RSS
Home
Drop out rates - not just a k-12 education issue
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
For years, K-12 public education in America has been taking major hits for its failure to graduate a larger percentage of the student population. One of the major focal points has been the number of students who enter ninth grade yet never earn a high school diploma.
However, the cost of higher education in America has folks now looking at their performance levels with a similar level of scrutiny. And if there is concern about what transpires at the high school level, there now has to be a similar level of concern for what is taking place at the university level.
In yet another damning portrait of higher education, the recent release of a study from the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research reveals incredible variations in graduation rates across more than 1,300 of the nation’s colleges and universities. In their study, Diplomas and Dropouts - Which Colleges Actually Graduate Their Students (and Which Don’t), the researchers found that four-year American colleges had an average graduation rate of a mere 53% even when students were granted six years to complete their degree.
Clearly, not all schools are created equal when it comes to student retention and completion rates. The USA Today takes a look at how some similar schools with virtually identical student population characteristics fared.
Unfortunately, the numbers for Maine’s public colleges proved to be very similar to the national average while on the bright side, the three liberal arts stalwarts, Bates, Bowdoin and Colby all offered rates topping 80%.
For more on the study, visit the AEI web site.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
