Research on Access & Completion
Access to College
Remediation: Higher Education's Bridge to Nowhere
Complete College America's 2012 report describes how more than 1.7 million beginning students are enrolled in remediation each year and most will not graduate. The report also provides state-level data.
Why Access Matters: The Community College Student Body
Produced in 2012 by the American Association of Community Colleges, this brief describes the students who are drawn to and served by community colleges(nearly half of all minority students and more than 40 percent of undergraduate students living in poverty) and how to ensure that access is not deteriorated.
Degree Completion
A Matter of Degrees: Promising Practices for Community College Student Success
Produced by the Center for Community College Student Engagement in 2012, this report describes 13 promising practices in community colleges across the nation in order to help college leaders make evidence-based decisions about how to focus institutional energy, reallocate limited resources, design more effective programs, and bring strong programs to more students.
College Attainment
A Stronger Nation through Higher Education
A 2012 report by the Lumina Foundation states that college completion rates continue to climb -- 38.3 percent of working-age Americans (ages 25-64) held a two- or four-year college degree in 2010, a modest increase over 2009 and 2008 -- but that more must be done to build on the gains.
Washington State Higher Education Policy
State Policy Leadership Vacuum: Performance and Policy in Washington Higher Education
This 2012 report describes Washington state's higher education system as "adrift," and reports that Washington lags behind most other states in the total number of bachelor's degrees produced per capita; only 40 of every 100 students who start ninth grade enter college on time; and one-fourth fo adults (ages 18-64) have not earned a high school diploma. Produced by the Institute for Research on Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.