TRAVIS REINDL, JOBS FOR THE FUTURE (USA)

FORUM ON HIGHER EDUCATION AND SOCIAL INCLUSION

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA16 JULY 2008

Delivering a Promise: American Innovations for Promoting College

Access and Success

Context

Finance Institutional: public

subsidies based primarily on enrollment (input), as opposed to persistence and completion (throughput)

Student: evolution of grant aid (need merit need/merit); rise of loans

Programming Student success focus

driven by: Changing demographics K-12 reform movement

(pipeline ruptures) Rise of graduation rate as

an accountability metric Programs developed as

add-ons, funded by shifting combination of primarily federal and philanthropic investments

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Forces for Change: Demographic3

Forces for Change: Political

US Rankings on the World Stage: 1st: spending per

student (more than 2x OECD average)

19th: college completion (tied for last in OECD)

10th: percentage of 25-34 year olds with AA+

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New Approaches

Finance Institutional: movement

toward persistence and completion incentives in public subsidy Indiana Ohio Tennessee Texas

Student: emergence of “covenant” programs targeting low-income secondary students Indiana 21st Century Scholars Oklahoma’s Promise

Programming Early College High Schools

(five-year program for acquiring high school diploma, postsecondary credits up to AA)

Expansion of dual high school-college enrollment programs (to low SES schools and students)

Redesign of “gatekeeper” courses (National Center for Academic Transformation)

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Insights

The power of unintended consequences Need to develop policies that do not provide implicit

incentives for recruiting and retaining only the best and brightest

The need to confront conventional wisdom At-risk students often need challenge over remediation,

student success programs can be cost-effective, larger classes do not have to mean higher levels of attrition

The importance of scalability and sustainability Doing things differently has not really been the problem;

challenge has been doing things differently at scale and through political and fiscal cycles

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