Access
We Improve Access to Postsecondary Education by Supporting Organizations that Remove Barriers and Provide Opportunities to All Students
Students have to be ready and motivated for postsecondary success, understand their options, apply to colleges that are a good match, and have access to orientation and developmental options that help them complete the first year of school. Our focus is to make sure students are 100% prepared and, in the process, do everything in our power to reverse current trends.
- For every 100 high school graduates in North Carolina, approximately 36 do not immediately enroll in postsecondary education, according to data from the National Center of Education Statistics.
- Nationally, nearly half of low-income students do not immediately enroll in college, compared to 18 percent of high-income students.
- When students enter college, they often do not have the necessary skills to succeed. Among the first-time, degree-seeking community college students in North Carolina, approximately 57 percent of full-time and 41 percent of part-time students persist to the second year, according to Complete College America.
- Of the 32 percent of community college students who enter developmental education, only 50 percent complete those courses, and about 12 percent begin curriculum courses in two years.