Send fewer students to college
In response to Marcus Winters’ call to send more students to college, Robert VerBruggen of Phi Beta Cons argues we’re sending too many as it is. . . . when 40 percent of college students fail to...
View ArticleWhy college students drop out
With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them from Public Agenda looks at why so many college students never earn a degree. It’s not that students are bored with their classes or reluctant to work hard, the...
View ArticleWhat to do about unskilled college students
Many college students can’t do math or read well, write Sandra Stotsky and Ze’ev Wurman on Minding the Campus. Estimates of those needing remedial classes before taking credit courses range from 30% of...
View ArticleB students struggle in college
Illinois’ B students average a C+ at state universities and community colleges. Some graduates with similar GPAs do much better than others in their first year. Massachusetts colleges and universities...
View ArticleBack to college? It’s not easy
Twenty percent of working-age adults have some college credits but no degree. persuading college dropouts to try again is a key part of the “completion agenda.” But college can be just as hard the...
View ArticleCostly dropouts
Federal, state and local taxpayers spend billions of dollars on community college dropouts, I write in U.S. News. Fewer than 45 percent of college-ready students and just 20 percent of remedial...
View ArticleCollege dropouts cite costs, poor preparation
Only 46 percent of U.S. students who start college complete a degree, according to the OECD. That’s the lowest rate in the industrialized world. College dropouts blame high costs, poor preparation and...
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Roll-your-own higher ed
Young “heretics” with high-tech skills are Saying No to College, according to the New York Times. Inspired by billionaire role models, and empowered by online college courses, they consider themselves...
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A black graduate asks: Why do so few make it?
Jamaal Abdul-alim earned a journalism degree at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. He returned, writing for the Washington Monthly, to ask why only 19 percent of black students complete a degree...
View ArticleEasy come, easy go
In the name of access, many community colleges set students up to fail by allowing late enrollment and letting unprepared students take college-level courses, an administrator writes.
View Article‘Skill builders’ don’t want degrees
Not all college students want a degree. “Skill builders” use low-cost community colleges to pick up expertise. Once they have what they need — often a raise — they depart, driving up the college’s...
View ArticleUniversity wants to give 2-year degrees
Kent State University wants to award two-year degrees to students on their way to four-year degrees. Dropouts would have something to show for their time in college — and the university would get more...
View ArticleMore students quit college
College persistence rates — the percentage of students who enroll for a second year — are declining.
View ArticleCore courses can be gatekeepers
General education requirements can be gatekeepers, preventing community college students from earning a certificate or degree. Does everyone need college algebra?
View ArticleTennessee seeks college ‘stickiness’
In hopes of lowering high college dropout rates, Tennessee now links some college funding to graduation rates. State universities are trying to improve student “stickiness,” reports PBS NewsHour.
View ArticleHow to prevent college dropouts
The best way to prevent college dropouts is to stop admitting unprepared students to four-year colleges and universities, argues Richard Vedder. People with “some college, no degree” earn little more...
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First to college — but not to a degree
More low-income students are enrolling in college, but few go on to earn a degree, reports Liz Riggs in The Atlantic. Just 11 percent of low-income students who are the first in their family to attend...
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‘Free’ college won’t raise graduation rates
College is too late, writes New York Times columnist Frank Bruni in response to President Obama’s call for free community college in the State of the Union speech. Subsidizing tuition won’t help if...
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Few graduate at ‘cafeteria colleges’
Easy come, easy go is the reality at community colleges, writes Meredith Kolodner in the Hechinger Report. Only 39 percent of degree-seeking students earn a credential within six years. A quarter of...
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When college is a foreign land
Ten years ago, students at a wealthy New York City private school, Fieldston, exchanged visits with students at a high-poverty Bronx public school three miles away. Johnny Rivera, a University Heights...
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