What Research Tells Us

Not enough opportunity.

Today, too many low-income students do not have the opportunity to attend college. Either they are not fully prepared, they cannot afford college, or both. Low-income urban students are falling behind.

The need among low-income urban students to finish college is huge. Statistics today paint a bleak picture of the number of urban students - especially those not at the top of their class - who get a real opportunity to attend college.

  • Only about half of African American and Hispanic American ninth graders graduate from high school within four years, compared with 79 percent of Asian Americans and 72 percent of whites.
  • Only 26 percent of all students attending colleges and universities come from low-income families, and of those students, only 6 percent earn their undergraduate degrees.

Results of two recent longitudinal studies - the College Board's Equity 2000 Project and the American Council on Education's Access and Persistence: 10 Years of Longitudinal Research on Students - serve as a guide for closing the ever-widening achievement gaps between low-income/minority students and advantaged/non-minority students.

Raising expectations.

These students confirmed what many have long suspected: when academic expectations are low (as is often the case in urban and rural remedial classrooms), student performance is low. However, when low-income, minority students are placed in academic environments with high expectations, they will perform at a level comparable to their advantaged/non-minority classmates.

Furthermore, involvement, support and mentoring from parents, peers and school personnel can significantly help at-risk students overcome obstacles that often stand in the way of high school graduation and college access and completion.

Rigorous high-school education makes a difference.

Research indicates that students who receive a rigorous high-school education are much more likely to attend and graduate from a four-year college. Low-income students routinely are less prepared for college than students of families with higher incomes. Moreover, these students need an array of social support to prepare them to succeed in college.

College-access programs help low-income students defy expectations and beat the odds in the face of numerous challenges.

Kauffman Scholars based on research and experience.

The Kauffman Scholars program was designed based on our extensive study of research and best practices on how to prepare low-income students and assist them through college graduation and our experience.

As a result, of such research, and our experience with the Kauffman Foundation's first dropout prevention and college assistance program, Project Choice, the Kauffman Scholars program centers on three factors critical in helping students move through high school and on to graduation:

  1. academic enrichment, which includes tutoring, intensive summer programs, and Saturday academies that focus on study and life skills;
  2. a life coaching component; and
  3. a very active parent-engagement program.