Swimming Against the Tide

The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of either funding organization, and no official endorsement should be inferred. Founded in 1900, the College Board is a not-for-profit educational association that supports academic preparation and transition to higher education for students around the world through the ongoing collaboration of its member schools, colleges , universities, educational systems and organizations. In all of its activities, the Board promotes equity through universal access to high standards of teaching and learning and sufficient financial resources so that every student has the opportunity to succeed in college and work. Placement, AP, and the acorn logo are registered trademarks of the College Entrance Examination Board. All other products and company names mentioned in this publication may be trademarks of their respective owners. Acknowledgments The Amish have long known and demonstrated that many hands make light of heavy work. We have raised no barns, but we earnestly hope we have heightened awareness of the formidable personal and policy obstacles the children of low-socioeconomic-status families confront in trying to continue their education beyond high school. In doing so (if we have, indeed, succeeded), we have incurred debts to many colleagues , and we wish to acknowledge gratefully the many people who helped make our work lighter. formerly of the College Board's office of policy analysis, supported us in every way from start to finish. They provided encouragement, guidance , and financial support, but most important, savvy insights into the higher education policy world to which this report is directed. Without them, this barn would never have made it off the ground. We are particularly indebted to Clifford Adelman, senior research analyst in the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement. Very few people are as familiar as he is with the contents, specifications, anomalies , and limitations of the national databases we used. Throughout the project, as both technical advisor and reviewer , he helped us avoid a host of conceptual and methodologi-cal misconstructions. Most important, however, he (and his work) set a high standard for both analytical and conceptual precision. and Thanos Patelis also contributed references and, more important, constructive reviews of an early draft of this report. We deeply appreciate the care and comprehensiveness of their reviews. A number of other professional colleagues with serious barn-raising experience in this area contributed ideas, cautions , leads, and …