dotEDU Episode 01: Closing the College Success Gap for Low-income Students

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Aired on August 12, 2019

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​In recent decades, low-income students have applied to and started attending college in greater numbers than ever before. But even as the college-attendance gap between rich and poor has shrunk, the gap in the number of college graduates has grown. How can we keep closing the first gap, and begin to address the second?

In this episode, Jim McCorkell talks about College Possible’s flagship initiative—an intensive curriculum of coaching and support to help low-income students enroll in college—as well as the newer Catalyze Program, which supports student persistence and success directly on college campuses.

Episode Notes

Here are some of the links and references from this week's show:

• Infographic on rural colleges and universities
  
• Education Deserts: The Continued Significance of “Place” in the Twenty-First Century
  Nicholas Hillman and Taylor Weichman, the University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Identifying Predictors of Credential Completion Among Beginning Community College Students
  Jonathan Turk, ACE
• A Look at Five Key Outcomes in Early Adulthood for Associate Degree Earners
  Jonathan Turk, ACE
• AmeriCorps
• Posse Foundation
  
• College Board Environmental Context Dashboard

From the introduction

• Alaska’s University System Faces Its Fate
  The Chronicle of Higher Education | July 15, 2019
  
• ACE Letter to Alaska Legislature on Proposed Cuts to the State’s Higher Education Budget