Too many students leave college without credentials because life, logistics, and a lack of money got in the way. These #RealCollege students are the new majority, but they are often ignored. The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice is home to an action research team using rigorous research to drive innovative practice, evidence-based policymaking, and effective communications to support #RealCollege students.
We are social scientists, practitioners, communicators, and activists committed to communities that demand affordable, accessible, high-quality education from high school to higher education and beyond. More
We develop creative approaches to solving challenges of practice, policy, and public perceptions. Working closely with doers we ensure that effective approaches are implemented and scaled. Finally, we spur systemic change by igniting a fire to engage others in taking advantage of what we have learned. More
We seek to inform, educate, stimulate, and guide people who want to shift the structural conditions and mindsets holding back #RealCollege students. All of our publications are free. More
Poverty remains one of the most serious challenges plaguing Philadelphia, an otherwise ambitious and thriving city on an upward trajectory. More than one in four residents live in poverty, the highest rate among the nation’s 10 largest cities. Almost half of those individuals live in deep poverty. And the situation facing our children is even …
The #RealCollege survey is the nation’s largest annual assessment of basic needs security among college students. The survey, which specifically evaluates access to affordable food and housing, began in 2015 under the Wisconsin HOPE Lab. This report describes the results of the #RealCollege survey administered in the fall of 2018 at all of the undergraduate …