Only 55 percent of students in the United States graduate high school. And only 33 percent of 25- to 32-year-olds complete an associate’s degree or higher.

This is one of the reasons why the College Board created the Advocacy and Policy Center, which officially opened Wednesday, said Christen Pollock, executive director of the College Board Advocacy and Policy Center. Youlanda Copeland-Morgan, the associate vice president for enrollment management and director of scholarships and student aid at Syracuse University, was named vice chair of the advisory committee at the center.

“There’s an education crisis in the country,” Pollock said. “The College Board has the ability to remove barriers for students so they can go to college.”

The center, as well as Copeland-Morgan, will aim to create public policy to increase the number of high school graduates, students prepared for college and college-degree earners, Pollock said.

“We are honored to have Ms. Copeland-Morgan serve as vice chair,” Pollock said. “We are fortunate to have someone of her caliber.”

Copeland-Morgan will hold the position for at least a few years, but she said because the position is new she could not give a specific amount of time. The president, chairs and other people at the College Board appointed her.

Copeland-Morgan worked in financial aid and enrollment for 31 years at various institutions. She received awards on the state, regional and federal levels for her work with policy and helping students attend college. She also served on the College Board’s Board of Trustees for four years and is the current president of the trustees.

As vice chair, Copeland-Morgan, along with her committee, is responsible for finding top researchers in the field, experts and data to create policies advocating for education. The center determines the specific issues it wants to approach next month at its first official meeting, but Copeland-Morgan said it deals with improving access to college-readiness resources and completion rates.

The center will focus first on minority students, low-income students and first-generation college students. This is because these students face the most barriers when it comes to getting a college degree, Pollock said.

Copeland-Morgan said she thinks it was fitting for her to be appointed to the national position while working at SU because of the programs SU has that promote access to college resources, including the Say Yes to Education program.

“We are able to say, ‘These are our successes, these are our failures, this is what we’ve learned,’” she said. “At Syracuse University, we have always been a place that provided opportunities and access to students. So I think I bring a rich perspective to the center, simply from drawing on my experience at the university.”

The center is based in New York City and Washington, D.C., but it will work with schools across the country. The center wants to partner with the Obama administration, Congress and the College Board’s 5,700 members, including high schools, school districts and higher institutions of learning, to help create effective education policies and improve graduation rates, Copeland-Morgan said.

“Education is a problem that has to be solved at the local level, the state level and the federal level,” Copeland-Morgan said. “So we’re trying to address the issue at all levels. We’re trying to come up with workable ideas and look at proven strategies.”

The idea for the center first came about four years ago when the College Board’s Board of Trustees decided the College Board needed to do more with advocacy and policymaking so more students could attend college. The College Board created an advocacy program, but it was not big enough for all of the research the Board of Trustees wanted to do. Last year, the College Board received a $600,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which let it create the Advocacy and Policy Center, Copeland-Morgan said.

The committee met last month in Washington, D.C., to discuss the student aid with policymakers in the Obama administration, researchers across the country, people in primary, secondary and higher education, and the under secretary of education, Copeland-Morgan said.

“We talked about how do we reform our federal financial aid system so that we’re getting our financial aid money to the right students and using the most effective way to provide access and resources,” she said.

Copeland-Morgan said she is excited to begin her post as vice chair, but she does expect some challenges. One challenge will be to focus on a few specific issues at a time, rather than trying to fix everything at once, she said.

Copeland-Morgan said she continues to strive for education policies because youth are the future, and she doesn’t think a single mind should be wasted.

“I can’t think of any investment that would pay better dividends than investing in the education of our youth,” she said.

 

Published on April 19, 2010 at 12:00 pm