While college graduates earn 70
percent more than high school graduates, the statistics about
college completion rates are sobering. For every ten students
who start high school, only seven leave with a diploma, only five
enroll in a postsecondary institution, and fewer than three complete
a BA within 10 years. For black, Hispanic, and low-income youth,
the reality is even worse: by age 29, only 18 percent of African-Americans
and 10 percent of Hispanics have earned a BA. Double
the Numbers tackles this critical issue head on.
Edited by Richard Kazis, Joel Vargas,
and Nancy Hoffman of Jobs for the Future, and with a foreword
by Tom Vander Ark of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Double the Numbers highlights
emerging strategies—at the state, district, and school levels—for
improving postsecondary outcomes. The book looks at how to motivate
older adolescents in school settings; how to overcome the rigidities
of high school schedules and routines; how to prepare students
for smooth transitions to postsecondary learning and success,
and more. Double the Numbers also explores policies that are likely to serve as building blocks
in any next phase of education reform that tackles the dual problems
of high school completion and postsecondary access and success.
"This is not just a personal tragedy for young people who get sold
short on their futures" states Hilary Pennington, CEO of Jobs for the
Future. "It constitutes a crisis for the entire country—because our
collective future rests on the future employment and civic engagement
of all our young people. JFF
intends the publication of Double The
Numbers to jump start a national conversation about how
to ensure that more of our youth go to—and through—postsecondary
education to reach their potential."
The contributing authors propose
changes in the design of high schools and colleges—innovations
that could overcome the discontinuities, perverse incentives,
and inflexibilities of existing educational institutions. They
focus on state policy, since doubling the numbers of students
attaining postsecondary credentials within a decade will require
aggressive innovation by states. Finally, they consider how opportunity
and outcomes vary by race, ethnicity, and gender—and they
look at the implications of these variations for policy and practice.
Contributors to the book include
experts in the field such as Kati Haycock, John H. Bishop, Robert
B. Schwartz, and Marc S. Tucker. Among them are some of the most
important and thoughtful experts on innovations in practice and
policy, representing a diversity of political viewpoints and professional
perspectives.
Those
who have hailed the book include the following:
“There is nothing more important
in today’s economy than the preparation of ALL of our youth
for the competitive jobs of the future. Kudos to all of the contributors
to this work.”
—Governor Mark R. Warner, Virginia
“That too few poor and minority
students are successfully completing college is a major societal
challenge, and the authors of these pages perform a great service
by placing it squarely on the policy agenda. America would be
a better place if federal, state and campus leaders sought guidance
in these pages.”
—Chester E. Finn, Jr., President,
Thomas. B. Fordham Foundation and Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution,
Stanford University
About the Harvard Education Press: The Harvard Education Press, located at the Harvard Graduate
School of Education, publishes innovative, authoritative books
covering critical issues in education practice, policy, and research.
For more information, please visit http://gseweb.harvard.edu/hepg.
About
Jobs for the Future: Jobs for the Future is a leading innovator
in strategies to accelerate education and career advancement.
Jobs for the Future provides research, consulting, and technical
assistance on education and workforce development issues to public
and private organizations throughout the United States and abroad.
For more information on JFF, please visit the Web site at www.jff.org.
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