A Directory of Readiness
By Dobelle, Evan S
Most good jobs formerly open to smart, ambitious high school graduates now require a college degree. Each year, fewer avenues to success exist for those who haven’t attended college. Yet, New England lags in making higher education available to all groups, particularly minority and lower-income students. If we are to be “college ready” and “world ready,” we must ensure that more of our residents continue their educations beyond high school and earn associate, bachelor’s or graduate degrees.
NEBHE and the six New England states have recently launched an exciting regional effort called College Ready New England. The approximately 270 institutions listed in this, the 38th edition of CONNECTION’S Annual Directory of New England Colleges and Universities, are both contributors to and beneficiaries of this new regional initiative.
College Ready New England aims to increase the numbers of students who graduate from high school prepared for college and then go on to earn college degrees. To achieve this goal, NEBHE has joined forces with New England’s governors, education commissioners and state higher education officers to share the best ideas and most successful methods for preparing more students, young and old, for college success. College Ready New England will also develop marketing campaigns targeted at students who face the most difficulty entering and succeeding in college. New campaigns will impress upon these students and their parents the value of a college degree in today’s job market and give them the resources to navigate through available options.
The colleges and universities in this directory are contributors to the College Ready New England effort because their faculty and staff are the region’s greatest resource in improving education and encouraging students to prepare for college. The expertise residing on our college campuses can inform and strengthen pre-K-12 teaching and help a new generation of educators spark a love for learning in younger students and adults. One excellent example of this dynamic may be found in Worcester, Mass., where Clark University students and faculty are energizing neighborhood schools with the latest innovations in teaching and learning.
Colleges are also contributors to this effort in another way. No professional marketing staff can do as much to stir a passion for learning in young people as can dedicated college students enlisted to serve as ambassadors for higher learning. For example, University of Connecticut admissions officers have successfully involved diverse students in calling prospective students of color who are ambivalent about enrolling. Students listen to their peers.
The colleges and universities in this directory are also beneficiaries of College Ready New England because their future absolutely depends upon a flowing pipeline of college-ready students (and New England’s future depends, in turn, upon the vitality of its higher education enterprise both as a key industry and as the source of tomorrow’s skilled workers). The region’s elite colleges draw from a global pool of students, and the presence of these international students enriches our campuses and their communities. In New England’s own cities and rural villages, however, we can also find thousands of educationally underserved students headed for passionless jobs and no careers. We cannot leave these students behind.
College Ready New England will expand the higher education horizons of all New England residents in the years to come. This directory is not only a convenient one-stop reference tool for all college-bound students-high-school seniors, potential graduate students and adult learners-who are planning for college and conducting a college search. It is a directory of readiness.
College Ready New England will expand the higher education horizons of all New England residents.
Evan S. Dobelle is president and CEO of the New England Board of Higher Education and publisher of CONNECTION.
Copyright New England Board of Higher Education 2007
(c) 2007 Connection, New England’s Journal of Higher Education. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.