As Martha Bailey and Susan Dynarski found, high- and low-income students are divided on their college enrollment rates (about 80% vs. 50%) and even more on their graduation rates (about 50% vs. 10%). This educational achievement gap is attributed to poor students having less support and guidance than their richer peers. A solution? The Possee Foundation finds scholarships for teams of low-income students from the same neighborhood at the same college, and provides the ‘possee’ with on-campus mentoring. In 25 years, the Possee Foundation has sent more than 5,500 students to college at 51 different schools, 90% of whom have graduated.

More about Bailey and Dynarski’s work cited in story on sending teams of poor kids to college >