The Pathways to College Network, an alliance of 34 national organizations dedicated to improving college access and success for underserved populations, released a report on Thursday outlining nearly 100 recommendations designed to make a college education attainable for all students.

"College is no longer an elective -- it is necessary," said Carol Geary Schneider, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, at a news conference here. "We really have not faced up as a nation to the fact that our academic system was set up to leave many behind."

The report, "A Shared Agenda: A Leadership Challenge to Improve College Access and Success," is a to-do list for policy makers, secondary and higher-education leaders, and all sectors of society, said Ann Coles, director of the Pathways group and senior vice president for college-access services at the Education Resources Institute, a nonprofit organization that provides education financing and information services.

While the report makes many recommendations, the Pathways group is focusing on three leading issues, Ms. Coles said. Those issues are:

Making a college-preparatory curriculum the standard for all students.

Providing financial-aid commitments earlier so students need not worry about how to pay for college.

Using data and assessments to develop effective support programs so that all students can achieve at a college level.
Ms. Coles said the group hopes to achieve those goals in the next two years.

"We need to eliminate tracking ... have vigorous assessment ... and don't keep children guessing about financial aid," Blenda J. Wilson, president and chief executive officer of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, said in an interview. "All of these things are in place somewhere today. We know this is not impossible to do."

While the report acknowledges that substantial progress has been made over the past 30 years in increasing attainment levels, it adds that there are still large gaps in high-school-graduation, college-enrollment, and degree-completion rates that are tied to race and income.

It cites statistics showing that:

High-school graduates from high-income families enter college at rates 25 percent points higher than those from low-income families.

A child from a family in the top income quartile is five times as likely to earn a bachelor's degree by age 24 as is a child from the bottom income quartile.

While more than one-third of white Americans earn at least a bachelor's degree by their late 20s, only 18 percent of black Americans and 10 percent of Hispanic Americans attain postsecondary degrees by that age.
"Today is really a beginning," Ms. Coles said. "It is essential to engage political policy makers, so that this is not just a report that lands on someone's desk."

The group based its recommendations on more than 650 research studies and six guiding principles that encourage high expectations and high-quality academic preparation.