Policy Research

CARA undertakes research to inform our practice & leverages practice to inform research and policy in all of our work.

Research <—> Action

CARA conducts applied research on postsecondary access and success in collaboration with the young people, schools, community organizations, and higher education institutions we partner with. Through this policy research, CARA highlights barriers, amplifies best practices, and works to facilitate equitable systemic change. Our goal is to expand the capacity of systems and bring the voices of those most impacted by local, state, and national policies – practitioners & young people – into conversations that shape policy at all of these levels.

Research Publications

CARA’s research spans policy reports, youth participatory action research, academic journal articles, and essays sharing best practices.

Read All Publications

Policy Goals

Drawing on our research and programs, CARA works to ensure that all young people can access high-quality and affordable postsecondary paths. To achieve this, we write reports, create scalable tools & rubrics, and collaborate with our partners to promote:

Expanding the Capacity of Schools Creating Economic Mobility Amplifying the Voices of Students & Educators

- Building the postsecondary access culture and infrastructure of high schools. This includes:
- - Providing exposure in grades 9-12 to information and opportunities that help students define interests, gain career experiences, and apply for a range of high-quality postsecondary paths (see Rethinking Curriculum)
  - Lowering student-to-counselor ratios to allow for access to expert, personalized, and relational postsecondary advising (see High Quality Advising Framework)
  - Supporting school and district leaders to provide the vision, professional development, funding, and data systems necessary to enable school-wide postsecondary programming (see Leading for College & Career Access and the District Framework for Enabling Postsecondary Success)
- Building the institutional capacity of colleges. This includes:
- - Developing staff capacity to provide individualized, proactive, and sustained advising relationships (see Unlocking the Power of Peers)
  - Institutionalizing a holistic approach to student support, provided either through targeted comprehensive programs (e.g. ASAP) or campus-wide initiatives
  - Expanding access to high-quality paid internships, as well as career advising & mentorship
- Making high-quality postsecondary pathways affordable to all young people. This includes:
  - Ensuring students have access to expert guidance around financial aid
  - Investing in broad-access public institutions so they can spend the same per student as flagship universities
  - Increasing need-based aid relative to the cost of college
  - Making financial aid available for undocumented students & students from mixed-status families (see Undocumented Student Toolkit & Obstacles & Opportunities)
- Paying, training, and positioning young people to work alongside adults as near-peer advisors to support postsecondary access and success. This includes:
  - Expanding peer-to-peer postsecondary advising programs at public high schools (see our SSC Report) and colleges (see Unlocking the Power of Peers) to increase postsecondary access
  - Creating reliable funding mechanisms that ensure ongoing resources to pay peer advisors (inclusive of the cost of peer-advisor pay, training, and supervision)
  - Positioning and empowering young people to provide meaningful guidance to their peers
  - Formalizing a career pipeline for near-peer advisors by offering academic credit for the work experience, creating direct pathways into graduate programs, and providing financial incentives to continue in the field (see our Triple Impact Report)
- Elevating the perspectives of practitioners and students farthest from opportunity. This includes:
  - Conducting research focused on and guided by the young people who are at the center of educational issues (see our Undocumented Student Toolkit)
  - Bringing educator voices into the policymaking process through research and strategic convenings (see Widening Postsecondary Pathways and Leading for College & Career Access)