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Improving Lives: Ensuring the Academic Success of Low-Income Adults

Improving Lives is a multifaceted, three-year project of the ACE Center for Policy Analysis funded by Lumina Foundation for Education to address the issue of academic success for low-income adults.

Goals

• To make the case to institutional leaders and policy makers that low-income adults are a vital part of the college student population, who possess unique characteristics, face significant challenges, and require greater attention and assistance than traditional students.
  
• To identify proven policies and programs that help low-income adults meet their educational goals, as well as spotlight existing institutional and public policy barriers that impede the academic progress of these individuals.
  
• To prompt action among institutional and policy leaders to improve the academic success of low-income adults.

Reports and Activities

• Low-Income Adults in Profile: Improving Lives Through Higher Education presents key data on the low-income adult population in the United States, as well as low-income adult college students. It describes the background characteristics, academic profiles, and special challenges faced by low-income adult students, contrasting their situations with those of traditional students and other adults. The report features a special essay by economists Anthony Carnevale and Donna Desrochers that defines the economic and social imperative for investing in the education of low-income adults.

  - Purchase a printed copy of this report.
  - Download a free PDF of the report and sign up for e-mail notification when future project reports are released.
  
  Note: To help us understand who is interested in this project, we will ask you a few short questions about your job and employer before you download the report. Thank you for your cooperation.

• An online resource of federal and state programs for low-income adults is now available! ACE conducted a national audit of state and federal programs that assist low-income adults in their pursuit of education beyond high school and summarized the results in a searchable online database of more than 400 programs. This database includes programs in areas such as financial aid, military, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and workforce investment as well as several others. Additionally, ACE has profiled a number of exemplar programs that provide benefits to low-income adults.
  
• Improving Lives Through Higher Education: Campus Programs and Policies for Low-Income Adults represents one of the first attempts to take a national measure of institutional programs, policies, and services for adult students, particularly low-income adults. The results of the survey suggest that institutions have made considerable headway in implementing adult-friendly programs and policies, but that there is still much room for improvement.
  
• The project concluded with two meetings for teams of state policy makers and institution leaders to craft action plans that address the needs of low-income adult students. The meetings took place September 15-16, 2005 in Los Angeles, California and September 28-29, 2005 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

For More Information

• View information on other Lumina-funded projects on adult students.
• Read the press release announcing this project.

Please direct questions about this page to:
policy@ace.nche.edu
This page last updated on 05/02/2008