College-Church Partnerships and Precollege Programs: College Entry and Urban At-Risk Youth

Abstract

With interest in university-college partnerships increasing, this paper presents an example of an effective college-church partnership. A Christian college partnered with 19 urban churches to offer precollege activities for urban youth in grades 7 through 12. As expected, the level of poverty associated with young people's neighborhoods (i.e., census tract) is related to eventual college entry and type of postsecondary institution entered (two-year or four-year). This study demonstrates that a precollege program offered in partnership with urban churches is able to help at-risk young people persist in middle and high school and eventually enter some form of postsecondary education. Moreover, the ethnicity of the urban churches—African-American or predominantly white—is seemingly unrelated to ultimate college entry of a group of predominantly African-American students.