Promoting College Enrollment Through Early Intervention

For more than 30 years, the federal government has focused on increasing the postsecondary educational opportunities for individuals and groups by providing students with financial aid to offset the costs of attendance. Although financial resources are important, policymakers, researchers, and other observers are increasingly concluding that merely making financial aid available to students is not enough to ensure equal educational opportunity for all students, particularly those who are economically and educationally disadvantaged (Gladieux, Astor, and Swail, 1998; Gladieux and Swail, 1998). This article sets the stage for understanding early intervention by describing the ways in which such programs recognize and respond to the factors that promote college enrollment.