Efforts to improve transfer agreements between schools gain $2.5 million boost - Noteworthy News

Black Issues in Higher Education, Dec 4, 2003

WASHINGTON

A $2.5 million grant will help a national coalition make postsecondary education more accessible to interested students by changing transfer policies in higher education and improving shared technology for planning, financial aid and enrollment.

The National Articulation and Transfer Network (NATN) will use the grant money over three years to plan and implement a uniform transfer agreement between participating four-year colleges and to develop CollegeStepz, Web site technology that will make transfer practices accessible nationally. The grant was made by the Lumina Foundation for Education, a private independent foundation dedicated to issues surrounding access and success.

"This grant makes it possible to build a whole new capacity for helping students achieve success in higher education," says Dr. Phillip R. Day Jr., chancellor of City College of San Francisco and founder of NATN. "Students don't just enroll in one institution. They take multiple routes across a complex educational landscape, oftentimes without a roadmap. This money will help us help them overcome barriers along the way and achieve their educational goals."

NATN officials cite a continuing lack of access to higher education as a huge barrier to equal opportunity in America. "Despite the progress in reducing the gap in education attainment and achievement in the past 20 years, a greater proportion of Whites earn college degrees than do other racial and ethnic groups," Day says. "Because postsecondary education leads to higher employment rates and income levels, those groups nut attaining degrees suffer disproportionately."

NATN is a coalition of more than 300 community colleges, four-year institutions and urban high schools that is working together to change transfer policies in higher education. The coalition believes its proposed uniform transfer agreement will increase the number of students--especially students of color--moving successfully from high schools through community colleges and on to four-year degree completion. Its proposed Web site technology, CollegeStepz, will give students and professional staff access to improved support systems across institutions and education levels for planning, financial aid, enrollment and transfers.

For more information, visit the Web site <www.luminafoundation.org>.