Fast Track to College: Increasing Postsecondary Success for All Students

Access to family-supporting jobs now requires education or training beyond high school, but college is becoming less affordable and the education “pipeline” from high school to and through college remains shockingly inefficient. In this report for the Center for American Progress and the Institute for America's Future, Hilary Pennington proposes the development of “fast track to college” alternatives that reinvent the relationship between American high schools and postsecondary institutions. The goals would be to: increase the numbers of students who complete postsecondary credentials; reduce the time it takes them to do so; and eliminate disparities in educational attainment by race and income by the end of the decade.