Di Xu & Colleagues Receive Gates Foundation Grant to Examine College Acceleration Strategies

Grant Title: "Getting a Jump on College: How to Strengthen the Impact of College Acceleration Strategies on College-Going and Success by Underrepresented High School Students"

Assistant Professor Di Xu has received a $1.5 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to examine access to and impacts of different college acceleration strategies on student college going, college transition, and college completion. The grant is a joint project with the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University (PI), and the Aspen Institute's College Excellence Program.

Description

​Over the next two years, Xu, Teachers College, and the Aspen Institute will partner with state higher education agencies in Florida and Washington to conduct research designed to identify and promote replication of concrete strategies for increasing access to and effectiveness of college acceleration strategies for underrepresented high school students. The project will seek to increase awareness and understanding among high school and community college practitioners and policy makers of the drivers behind inequitable access to and outcomes of college acceleration strategies including dual enrollment (DE), early college high schools (ECHS), Advanced Placement (AP), and International Baccalaureate (IB). The project will also identify institutional structures, policies, and practices that increase successful completion of these courses as well as high school completion, college-going, college transition, and college completion for low-income students and students of color who take them. 
​