school seniors will soon complete the Community College of Vermont’s (CCV) Early […]

Ellen DeGeneres dropped out of the University of New Orleans after only one semester. Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic and chairman of WordPress (which powers more than 20 percent of the Internet), was not a successful college student and dropped out of the University of Houston. The same is true of Woody Allen: He made […]