But while Kanter called for evidence of success, stats on the effectiveness of Access to Success itself is not yet available, Education Trust officials said.

Still, early indications are that the systems with the most success are the ones that make services such as advising and enrollment in academic support courses mandatory instead of optional, said Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that advocates for closing the achievement gap by promoting high academic achievement for all students.

The Access to Success Initiative involves 24 state university systems that have joined to increase the number of college graduates in their states and ensure that those graduates more closely represent the demographics of their high school graduates. The role of the Education Trust is to report on the project’s success.

At the conference Thursday, system leaders acknowledged that the goal of closing the attainment gap has proven an elusive one to meet.

Dr. Charles Reed, chancellor of the California State University system,  one of the earliest members of the Access to Success initiative, said while his system’s graduation rates have improved significantly, the increase for underrepresented minorities has not kept pace.

“So that’s been a disappointment,” Reed said. “We are going to redouble our efforts, focusing on underrepresented minorities in the CSU system.”

Among other things Reed said, CSU plans to start a program next fall called “Early Start.” The program will be based on placement tests the system will give to 11th graders to let students and teachers know how prepared the students are for CSU coursework.

For those students who don’t do well on the algebra or English portions of the exams, they will be asked to retake algebra and a writing class, respectively, in 12th grade or the summer before college.