How should we prepare students to succeed in higher education?

Jessica Youssefi, a student at Austin Community College, is just the kind of student we focus on serving in our grant work. She joined us recently to hear community college professor Dr. Jill Biden, the second lady of the United States, at our SXSWedu summit, Getting to Graduation: Re-Designing Higher Education for Student Success.

Jessica said, “I had the chance to meet with Dr. Biden one-on-one after her speech. I was able to tell her my story about dropping out of school, only to return ten years later and finish my associate’s degree in journalism. She listened attentively and congratulated me. I feel very proud to have a woman like Dr. Biden speaking on behalf of community college students like me.”

Too often, though, we hear stories from students that don’t end in triumph. As the summit continued, I thought deeply about the forces that contribute to students not making it to college in the first place and how to strengthen the bridge between K-12 and postsecondary education. How do we fully prepare students to succeed in higher education? And then how do we sufficiently support them as they navigate the postsecondary landscape?

I feel very proud to have a woman like Dr. Biden speaking on behalf of community college students like me.Jessica Youssefi, Austin Community College student

Changing demographics, pernicious achievement gaps, and rising costs were just a few of the complex problems we wrestled with in our sessions at SXSWedu. Through those sessions we highlighted some of the great work happening in the field to address these issues.

Here’s one approach we’ve seen that gets results: We know that a student learns best when his or her education offerings are tailored to their individual needs and goals. Through collaboration with our partners, we know that guided pathways and technology-enabled advising greatly increase the likelihood of a student achieving success in his or her higher ed experience.

The appeal of guided pathways lies in their ability to clearly map out for advisors, students, and their families the exact sequence of courses the student needs to complete a degree or certificate. Analytics and data can help signal to academic advisors that a student may be at risk of dropping out or failing out, and the right data can also help students decide which courses they should select based on their interests and previous academic performance. Used together with advising software, such as IPAS, academic advisors can provide in-depth, one-on-one student advising services and help students put themselves on a path for success.

Our task at highlighting innovative solutions like this was complemented by the presence of our very special guest, Dr. Biden. She is one of our nation’s most prominent and passionate supporters of higher education and community college in particular. As a full-time community college professor in Virginia, Dr. Biden gets it. She sees first-hand the impact higher education can have on a person’s life. And her passion for education is apparent – inher speech, she said, “Teaching is not what I do. It is who I am.”

We are thrilled that Dr. Biden and others are drawing increasing attention to the importance of higher education and we’re energized to further investigate what it will take to successfully bridge K-12 and postsecondary. What are your thoughts?  I invite you to participate in the conversation and look forward to reading your valuable feedback in the comments section below.

Teaching is not what I do. It is who I am.Dr. Jill Biden, Community College Professor and Second Lady of the United States

I now have a personal reason to think more about the transition to postsecondary education. I’m watching my own daughter navigate her transition from high school to college. She’s on spring break this week, and I plan to talk with her about her take on this topic (if she’ll indulge her dad while on vacation!).  I’ll report back on that conversation, but also on this vital bridge between K-12 and postsecondary. It’s an area the foundation is exploring in greater depth. We look forward to hearing from you.

This article is published in collaboration with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: Gavin Payne is the Director of the United States Program Policy and Advocacy.

Image: Students take a university entrance examination at a lecture hall in the Andalusian capital of Seville. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo