New JKCF Report on Increasing Access to Four-year Colleges for Community College Students
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation today released a new report titled “Breaking Down Walls: Increasing Access to Four-Year Colleges for High-Achieving Community College Students.”
This report shows that many more community college students could succeed at four-year colleges and universities than are given the chance. Significant numbers of academically gifted community college students start their postsecondary education at two-year institutions for a variety of reasons having nothing to do with their ability. Once at community college, however, these students are often unable to transfer to four-year bachelor’s degree-granting institutions despite their documented ability, because they lack information, advising, financial support, and opportunity. Yet recent research and the experience of students who were awarded scholarships by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation upon transferring make clear that many high-performing community college students can excel even at the country’s elite colleges and universities. Facilitating transfer would benefit both students and institutions of higher education at all levels. How far a student can take his education should be determined by his ability, industry, and creativity, not by the happenstance of the institution where he first began his journey.
To learn more and to download the full report, click here.