The numbers that trouble me the most are those that document how educational access has not translated into educational success. While the percent of Americans with a college education has increased for all groups, the gap between minority and majority experiences has persisted largely unchanged. Given that a college degree is now the principal portal to middle-class status it is not acceptable that one’s ethnicity, in particular, remains a tag predicting likely success at reaching that destination. The problem, however, is not one of access — or at least the kind of access that is achieved by the removing of barriers be they legal, cultural, psychological, or financial. Providing equal educational opportunity — what I have taken to calling “access to success” — requires a different mind set and a willingness to invest public funds in programs other than federal student aid.

I have written before to summarize The Learning Alliances’ study of higher education access and participation in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Two of the lessons we drew from that effort are old chestnuts. First, income matters. To no one’s surprise, we noted that high-school seniors from communities whose families on average have higher incomes are more likely to attend college than students from communities with lower family incomes.

Second, higher levels of unemployment translate into increased college enrollments. When jobs become scarce, young people are more likely to stay in school.

Our three remaining lessons changed our understanding of the dynamics of college enrollments.

Third, the quality of primary and secondary education in the county had a direct and measurable impact on how likely graduates from that county’s high schools would proceed directly to college. The most powerful measure in The Learning Alliance’s study was how well students did on the standard reading test that was part of the Commonwealth’s 11th-grade assessment test; school districts whose rising juniors performed poorly on this exam sent far fewer students on to college. Students who can’t read for comprehension at a 9th-grade level are not going to succeed in college and they know it. Without ia substantial increase in the number of high-school seniors who graduate genuinely college ready, there will not be substantial increases in college participation rates.

Fourth, familiarity engenders interest. The more colleges that are nearby, the more likely students from those same communities will plan to attend college.

Fifth, the absence of a low-risk higher education portal is in itself a of predictor of non-participation. Here the lever most readily available to policy makers is an old one: increasing the spread of community colleges will likely increase college participation rates — though not necessarily college success rates.

The Pennsylvania study offers a powerful explanation as to why neither federal nor state programs of student aid have closed the participation gap. What Pennsylvania requires is not more money for student financial aid, but heftier appropriations designed to improve middle and secondary schools along with more uniform access to the low-risk educational alternatives represented by community colleges.

Advocates for the nation’s underrepresented populations will not like this conclusion, in part because it appears to let the nation’s colleges and universities off the hook. Hardly. Higher education bears significant responsibility for the state of America’s middle and secondary schools. Higher education sets the standards, trains the teachers, and determines how K-12 education aligns with postsecondary education. Given that perspective, improving participation and access is everyone’s responsibility.

Charlie Reed, Chancellor of the California State University (CSU) knows that and has committed his 23 campuses to building sustaining, mutually reinforcing partnerships with their feeder high schools. The goal is to cut in half the proportion of first time freshman entering CSU who fail one or more placement exams while at the same time increasing the number of high school students who are prepared to succeed in higher education.