Improving Access to College for Low-Income Students

By Jane Donahue and Faith Sandler - stltoday.com
7/2/2009 

The good news is that the importance of a college education has become almost an American article of faith. For people from low-income backgrounds who seek better lives for themselves and their families, we know that no single factor is more crucial than earning a college degree. A recent commentary by Missouri State Rep. Rachel Storch, D-St. Louis, shined a welcome light on the issue. It cited the example of Brittany, a tenacious high school student and mother determined to become a doctor, who is receiving guidance from the College Bound organization.

The troubling news is that getting into college and earning a degree remain daunting challenges for low-income residents of our region. The St. Louis metropolitan area ranks 24th among 35 comparable regions in four-year college completion rates, and 33rd out of 35 among African-Americans. The implications extend beyond the fate of individuals to the future health and vibrancy of the region itself. College completion rates connect with everything from average income levels to civic engagement, health, social equity, neighborhood viability and economic development.

The encouraging news is that the St. Louis region is positioning itself for significant progress in this important field.

Five organizations operating in the St. Louis area recently received some $500,000 in federal grants, directed through the Missouri Department of Higher Education, to increase the number of low-income students working toward college degrees. The grant recipients — The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis, Missouri College Advising Corps, College Bound, College Summit and St. Louis Internship Program — encompass a wide range of experience and a variety of approaches to the problem.

Educational research has identified three crucial factors in addressing this extraordinarily complex challenge: academic preparation, social capital and financial means.

Of course, elementary and secondary schools bear the primary responsibility for students' academic readiness and for helping them plan their own futures before graduation. But low-income students face a web of obstacles to pursuing and obtaining a college education. They might be the first members of their families for whom college attendance is even conceivable. Their school districts might fall short when it comes to academic preparation and guidance toward higher education.

As a result, students may lack information about the confusing requirements for applying for college admission and financial aid — or even that aid is available. And immediate economic needs may eclipse the long-term promise of a college degree, especially as college costs escalate.

Real-world experience and study after study have shown that no single approach works in all circumstances. Progress comes, instead, from comprehensive, coordinated and interconnected action by numerous partners from different segments of the community.

In this, too, the St. Louis region is fortunate. Early in 2009, leaders of the area's largest college-access nonprofit groups joined forces with executives from several area corporations and foundations to form a consortium that is working on just such a comprehensive, coordinated approach.

The goal of the St. Louis Regional College Access Pipeline Project is a community-wide strategy to improve college access and success. The first step is gathering hard data on educational outcomes of low-income students from 15- to 20-years old. Those numbers are being assembled by Terry Jones, a political science professor at University of Missouri-St. Louis, and they will be supplemented by a comprehensive inventory of existing programs and services aimed at increasing college enrollment and ensuring college success among low-income students. The result will be the first regional "report card" on college access.

The consortium's steering committee has invited national college access experts to review the data and help develop a set of regional strategic and policy recommendations. These will be presented at a community forum in October.

There is no silver bullet, no one program or single concept that can solve the problems of college access for low-income students. There is hard work to be done by all segments of the community, including, of course, the students themselves. Here in the St. Louis region, that work is well under way.

Jane Donahue and Faith Sandler co-chair the St. Louis Regional College Access Pipeline Project steering committee. Donahue is a vice president of the Deaconess Foundation. Sandler is executive director of The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis.