education comes first™
The College Board Advocacy & Policy Center is dedicated to the study of educational opportunity and success. The center conducts research and analyses on policies and educational challenges related to:
College Preparation & Access
All students deserve the highest-quality education and an opportunity to participate in academically challenging courses to prepare for success beyond high school. The center provides evidence-based tools, resources and effective practices to help educators build a college-ready culture of high expectations and achievement. We also raise awareness of the value and importance of K–12 teachers and school counselors, who work directly with students, their families and their communities.
Key initiatives include:
- Arts at the Core
- The CollegeKeys Compact™
- The Educational Crisis Facing Young Men of Color
- School Counselor Advocacy
- Teacher Advocacy and the National Commission on Writing
- Undocumented Students and the DREAM Act
College Affordability & Financial Aid
All students should have access to an affordable college experience. We offer recommendations to improve and simplify the student financial aid system to make enrollment and full participation in the college experience possible for all students. We also provide institutions and policymakers with data to shed light on the current state of college prices and student financial aid and to describe long-term pricing and financial aid trends.
Key initiatives include:
College Admission & Completion
Making the benefits of higher education available to more people improves lives and strengthens our nation. We offer recommendations to simplify college admission and transfer processes, promote the educational benefits of diversity, and improve college completion rates. We develop evidence-based practices and policies to increase postsecondary attainment, particularly among students from low-income and minority backgrounds, and underserved schools and districts.
This year, the College Board Advocacy & Policy Center launched The College Completion Agenda, a comprehensive 2010 Progress Report of rigorous indicators aligned to 10 interdependent recommendations that charts the progress of the nation and each of the 50 states toward this goal. The Progress Report points to areas of progress in states, yet formidable challenges remain at every level of the system for students who aspire to enroll and succeed in college.
Key initiatives include:
- Access & Diversity Collaborative
- Admissions in the 21st Century
- College Completion Agenda
- Community College Transfer and Retention
Uniquely positioned to build critical connections between policy research and real-world experience, the College Board Advocacy & Policy Center:
- Makes innovative ideas accessible and actionable to drive fundamental systemic reform in education by providing the data, tools and resources that policymakers and educators can use to broaden the reach of programs that work and improve educational opportunities and outcomes.
- Communicates critical information about college access and affordability to policymakers, educators, parents and students to improve the school-to college transition and increase college completion rates, especially for traditionally underserved groups.
- Engages with a national network of policymakers, practitioners, researchers and innovators to share ideas. We explore solutions to seemingly intractable problems in education and identify gaps in information where research is needed most.
- Hosts policy forums and roundtables, convening innovative minds across sectors to radically rethink how education is delivered in America.