The Commission on Access, Admissions and Success in Higher Education and the Task Force on Admissions in the 21st Century — both created by the College Board in March 2007 as part of its national advocacy agenda — just finished their third of four working meetings for the year, examining issues that relate to their missions and building recommendations that will be announced in separate reports next fall.

The commission is reviewing issues that affect students’ access to and success in higher education, such as factors of retention, school counseling and developing strong academic standards to prepare students. Chaired by Brit Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, the commission has heard from more than a dozen international and national experts on “pipeline” issues that affect middle and high school student preparation, teacher preparation, school reform, access issues experienced by low-income students and the role of community colleges in higher education. The commission’s goal is to understand how these issues are related and to offer good solutions to addressing the most serious of them in an effort to prepare U.S. students to compete in the world marketplace. The American system is failing to make progress and is even falling behind the progress of other nations who have placed national emphasis on the issues.  

Topping the list of concerns is the inability to adequately provide college-bound students with the skills necessary to succeed in a demanding college curriculum. This is compounded by the lack of sufficient financial assistance, the overly complex and nontransparent admissions process and the lack of coherent, systemic approaches to retain those students enrolled in college. The commission’s report will be targeted to national educational leadership and the media, all of whom share in the responsibility to improve our education system.

Chaired by Jerry Lucido, vice provost for enrollment policy and management at the University of Southern California, the task force examined the issues affecting the transition process from secondary schools to higher education, which include the counseling, admissions and financial aid application processes. The task force identified several key issues and a framework for addressing them, while providing practical actions that education professionals can use to improve the process. After interacting with College Board membership at regional and national meetings over the last year, the task force is most concerned with the complexity of the process driven by too much popular focus on a limited number of postsecondary options and the loss of effective communication regarding educational diversity in the country and the lack of support — both financial and academic — for students entering the marketplace in the next decade. It is also concerned with the future development of the admissions, financial aid and counseling professions, and will offer suggestions for these issues in its report.