II.  Barriers to Access

As we examined the literature regarding outreach programs, we found a high degree of agreement across programs, both within California and across the country on the key barriers to higher education for large numbers of historically underrepresented groups.¹  In this section we briefly identify some frequently cited barriers.

Information  Low-income, minority, and rural parents generally have less access to information regarding higher educational opportunities for their children.  This problem is pervasive, particularly among families who are not native speakers of English, the most rapidly growing portion of California's adult population.  Parents lack information about the courses children need to take to qualify for college, the necessary level of performance required in these courses, admissions policies, application procedures, and the availability of student financial aid.

Counseling and Advisement  Counseling positions in California elementary and secondary schools have suffered disproportionate reductions during the recent extended period of severe budgetary constraints.  There is little likelihood that substantial numbers will be replaced, thus assuring that the inadequacy of all kinds of public school counseling personal, career, and academic will continue.  Additionally, there is strong evidence that, especially in low-performing schools, many counselors do not place a high priority on college preparation and do not advise students to take challenging courses.

Tracking  An important counseling-related barrier noted throughout the outreach literature is the still prevalent tracking and ability grouping practices that often place Black and Latino students into course-taking patterns which do not permit them later to gain entrance into four-year colleges and universities.  Tracking and ability grouping contribute to inequality in opportunity.  Students placed in slow tracks seldom catch up to their counterparts, and are often doomed to remediation throughout their schooling.

Test Requirements  Many more historically underrepresented students would be eligible for four-year colleges and universities were it not for the requirement that students take the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) or American College Test (ACT).  These tests, while reasonably accurate predictors of college performance, prove to be barriers on two dimensions.  First, disproportionate numbers of historically underrepresented students don't take them.  Secondly, those that do take them tend to score significantly below their white and Asian counterparts.  Many critics argue that the tests are culturally biased and provide unfair barriers to poor, Black, and Latino students.

Course-Taking Patterns  For the most part, low-income, Black and Latino students are not enrolled in a curriculum that is sufficiently demanding as preparation for four-year colleges and universities.  Disproportionately large numbers of Black and Latino students are enrolled in courses within the less-demanding general education or vocational education curriculum.  Students in these general and vocational education tracks rarely have access to the high-level mathematics, science, and English courses essential to college success.  This is particularly true in science and mathematics, where the course-taking patterns of these students often preclude a serious opportunity to attend a four-year institution.  Of particular importance as a barrier is algebra, the gateway to the college preparatory mathematics curriculum.  Again, for the more selective institutions, like the University of California, Berkeley or UCLA, the situation is even worse.  Most students who are admitted to the University of California at Berkeley have taken Five years of mathematics with one or more Advanced Placement or Honors courses an unlikely occurrence in areas with high numbers of low-income, Latino, and Black youngsters.

The problem tends to worsen for youngsters attending school in heavily minority, low-income communities.  Even the most talented and motivated students may not qualify for competitive universities, if the schools they attend do not offer a comprehensive, rigorous curriculum, taught by competent and knowledgeable teachers.

Under-prepared teachers  Unfortunately, teachers in schools with large proportions of historically underrepresented students are often the least-prepared. They are frequently teaching outside their major fields, and are more likely to have emergency credentials.  If teachers are poorly prepared both academically and pedagogically, it is unlikely that their students will fare well in the highly competitive world of college admissions.

Aspirations/expectations/motivation  Understandably, children from neighborhoods with high percentages of low-income and historically underrepresented populations often have fewer successful role models to emulate, and frequently lack the encouragement to set high aspirations.  Their immediate neighborhoods contain few adults who have successfully negotiated the difficult path to college.  Additionally, teachers, counselors, and administrators in many low-performing schools take little action to increase eligibility rates among their students.

Cultural and family pressures to work or marry early often foreclose access for a large number of these young people.  Their own peer groups may not be supportive of hard-working, ambitious students with college or university aspirations.  Additionally, few of these youngsters have the experience of being on a campus, engaging in collegiate activities, and meeting college students who have made it.Ó

Cost of Higher Education  In low-income communities, recent increases in tuition have had a disproportionally dampening impact on college aspirations for low-income students.  Soaring costs of higher education discourage youngsters and families from seeing higher education as a realistic option.

In sum, students from groups with documented low eligibility and college-going rates get inadequate support from their homes, their communities, their schools, and from colleges and universities.  We assert that each of these barriers is important, that cumulatively they may be overwhelming, and that all need to be addressed.  Since there are multiple barriers to admission, strategies which address only one barrier will be insufficient.  It does parents little good to understand the admission practices and policies if their child has not taken the appropriate courses.  The impact of the barriers to higher education is exacerbated for highly selective institutions like the University of California.  Each barrier looms larger as the competition for seats increases.

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