College Readiness and Remediation Crisis: New America Foundation's "Bridging the Gap" Report

Washington DC -- Today the New America Foundation's Federal Education Budget Project released a report on America's college readiness and remediation crisis. The paper, "Bridging the Gap: How to Strengthen the Pk-16 Pipeline to Improve College Readiness," by Ulrich Boser and program fellow Stephen Burd, details the failings of the current system and provides recommendations for reform.

"Ultimately, the low college readiness rate is a massive failure of the entire pre-kindergarten through college (Pk-16) system -- a dysfunctional academic pipeline with weak standards and misaligned policies," Ulrich said.

The policy paper includes a detailed examination of the current crisis, a look at promising reforms already in place, and recommendations for local, state and federal policymakers to restructure the system so that every American has the opportunity to graduate from high school ready for college and the workforce.

The full report is available at NewAmerica.net.

To launch the paper, the Federal Education Budget Project is hosting a public event today in DC. The event will be webcast (airing live at 1pm on the event page). It will feature an introduction by Education Policy Program Director MaryEllen McGuire followed by a panel of distinguished guests. These guests include:

• Michael Wotorson, Director of the Campaign for High School Equity;
• Mervin A. Jenkins, Assistant Director of AVID Eastern Division; and
• Robert G. Templin, Jr., President of the Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA)

For more information about this event, visit the event page.

If you would like to speak to one of New America's experts, please get in touch with Erin Drankoski at drankoski@newamerica.net. The following New America expert is available to discuss the report:

• MaryEllen McGuire, Director, Education Policy Program, New America Foundation

About New America
The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States.  Headquartered in Washington D.C., New America also has offices in California.