The NCCEP/SBC Access Granted Project, a collaborative effort between the UCLA Early Academic Outreach Programs (EAOP) and four high schools from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), seeks to prepare up to 320 underrepresented students in grades nine and ten for admission to the nation’s selective colleges and universities. With the elimination of affirmative action in the University of California’s (UC) admissions process, the number of underrepresented students admitted to UC campuses and UCLA specifically has plummeted. Schools representative of this decline include our four partnership schools from LAUSD: Crenshaw, Dorsey, Manual Arts and Washington Preparatory High Schools. The ethnic composition of these schools is 99% African-American and Latino/a, and approximately 70% of these students come from low-income families and participate in the federal government’s free and reduced lunch program. The students from these four schools require immediate and comprehensive academic college support in order to help them meet the stringent admissions requirements of competitive universities like UCLA. From 1999-2001, only 445 of the 4,880 graduates from the four schools were eligible for admission to the University of California, with only three (3) students meeting the “competitive eligibility” status for the UC. It is also important to note that in the four identified high schools, the college counselor to student ratio is approximately 1:2,948.

The findings of four prominent researchers will be used to implement the “Access Granted” plan. First, Patricia McDonough’s work showing the importance and impact of the high school counselor and higher education advisor has in college planning and college choice. Secondly, Jeannie Oakes’ findings that it is important for underrepresented students to complete a college preparatory curriculum that includes Advanced Placement (AP) courses in order for them to obtain admissions to selective universities. Lastly, Alberto Cabrera and Steven La Nasa’s literature citing the need to develop an academic college plan, building college level study skills, and motivating pre-college students by using college undergraduates as role models and mentors. The Access Granted project is designed to help underrepresented students prepare to become competitively eligible for college admission upon high school graduation. When students are competitively eligible to the University of California then they become eligible for most of the nation’s colleges and universities. The overarching goal of our initiative is to increase higher education opportunities for the students in the Access Granted project from these four high schools.

Although funding for the Access Granted project is for one year, it will take four years to realize and measure complete success of our effort. Nonetheless, the goal of preparing our identified students to be competitively eligible for selective colleges and universities by the time they graduate from high school is the mission. Our partnership will address three major areas identified as obstacles for these underrepresented students: 1) non-participation in a college preparatory curriculum; 2) improve students’ academic performance in core subjects such as English, science, social sciences and math with emphasis in successfully completing Algebra and Geometry; and 3) lack of adequate college advising and college information.