Guidebook: Closing the College Completion Gap

College completion: it's a matter of our nation's economic future, and the next generation's civic engagement. Imagine if faith-based institutions all across the United States worked to ensure that more young people in their communities completed college as a pathway to productive work and a better future. This Gates Foundation publication highlights stories of what's working and offers information and tools to address college completion as a major anti-poverty measure.

The largest gap in levels of civic participation exists between those who are college educated and those who are not. (The National Conference on Citizenship's 2010 Civic Health Assessment found those with a bachelor’s degree are nearly five times more likely to volunteer than those who dropped out of high school.)

However, the majority of our nation's young people, especially low-income Americans, are finding it difficult to complete this pathway to success. Every day, there are faith communities throughout the country that are creating social networks for disconnected youth, providing positive role models for students, improving their self-esteem, providing academic tutoring for class subjects and state standardized tests, hosting FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and college awareness nights, providing opportunities to visit college campuses, and partnering with postsecondary institutions to secure admissions and financial aid packages.

Find out what faith communities are doing to effectively partnering with K-12 and postsecondary institutions to close the college completion gap.