Improving Academic Preparation

Over the past eight years, the Clinton-Gore Administration has established a broad range of programs aimed at improving K-16 education. One recent U.S. Department of Education initiative, GEAR UP, helps high-poverty middle schools, universities, and community-based organizations work together in new partnerships to encourage young people to have high expectations, stay in school, study hard, and take the right courses to go to college. The GEAR UP initiative will help more than 700,000 disadvantaged middle-school students in 2001 get—and stay—on track for college success.²⁹

Our TRIO programs (originally a group of three programs that has been expanded over the years to eight) provide grants to schools and organizations that help students build the skills they need to get into and succeed in college, and even move on to graduate school. For instance, the TRIO Upward Bound program provides eligible students with fundamental support—from instruction, to tutoring and counseling, to help with applications for financial aid and admission-aimed at helping them prepare for and reach postsecondary education. Like all of the TRIO programs, Upward Bound is targeted at a group of students who face particular challenges in obtaining access to postsecondary education—low-income students and those whose parents have not graduated from college.

Another group of programs addresses the second access concern—building capacity for quality postsecondary education. The Department's Institutional Development programs support improvements in educational quality, management, and financial stability at qualifying postsecondary institutions. Funding is focused on minority-serving institutions and others that enroll large proportions of financially disadvantaged students and have low per-student expenditures. The programs provide financial assistance that helps institutions solve problems that threaten their survival, improves their management and fiscal operations, and builds endowments.

The Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) is an OPE program that encourages educators at all institutions to propose new ways of ensuring postsecondary access, retention, and completion. Improvements in rates of retention and program completion are vitally important, especially for low-income and minority students, whose success rates continue to lag behind those of other groups.³⁰

All these OPE programs, and others, form the basis for a successful undergraduate education experience. If our economy is to remain competitive in a global economy, if our democracy is to thrive in a changing world, we need to prepare our students for a challenging future.

To help parents and students find the appropriate institution of higher learning, the National Center on Education Statistics (NCES) operates the new College Opportunities On-Line (COOL) Web site. There, students can find information on more than 5,500 postsecondary institutions-from small technical colleges to the nation's largest and most prestigious universities. For each college, the Web site provides tuition and financial aid statistics, a list of the degrees offered, available fields of study, and more.

The American dream offers opportunity to all Americans who are willing to work hard and to play by the rules. That is a cornerstone of American culture and America's strength. Access to quality education from kindergarten through graduate school and beyond is the key to opportunity for all Americans. If the American dream remains out of the reach of the poor or students with disabilities, it is largely because many of them don't have access to quality education. We're working to change that, and part of the effort involves listening to our stakeholders.

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