Making the Grade in College Prep:
A Guide for Improving College Preparation Programs ( PDF )
The Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis (CHEPA) believes the time has come to articulate a framework that can assist practitioners, funders and policy makers in structuring and evaluating college preparation programs. This report offers research-based solutions that offer the scaffolding for such a framework, including nine intervention strategies that practitioners, researchers and policy analysts might consider for improving program performance.

Preparing for College:
Building Expectations, Changing Realities  ( PDF )
The Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis (CHEPA) developed nine hypotheses pertaining to central aspects of college preparation programs. This report looks at what research literature says about the influence of each on college preparation and enrollment.

• A rigorous academic curriculum
• Academic, college, and career counseling
• Co-curricular activities
• Incorporation of students' cultures
• Family and community engagement
• Peer support
• Mentoring
• Timing of interventions
• Funding priorities

Thinking K-16 - Published periodically by The Education Trust, this series of reports examines critical educational issues in depth and presents them in language that is clear and accessible for general readers, as well as for educators. Each issue of Thinking K-16 cuts through rhetoric to get at the impact on students, and concludes with practical recommendations for action. Thinking K-16 can be downloaded for free at: http://www2.edtrust.org/edtrust (use the scroll down menu under the tabs). Examples include:

Good Teaching Matters: How Well-Qualified Teachers Can Close the Gap
- Thinking K-16, Summer 1998. 16 pages.
Youth at the Crossroads (download available only): Facing High School and Beyond
- Thinking K-16, Winter 2001. 24 pages.

A New Core Curriculum For All: Aiming High For Other People's Children
- Thinking K-16, Winter 2003. 32 pages.

Additional Links
College Readiness Begins in Middle School - This study, College Readiness Begins in Middle School, reflects ACT's interest in analyzing the critical issues affecting the preparation of the postsecondary applicant pool and the high school experience. It builds on previous policy reports that focus on educational planning and the transition to postsecondary education.

A Call to Action: Transforming High School for all Youth - The National High School Alliance has produced this document, A Call to Action: Transforming High School for All Youth, to provide leaders at the national, state, district, school, and community levels with a common framework around which to engage a diverse cross-section of stakeholders in the hard work of transforming high schools for all youth.

Accountability for Better Results: A National Imperative for Higher Education - Citing increasing global competition, low rates of college completion, and a college access and success gap for minority students, a national commission of political, business, and higher education leaders called for a “fresh approach” to accountability designed to increase access and lift graduation rates for all students. Toward these ends, the National Commission on Accountability in Higher Education recommended an ongoing and vigorous dialogue targeted on meeting the educational needs of the American people, issuing a series of recommendations designed to improve student preparation, public investment in educational priorities, teaching and research, cost-effectiveness, and the availability of key data.

What Counts: Defining and Improving High School Graduation Rates - As more substantial research brings attention to the lackluster data on high school graduation rates, what originally was thought to be a fairly simple concept - the percentage of the senior class who actually 'walked across the stage' - has been revealed to be a more complex issue depending on the purpose, point of view, or the method of calculation employed. Recent research has revealed a startling array of difficult issues and confusing calculations that can give even the most gifted educator pause. What Counts strives to bring clarity to the issue and to outline some key policy recommendations for improving graduation rate calculations and outcomes.

Chalkboard Project - Chalkboard Project is a collaborative effort among five independent Oregon foundations with no axe to grind. Chalkboard is not your usual policy wonk or political suspects. We are Oregonians—and parents, voters, neighbors, mothers, grandfathers—who believe every public school student deserves a quality education that will lead to success in college, in the workplace, and in life.

No Child Left Behind - The official U.S. Government website for the No Child Left Behind act, this page contains a toolkit for teachers, a parent guide, information on accountability, proven methods, and much more.

Oregon Proficiency-Based Admission Standards-System (PASS) - Aligns college admission with Oregon's statewide K-12 school improvement plan. School-reform legislation enacted in Oregon requires all secondary schools to offer the performance-based CIM and CAM (Certificates of Initial and Advanced Mastery). High schools are engaged in large-scale curricular and program redesign as a result of these requirements. OUS seeks to be a helpful and supportive partner as Oregon schools make these significant changes. For example, PASS allows students to use the results from many CIM and CAM assessments to meet proficiency-based college admission requirements.

Oregon Department of Education - Find out the latest information about the state of education in Oregon.

Public Agenda - Public Agenda provides unbiased and unparalleled research that bridges the gap between American leaders and what the public really thinks about a wide range of issues including education. One of their latest reports is titled All Work and No Play? Listening to What Kids and Parents Really Want from Out-of-School Time. You may download the report from their website (requires free registration).

The What Works Clearinghouse - was established by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences to provide educators, policymakers, and the public with a central, independent, and trusted source of scientific evidence of what works in education. It is administered by the Department through a contract to a joint venture of the American Institutes for Research and the Campbell Collaboration.