College Access

For resources on primary and secondary education, visit our Education resources

Promoting Educational Opportunity: The Pell Grant Program at Community Colleges

Davis S. Baime and Christopher M. Mullin, American Association of Community Colleges, June 2011

The College Payoff: Education, Occupations, and Lifetime Earnings

Anthony P .Carnevale, Stephen J. Rose and Ban Cheah, The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, August 2011

How Do Recent College Grads Really Stack Up? Employment and Earnings for Graduates of the Great Recession

Michael Greenstone, Director, The Hamilton Project and Senior Fellow, Economic Studies & Adam Looney, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, and Policy Director, The Hamilton Project

Priced Out: How the Wrong Financial-Aid Policies Hurt Low-Income Students

The Education Trust, June 2011

The Role of Mentoring in College Access and Success

Institute for Higher Education Policy, June 2011

Community Colleges and Regional Recovery: Strategies for State Action

Richard Kazis, The Brookings Institution, May 2011

The Benefits of Attending Community College: A Review of the Evidence

Clive R. Belfield, Queens College, City University of New York, April 2011

Degrees for What Jobs? Raising Expectations for Colleges and Universities in a Global Economy (PDF)

Erin Sparks, Mary Jo Waits, National Governors Association, March 2011

Education in Chronically Poor Rural Areas Lags Across Generations

Jessica D. Ulrich, Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, March 2011

Opening Doors to Student Success: A Synthesis of Findings from an Evaluation at Six Community Colleges

Susan Scrivener and Erin Coghlan, MDRC, March 2011

Pathways to Prosperity: Meeting the Challenge (PDF)

William C. Symonds, Robert B. Schwartz and Ronald Ferguson, Pathways to Prosperity Project, Harvard Graduate School of Education, February 2011

Filling in the Blanks: How Information Can Affect Choice in Higher Education (PDF)

Andrew P. Kelley and Mark Schneider, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, January 2011

Education Pays 2010

Sandy Baum, Jennifer Ma and Kathleen Payea, College Board Advocacy & Policy Center, September 2010

Easy Come, EZ-GO: A Federal Role in Removing Jurisdictional Impediments to College Education

Brian A. Sponsler, Gregory S. Kienzl, Alexis J. Wesaw, Center for American Progress, November 2010

Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018

Anthony P. Carnevale, Nicole Smith, Jeff Strohl, Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce

The Case for Improved Higher Education Access and Attainment

Lumina Foundation, 2010

How Increasing College Access Is Increasing Inequality, and What to Do about It

Anthony P. Carnevale, Jeff Strohl, Rewarding Strivers; Century Foundation Press, Richard D. Kahlenberg, ed., June 2010

Graduated Success: Sustainable Economic Opportunity Through One- and Two-Year Credentials

Jennifer Wheary, Viany Orozco, Demos, February 2010

Open-Access Colleges Responsible for Greatest Gains in Graduation Rate

William R. Doyle, National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, February 2010

Student Debt 101: Why College Students Are Burdened by Debt and What To Do About It

Viany Orozco, Demos, March 2010

Lumina Foundation Strategic Plan 2025:  to increase higher educational attainment by 60 percent (PDF)

Lumina Foundation, 2009

Young Adults and Higher Education: Barriers and Breakthroughs to Success (PDF)

Thomas Brock, National Poverty Center, August 2009

Transforming America’s Community Colleges: A Federal Policy Proposal To Expand Opportunity and Promote Economic Prosperity

Sara Goldrick-Rab, Douglas N. Harris, Christopher Mazzeo, Gregory Kienzl, The Brookings Institution, May 2009

The Condition of Education 2009

Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, 2009

Educational Attainment in Alabama (PDF)

Center for Business and Economic Research, 2009

High School Career Academies: A 40-Year Proven Model for Improving College and Career Readiness

Betsy Brand, American Youth Policy Forum, 2009

The College Ladder: Linking Secondary and Postsecondary Education for Success for All Students

Jennifer Brown Lerner, Betsy Brand, American Youth Policy Forum

Transforming America’s Community Colleges: A Federal Policy Proposal To Expand Opportunity and Promote Economic Prosperity

Sara Goldrick-Rab, Douglas N. Harris, Christopher Mazzeo, Gregory Kienzl, The Brookings Institution, May 2009

The Condition of Education 2009

National Center for Education Statistics

Educational Attainment in Alabama (PDF)

Center for Business and Economic Research, University of Alabama

Educational Attainment Rates in Alabama

Lumina Foundation, 2009

College readiness issue brief: Individual development accounts (IDAs) for higher education

Indiana Pathways to College Network, 2008

High School Dropouts – Alabama’s Number One Economic Problem

Southern Education Foundation, 2007

Facts for Education Advocates: The Economic Impact of Education (PDF)

The College Board, 2007

A National Dialogue: The Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education

U.S. Department of Education, September 2006

Borrowers Who Drop Out

The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 2005

Income of U.S. Workforce Project to Decline if Education Doesn’t Improve

The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 2005

The Educational Pipeline: Big Investment, Big Returns

The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, April 2004

Responding to the Crisis in College Opportunity

The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, January 2004

The Role of Student Loans in College Access (PDF)

The College Board National Dialogue on Student Financial Aid, 2003

The Big Payoff: Educational Attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Work-Life Earnings (PDF)

US Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 2002