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News From the Center   Letter to the Editor   Unfortunately, in the article titled "After Affirmative Action," that appeared in your winter, 2000, issue, Cliff Adelman, senior researcher at the U.S. Department of Education, misrepresented the mission and purpose of the TRIO Upward Program. The number one objective of the TRIO Upward Program is not the development of social skills, and the turnover rate is not as horrendous as referenced in the article. Upward Bound helps young students from low-income families prepare for higher education. Participants receive instruction in literature, composition, mathematics and science on college campuses after school, on Saturdays and during the summer. Currently, 772 programs are in operation throughout the United States. Mathematics Policy Research is in the process of following 2,800 students who were randomly selected to participate in 67 Upward Bound projects nationally. At the time of their last report, about 22 percent of the students in the study had entered college, while most remained in high school. Sixty percent of the students who had been enrolled in Upward Bound, and were of an age to have graduated from high school, had enrolled in college. This is more than double the college enrollment rate of low-income students nationally. The TRIO Upward Bound programs have been helping low-income, disadvantaged students overcome class, social, academic and cultural barriers to education since 1965. These programs have strong bipartisan support in Congress and are held in high regard throughout the higher education community. Arnold L. Mitchem, Ph.D. President, Council for Opportunity in Education Washington, D.C. ELEVEN MID-YEAR PROFESSIONALS have been selected as the first Program Associates by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. The Associates program, supported by the Ford Foundation, is designed to engage scholars and leaders interested in addressing current public policy issues in higher education through involvement in the work of the National Center. The Associates will attend two policy symposia a year and will contribute in other ways to the National Center's agenda and activities. The first group of Associates includes faculty members, postdoctoral students, graduate students and early- to mid-career professionals in policy-related positions in state government and foundations. NATIONAL CENTER PERSONNEL helped to plan the annual education finance seminar of the National Conference of State Legislatures, which was held in Napa Valley, California, last February 18-20. Among the speakers were Patrick M. Callan and Joni Finney, president and vice president of the National Center, and David W. Breneman, dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, who has worked with the Center frequently. A PROSPECTUS that describes the National Center's forthcoming state-by-state report card on higher education is now available. The report card, which will be released this fall, will be the first to compare and evaluate each state's higher education performance. The goal of the report card is to assist state leaders in assessing the performance of higher education in their state compared to other states, and to promote public policies that enhance opportunity and achievement in higher education. The report card will emphasize state performance because it is at the state level that the most significant higher education policy decisions are made. The prospectus can be downloaded from the National Center's Web site. Single copies also can be obtained by faxing a request to (408) 271-2697.       Jared L. Bleak Doctoral candidate, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University   Walter A. Brown Assistant Professor, Higher Education Administration and Finance, George Washington University   Laura Greene Knapp Education Research Consultant, Winston-Salem, North Carolina   Donald E. Heller Assistant Professor of Education, Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, University of Michigan                     Mario C. Martinez Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Education, New Mexico State University   Lillian Montoya-Rael Deputy Director, New Mexico Commission on Higher Education   Nicole S. Norfles Doctoral candidate, Graduate School of Education and Human Development, George Washington University   Travis J. Reindl Policy Analyst, American Association of State Colleges and Universities                         Gavin A. Samms Doctoral candidate, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University   Gerardo E. de los Santos Vice President, League for Innovation in the Community Colleges

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