Issuing a call to action to all of its 5,400-plus member schools, colleges and universities, the College Board has launched one of its broadest efforts ever to help low-income students earn college degrees.

The CollegeKeys Compact™, which was announced at Forum 2007 in October, represents one of the College Board's boldest advocacy initiatives ever, advancing the principle that all underserved students have a right to an affordable, accessible and successful college experience.

The initiative proposes a number of possible activities, including the creation of partnerships to provide more mentors for young people, ensuring the availability of rigorous high school curricula; the waiving of fees for college applications for these target students; educating administrators, counselors and teachers to help understand the reality of financial aid needs; providing additional tutoring and supplemental instruction, as well as culturally relevant programming; and improving course alignment and acceptance agreements between two- and four-year campuses.

"This involves serious obligations of the College Board and its members," noted Steven E. Brooks, executive director of the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority and co-chair of the College Board's Task Force on College Access for Students from Low-Income Backgrounds. "The expectation is that members who join the Compact will start where they are and stretch in their efforts to equalize opportunity in higher education, regardless of family income."

"The task force fully understands that we have created a big agenda, but education must not be considered an option only for the financially advantaged," said Youlonda Copeland-Morgan, a College Board Trustee and co-chair of the Task Force on College Access for Students from Low-Income Backgrounds. "The days when a few people could go to college and a manufacturing economy could take care of everyone else are over. As a nation, we need to get serious about providing the basic employment tool that everyone needs in this day and age - a college degree."

In an open letter to the leaders of American education, the Board of Trustees of the College Board described the barriers to higher education faced by qualified students from low- and middle-income backgrounds, including poor preparation and low expectations as well as financial barriers. The result of a two-year review by a College Board Trustee task force of independent research, policy and practices in admissions, financial aid and retention, the Compact offers these findings:

• Nearly one-half of all college-qualified low- and moderate-income high school graduates do not enroll in a four-year college program.



• Nine out of 10 of the fastest growing jobs in the United States require some postsecondary education - a two- or four-year college degree or certificate training.



• Although the United States leads the world in the proportion of adults holding four-year degrees, the lead is slipping. Several other advanced nations now have higher proportions of young people enrolled in higher education than the United States.

"Colleges and universities are set up to work well with schools and students and families in communities with college-going cultures," Brooks said. "However, they are less successful with schools and students in communities that lack experience in college admissions and attendance. Solutions exist, and, as a nation, we should be focused on solving the problems."