Too many who go to college are unprepared and never finish.

65 percent of low-income youth attending two-year colleges and 32 percent at four-year colleges start in non-credit bearing developmental courses.

Of all students starting in such courses, only 22 percent and 37 percent, respectively, move on successfully to the next credit-bearing course that they should have been ready for when they first entered college.

It’s a large, multi-faceted challenge without a simple solution, but we’ve recently been working with three K-12 school district-college partnerships on a targeted approach: ensuring that every high school student completes key non-remedial college courses by the time they make the transition from 12th grade into the first year of college.

In this critical period, we believe that high schools and colleges can share responsibility for supporting students whom they so often both serve from the same community.

Read the full article on high schools and colleges sharing responsibility by Joel Vargas and Krista Sabados at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation