Expanding College Access for Urban Youth

This timely book demonstrates why there needs to be a more thoughtful and collaborative effort on the part of K–12 schools, as well as institutions of higher education, to provide better college access to students from low-income communities. Building on a 10-year case study of a successful school–university partnership, the authors examine the support, mentoring, and resources needed to transform the college opportunities and life chances for underrepresented urban youth. Featuring firsthand accounts from student participants, the book documents how the model provided college access to some of the most selective and prestigious universities across the nation. Because this partnership situates college access within a social justice framework, it is one of the more unique programs in the country.

Book Features:

• Shows what successful partnerships look like when schools and districts work with common goals and outcomes.
• Documents an approach that identifies promising students early in their high school careers.
• Emphasizes college access with a commitment to social justice, equity, and investment in schools and communities.
• Focuses on student perspectives to identify mentoring and high school resources that make a difference in their college pursuit.
• Includes viewpoints of university personnel and parents about the impact of the program on students.

Tyrone C. Howard is a professor of education in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies’ Urban Schooling Division, UCLA, and bestselling author of Why Race and Culture Matter in Schools and Black Male(d): Peril and Promise in the Education of African American Males. He received the 2022 AERA Social Justice in Education Award. In 2024, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Jonli D.Tunstall is director of the UCLA VIP Scholars Program. Terry K. Flennaugh is an assistant professor and coordinator of Urban Education Initiatives for the College of Education at Michigan State University.

"This qualitative depiction of a school-university partnership includes real students and mentors in order to bring life to the sobering statistics regarding access to higher education for Black and Latino students. Expanding College Access for Urban Youth is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the broad field of social justice and for those seeking to enact change."

—Education Review // Reseñas Educativas

"Few social problems are of more pressing importance than the challenge of increasing access to higher education. The authors carefully outline those problems and give us our marching orders. Historical. Empirical. Well-written. Thoughtful. Provocative. This book is useful for all of us concerned about access and equity in education."
—William G. Tierney, professor & co-director,Pullias Center for Higher Education,University of Southern California

"This is a powerfully, masterfully, instructionally crafted text, inundated with lessons about how to bridge pre-K-12 postsecondary public and scholarly discourses, policies, and practices to build an ideal pipeline for some of the most grossly underserved youth in the U.S. Grounded in illustrative statistics, voices of real students and parents, and profound and provocative evidence spaces of a successful university partnership, the authors demonstrate what is possible for our children through education in the United States when we choose to break down barriers that maintain inequity and the status quo. This book represents a moral and ethical call to any of us who believe in an educational pipeline for liberty, humanity, possibility, and justice for all—everyday!"
—H. Richard Milner IV, author of Rac(e)ing to Class, Helen Faison Professor of Urban Education, University of Pittsburgh

"This is an inspiring book about the potential to change the life course of urban youth. It provides a clear map for how to build true partnerships between schools and universities by listening to students and what they say has worked for them."
—Patricia Gándara, professor of education and co-director of The Civil Rights Project at UCLA

2022 AERA Social Justice in Education Award for Tyrone C. Howard