In this position paper, the authors lay out the imperative for equitable artificial intelligence (AI), highlighting the essential role of access-oriented institutions and calling on technology companies (both large and small), foundations, and local, state, and federal regulators to consult with the newly convened Complete College America Council…

Across the country, colleges using Complete College America (CCA) strategies are improving graduation rates. But despite these overall gains, data continues to show persistent institutional performance gaps for BILPOC (Black, Indigenous, Latinx, People of Color) students and students ages 25 and older. Students in both of these groups…

College stops before it really begins for far too many students. These students enroll in college only to be told that they are not ready for college-level coursework. Historically, colleges and universities have attempted to close this gap by placing these students, who are disproportionately Black, Latinx, or experiencing poverty, in…

In 2016, "New Rules: Policies to Strengthen and Scale the Game Changers" was published. In a sea of policy briefs and white papers, policymakers still lacked the tools they needed to do effective college completion work. Since the first version of this resource was published, a lot has changed: (1) After years of efforts to raise…

Evidence is mounting that the vast majority of students who are currently placed into prerequisite remedial education could be successful in gateway college-­level courses if they receive additional academic support as a corequisite. Recent research on college placement exams reveals that the exams are unreliable at predicting college success, and…

In American higher education, it has become the accepted standard to measure graduation rates at four-year colleges on a six-year time frame. Evaluations of two-year community colleges are now based on three-year graduation rates. Metrics like these are unacceptable, especially when we consider that students and their families are trying…

The intentions were noble. It was hoped that remediation programs would be an academic bridge from poor high school preparation to college readiness. Sadly, remediation has become instead higher education's "Bridge to Nowhere." This broken remedial bridge is travelled by some 1.7 million beginning students each year, most of whom will…

Performance funding--the linking of allocation of resources to accomplishment of certain desired outcomes--is an idea that is once again finding favor with policymakers. It has intuitive appeal; what's not to like about paying for results? While it is a notion that makes common sense to most decisionmakers, it is an idea with a very checkered…

Navigating the complicated path through college can be a difficult task. The report analyses the problems students have on graduating on time--such as earning unnecessary credits--which costs them collectively billions of dollars and millions of hours each year. It also proposes a possible solution--Guided Pathways to Success (GPS), which can…

Unless the United States moves with urgency, today's young people will be the first generation in American history to be less educated than their predecessors. Consider this a sobering wake-up call--and an urgent appeal for action now. In this report, one will get an unprecedented look behind the ivy-covered walls of America's public colleges and…