New Focus in Boston on Preventing Dropouts

Twenty-five colleges and universities in Boston -- public and private -- are starting a campaign to make sure that more graduates of Boston high schools finish college, The Boston Globe reported. The effort was prompted by a study two years ago finding that most graduates of Boston's public high schools who start college don't graduate. Efforts being tried by various colleges include scholarship aid, special (and free) summer programs and "learning communities" in which cohorts of students take multiple courses together.