The message that college matters is getting through to more and more young people. Young people understand that a middle-class lifestyle increasingly requires at least an associate degree. Yet the percentage of college students actually completing a two- or four-year degree has not increased significantly in more than 30 years. College completion correlates highly with academic preparedness for college-level work. Yet, according to one study, only 32 percent of high school graduates are academically prepared for college-level work with no remediation. College readiness is inequitably distributed: the lower the family income, the more likely that the combination of family background, community of residence and school and teacher quality will leave one unprepared for college success. The majority of low-income young people who enter college are at best minimally qualified for college-level work. There is a need to overcome the long-standing separation between K-12 and higher education systems to reduce the high attrition among students before they complete college. Disconnects between these systems create significant obstacles to successful transitions through college, particularly for students with little family experience with college-going. At the same time, policy efforts to overcome that separation can make a large contribution to helping more young people make it through college. Increasingly, governors and state policymakers are reconceptualizing public education as a K-16 or PreK-20 "pipeline" rather than a set of distinct systems. The metaphor makes visible how students "flow" in and out of different institutions, at which points and for which students the leaks are most serious, and how to target institutional and systemic improvement efforts to plug the leaks. In this framework, high school completion becomes a means rather than an end, a transition point in the progression to a college credential. This article discusses a set of policy approaches that echo the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education's findings on how states can best pursue K-16 reform.