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At College Parents of America, we strive to provide valuable resource information to our members, as well as vigorous advocacy.While many of my recent columns have centered around some of the key advocacy issues that we are focusing on – to serve you – here in Washington, DC, we also work to benefit you with resource information that hits home wherever you live.One of those key resource areas involves the question of academic preparation for college, not just what it takes to get in to school, but what it takes to succeed.

Presidents of colleges and universities love to talk.They love to talk about the schools they lead, and why they are great. They love to talk about problems facing America and the world, and how U.S. higher education is producing the next generation of leaders to solve those problems. And they love to talk about the federal government, and how it is not spending enough money in support of colleges and universities.Actually, college presidents love to talk most of the time. When it comes to certain subjects, they grow quiet.

Not only should all colleges and universities - public and private - be financially accountable, they should also be to prove that accountability and to demonstrate it to all of their constituencies, including their parents.Several groups specializing in academic finances are advising higher-ed institutions to adopt provisions that mirror those targeted at publicly traded corporations in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the federal law that was designed to better police corporate governance.

We've all seen the bumper stickers. "My child is honor student at fill-in-the-blank middle school."Some of you may have even had the chance to slap one of those bumper stickers on your own car fender.When it comes to honors in high school and college, however, the bumper stickers get fewer and the standards get stricter.College Parents of America thought you would find it useful to learn more about college honor societies and how you – and your child – can judge their credibility.

The school year is now at least a few weeks old for the vast majority of colleges across the country, though some on the quarter system may just be getting started this week or next.If your child is still in secondary school, you've probably remarked to each other how difficult it is, with today's busy lifestyles, for him or her to actually find time to study.But study time is critical, and it gets even more important when the young adults in your household go off to college.

To paraphrase Charles Dickens, it is the best of times and it is the worst of times for American higher education.A college education is more widely available than at any time in our nation's history, with well more than two-thirds of high school graduates attending college in the year following high school, and more than 80 percent beginning their higher education within a few years.