New Paths to College and Successful Careers

Student aid matters, but more is needed to expand college opportunities for all Americans. The Clinton Administration has substantially expanded the federal government’s investment in student aid through the Hope and Lifetime Learning tax credits, cheaper and more widely available student loans, and larger Pell Grant scholarships for needy students. But too many students still limit their potential by ruling out education beyond high school. Research indicates that financial aid is not enough—we must intervene in the lives of poor and minority youth to raise their expectations and help them prepare for college, and do so early enough to make a difference.

The GEAR UP initiative is raising expectations of disadvantaged students. In his 1998 State of the Union address, President Clinton proposed a new initiative to make a difference for students in high-poverty schools. Ten months later, Congress enacted GEAR UP—Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs—with broad bipartisan support. This academic year, its first in operation, the GEAR UP initiative is giving hope, raising expectations, and creating college opportunities for over 450,000 disadvantaged children. Next year it will grow to 750,000 students, and President Clinton requested $325 million to serve 1.4 million students in 2001-02.

• GEAR UP supports partnerships of schools, colleges and universities, and community organizations to strengthen academics and tutoring, raise expectations, provide college visits and counseling, inform families about college requirements and financial aid, and often provide college scholarships. It also funds state efforts to promote college awareness and provide scholarships for needy students. Over 1,000 organizations are GEAR UP partners, including colleges and universities, libraries, arts organizations, and chambers of commerce.
• Developed based upon academic research about college success, GEAR UP has several special characteristics. GEAR UP partnerships start no later than the 7^th grade because research shows that students who take challenging coursework in middle school, including algebra, are far more likely to succeed in high school and college. Second, GEAR UP programs stay with children through high school graduation to provide long-term mentoring over a period of six or more years, helping children stay on track for college, and often providing scholarships when they reach college. Third, GEAR UP partnerships work with entire grades of students to transform their schools. And finally, they provide college scholarships, which research shows to be particularly important in preventing low-income students from dropping out.
• Research on existing programs demonstrates the value of and the need for GEAR UP.
• The I Have a Dream (IHAD) program provides an entire grade of low-income students with intensive mentoring, academic support, and a promise of public and private aid for college tuition. Roughly 75 percent of Chicago IHAD students in the class of 1996 graduated from high school, compared to only 37 percent of students in the control group.
• Project GRAD is a college-school-community partnership to improve inner-city education that has produced dramatic results on a large scale: The percentage of middle school students passing the Texas statewide math test has tripled from 21 percent in 1995 to 63 percent in 1998. Five times more students are going to college.

The Clinton Administration has also expanded the TRIO programs to promote college success. TRIO is a network of initiatives designed to help low-income, first-generation college, and disabled individuals achieve academic success beginning in middle school, throughout college, and into graduate school. Since 1993, funding for the programs has increased by two-thirds, from $388 million to $645 million. Named TRIO in the late 1960s after its first three programs—Upward Bound, Talent Search, and Student Support Services—TRIO now serves 730,000 students. The eight TRIO programs include:

• Upward Bound provides intensive mentoring and academic enrichment throughout high school to primarily low-income or first-generation college-bound youth. In 1999, over 560 Upward Bound projects engaged 42,000 students in demanding coursework and summer residential programs.
• Educational Opportunity Centers provide pre-college academic and financial aid counseling primarily for adults seeking to return to school.
• Student Support Services provides tutoring and counseling to help students stay in college.
• Talent Search provides academic, career, and financial counseling to disadvantaged students with the potential to succeed in higher education.
• The Ronald McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program provides colleges and universities with funds to subsidize research projects by low-income students to prepare them for a doctoral program.

This year, one million college students will have work-study jobs, over 250,000 more than in 1993. Federal work-study funds have increased 43 percent since 1993. Work-study jobs both expand opportunity and teach responsibility and employment skills. And through the America Reads and America Counts initiatives, work-study students at 1200 schools serve as reading and math tutors in their communities.

Other important Clinton-Gore initiatives have helped young people and their parents set their sights high as they plan for the future:

• Through the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994, the Administration funds state efforts to broaden young people’s career options, make learning more relevant, and promote successful transitions to college and careers.
• AmeriCorps builds paths to college. A recent evaluation found that AmeriCorps helped at least three-quarters of members benefit more from school, pursue their careers, and become engaged citizens. The evaluation also found that the education award served as both an incentive and a clear opportunity to further education and skills.^[15]
• Youth Opportunity grants are aimed at increasing the long-term employment of youth in high-poverty. In some areas of pervasive joblessness, the Department of Labor found that only one out-of-school youth in four had a job.^[16] Youth Opportunity grants take a saturation approach to bring about community-wide change, promoting economic development, reducing drop-outs, decreasing crime, and increasing post-secondary enrollment. Youth Opportunity grants now serve over 58,000 youth.
• The Administration’s Think College Early campaign provides accessible guidance to students and their families as they plan for college. The campaign targets the nation’s 19 million adolescents, 20 percent of whom live in poverty. Recognizing that disproportionate numbers of low-income students and minority students attend two-year colleges, Think College Early encourages all students to pursue admission to a four-year college. A brochure available at the Department’s web site, Think College? Me? Now?, emphasizes the importance of college preparatory coursework and early financial planning for college. In particular, the campaign urges students to take algebra by the 8th grade, as students who gain early exposure to high school math are far more likely to go to a four-year college than those who do not.
• The new College Opportunities On-Line (COOL) web site at the Department of Education informs students and their families about their college options. By displaying information on 9,000 colleges—from small technical colleges to the nation’s largest and most prestigious universities—the COOL site helps families make informed decisions and creates an incentive for colleges to reduce tuition prices. For each college, the web site provides tuition and financial aid statistics, information on the most recent incoming freshman class, a list of the degrees offered, the available fields of study, and contact information for the college’s departments. The web site is available through www.ed.gov.
• To encourage low-income students to take AP classes and tests, the Administration’s Advanced Placement Incentive Program will provide $15 million in competitive grants this year to 40 states. Schools use the funds to pay test fees for low-income students, tutoring, classroom materials, and other innovative methods to boost the number and quality of AP classes and participation by low-income students. Since 1998, over 92,000 low-income students have benefited from the program, and this year, over 80,000 more students will benefit from funds to offset the cost of AP exams. Federal support has also encouraged many schools that had not participated in the AP program to begin offering AP courses.

These initiatives complement the Clinton Administration’s efforts to strengthen elementary and secondary education:

• Through high academic standards for all children, President Clinton has sought to raise expectations and measure results over the past seven years—no longer tolerating lower standards for children living in poverty, with disabilities, or with limited English proficiency.
• To improve teacher quality, this Administration has invested in the recruitment, preparation, mentoring, and support of new teachers for the first time in 30 years. It has promoted rigorous standards, supported high quality professional development, and vigorously called for a complete reform of the teaching profession at every level. In 1999, the Administration launched its initiative to hire 100,000 teachers for the early grades to reduce class sizes and strengthen reading and early childhood development.

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