Getting Ready, Getting In and Getting Through

Getting Ready, Getting In and Getting Through

We are determined to make college access and success a reality for all students, including those from low-income backgrounds. The CollegeKeys Compact™ is a call to action to Compact member school districts, colleges and universities, state education agencies, and nonprofit organizations. Our goal is to identify, share, and intensify ways to address the needs and challenges of increasing access and success for low-income students.

Read the CollegeKeys Compact full report, join the Compact, and share effective practices to ensure students from low-income backgrounds can get ready for, get into, and get through college.

Getting Ready

“The pre-collegiate achievement gap between children from high- and low-income families has been increasing for at least 50 years and is roughly 30-40 percent larger among children born in 2001 than among those born 25 years earlier.” - Reardon, S.F. 2011. The widening academic-achievement gap between the rich and the poor: New evidence and possible explanations. Getting Ready (.pdf/99KB)

Getting In

“Low-income, high-achieving students are underrepresented at the nation’s top postsecondary institutions, and this underrepresentation is partially explained by inadequate targeting of these students due to geographical biases in recruitment.” - Hill, C.B., and G.C. Winston. 2010. Low-income students and highly selective private colleges: Geography, searching, and recruiting. Getting In (.pdf/98KB)

Getting Through

“Spending more money on colleges’ non-instructional expenses can increase graduation and persistence rates, especially at colleges with low entrance exam scores and large amounts of Pell grant recipients, which are the very colleges with low graduation rates.” - Webber, D., and R. Ehrenberg. 2010. Do expenditures other than instructional expenditures affect graduation and persistence rates in American higher education? Getting Through (.pdf/91KB)

Highlight

The College Board Advocacy & Policy Center would like to congratulate the winners of the third annual CollegeKeys Compact Innovation Awards. Each winner was recognized at their College Board Regional Forum for their exemplary programs helping low-income students get ready for, get into or get through college successfully. Learn more about the Innovation Awards winners.

Related Downloads

• The CollegeKeys Compact Catalog of 2011 Effective Practices (pdf/747K)
• The CollegeKeys Compact Catalog of 2010 Effective Practices (pdf/398K)
• The CollegeKeys Compact: An Open Letter to the Leaders of American Education (pdf/748K)

Contact

CollegeKeys Compact™

The College Board
1233 20th Street, NW
Washington, DC, District of Columbia 20036
Phone: (202) 741-4702
FAX: (202) 741-4743
Email: collegekeys@collegeboard.org