Guest blogger who runs a very useful website for students and parents-GoCollege

by Thomas J Hanson, Editor , OpenEducation.net

Poor college completion rates - suggested solutions even worse.

The results of a first-of-its-kind study recently graced the front pages of the Boston Globe. In Hub Grads Come Up Short in College, James Vaznis revealed an all too similar refrain regarding college completion rates.

Of the members of the graduating class from Boston high schools for the year 2000 who had gone on to higher education, nearly two-thirds of the class had not earned a college diploma seven years after they had begun collegiate studies.

The findings were particularly troublesome for a city that has touted its steadily increasing college enrollment rates over the last few years. In simplest terms, Boston does see more high school graduates enrolled in college than does the nation as a whole, but the college completion rate for those students is actually lower than the national average.

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City of Prestigious Institutions
The news hit the city, often dubbed the ‘”Center of American Higher Education,” extremely hard. The Globe editorial staff penned a companion piece the same day entitled, Getting in Isn’t Enough.

Stating it was time “to take a long and deep look into the gulf between ‘getting in’ and ‘getting through college’,” the editorial revealed some incredibly dismal numbers.

Consider:

* students attending two-year community colleges had a 12 percent graduation rate.
* students attending four-year public state colleges had approximately a 33 percent graduation rate.
* students at four-year, private colleges managed the best rate at 56 percent.

Another revealing statistic, not evident in the editorial but on display in Vaznis’ article, referred to the completion status calculation more fully. It seems that not all of the 675 students who were deemed to have graduated had actually earned a bachelor’s degree. Also included in the completion rate were students who had earned either a certificate or an associate’s degree.

Thomas M. Menino, the Mayor of Boston, responded by announcing a major initiative. It set forth a goal of increasing the college graduation rate by 50 percent for this year’s high school seniors. In addition, the Mayor went on to suggest a goal of doubling the rate a second time for those students who are currently high school sophomores.

“We want to make sure all our kids in Boston get a good education and graduate from college,” Menino is quoted by the Globe. “It’s not just about getting into college but how to stay in college.”

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/
As but another step that has been uttered time and again across America in recent years, officials indicated it was time the city school system did a better job of preparing its high school students for success after graduation. That was followed by the traditional hue and cry to raise K-12 education standards.

And last but not least, the traditional basis for pushing all students towards earning a bachelor’s degree was postured once again.

“A graduate of a four-year college will make almost $1 million more than a high school graduate over a lifetime,” Neil Sullivan, executive director of the Boston Private Industry Council, told the Globe. “We need to help students every step of the way earn the prize: a college degree.”

The Wrong Focus
The state of public education has focused on the K-12 system in recent years. During that time frame, higher education has earned a free pass. In fact, the general consensus from most folks is that America’s colleges and universities represent the best of the educational system in our country.

However, Mark Schneider, the vice president for new educational initiatives at the American Institutes for Research, offers a very contrasting viewpoint. In The Costs of Failure Factories in American Higher Education, Schneider asks, “If there is virtually universal agreement that American high schools are failing, how do our colleges and universities measure up against such a low benchmark?”

Turns out not very well.

WikipediaIt can be difficult comparing data but Schneider does his best to compare apples to apples. However, he does note one specific advantage for higher education: colleges generally use a six year window as the norm for completing the four years of study while high school calculations are based on a four year timeframe.

“The median high school graduation rate, for example, is 77 percent,” writes Schneider, “but the median post-secondary graduation rate is more than twenty-five points lower. While American high schools graduate about three-fourths of their students in four years, American colleges graduate only about half of their students in six.”

Schneider indicates that there are also significant differences by type of institution. But the key notion is a simple one: “The low high school graduation rates that have long been decried as a failure of America’s education system are mirrored in even lower college graduation rates.”

In addition, the long-standing differences in high school graduation rates based on race and ethnicity have led to expressions such as “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” But while public education K-12 is often labeled in such a manner, it must be duly noted that colleges and universities also see large gaps in post-secondary completion rates when comparing whites to blacks and Hispanics.

College Does Not Work for Many Students
One positive is that the poor completion rates are finally catching people’s attention. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently launched a new initiative that seeks to sort through the poor completion rates of college bound students, particularly those who have chosen the community college route.

In the Globe article, there is at least some acknowledgment of the “enormous barriers facing urban high school graduates.” Vaznis points out that many of the individuals being discussed within the study are the very first members of their respective families to actually attend college.

The writer notes further that the study did not specifically address reasons for the low graduation rates. But he speculates, quite soundly, that “these students often have financial problems, some are raising children, and others are held back by a need to retake high school courses in college because they lack basic skills.”

In regards to the issue of college preparedness, a short time ago we discussed the words of Marty Nemko, a man dubbed the “The Ralph Nader of Education.” At that time we offered what Nemko calls his ‘killer statistic.’

Marty Nemko“For those aspiring college students who finished in the bottom 40 percent of their high school classes, but went on to attempt to secure a four-year degree right out of high school, roughly two-thirds had studied for the better part of eight and a half years without obtaining a diploma.”

In simplest terms, those students who lack the ability to handle the rigor associated with college are unsuccessful when they give college a try.

Nemko adds that “only 23 percent of the 1.3 million high-school graduates of 2007 who took the ACT examination were ready for college-level work in the core subjects of English, math, reading, and science.”

Yet four-year colleges admit and accept funds “from hundreds of thousands of such students each year.” However, according to the data we have just reviewed, those same schools fail to see these students through the process of completing their degree program.

Nemko pulls no punches with his summary assessments.

“Colleges and universities are businesses, and students are a cost item, while research is a profit center.

“As a result, many institutions tend to educate students in the cheapest way possible: large lecture classes, with necessary small classes staffed by rock-bottom-cost graduate students. At many colleges, only a small percentage of the typical student’s classroom hours will have been spent with fewer than 30 students taught by a professor.”

And as for the quality of instruction, well:

“The more prestigious the institution, the more likely that faculty members are hired and promoted much more for their research than for their teaching. Professors who bring in big research dollars are almost always rewarded more highly than a fine teacher who doesn’t bring in the research bucks.”

Square Pegs, Round Holes
Ultimately we have the worst of all potential situations: students who do not have the academic ability to handle the level of rigor that college must demand combined with ill-equipped institutions of higher education that seem incapable of helping these students succeed.

That issue is then exacerbated by education officials who continue to insist that all we must do is simply raise standards further and that by doing so, somehow the square peg, round hole malady facing us will disappear.

Unfortunately, those same officials also insist that the only path to success in life is by way of a college education. It is the same nonsense that brought forth the No Child Left Behind Act and the oxymoron, proficiency for all.

The notion that college is for everyone really just pushes NCLB to the K-16 arena. It is the fundamental belief that every child regardless of innate ability must be placed on a ‘bachelor’s degree or bust’ path, followed by the assumption that every student is capable of such academic rigor.

Benjamin LyonsThis is a false and damaging assumption. A bachelor’s degree for every student is no more viable than setting forth a goal of a masters or a PhD for every student. Yet, would we ever in our right minds suggest that such a standard is possible?

It is time that those in charge came to their senses and acknowledged that other approaches to learning are possible. It is time to recognize that hands on vocational schooling and working apprenticeships can be just as viable for helping students learn as the traditional academic teaching tools of reading and writing.

If only our educational experts could grasp that our country needs skilled workers as well as college graduates they might embark on a different path, one that creates multiple educational opportunities for our youngsters based on a goal of helping all students succeed.

What we do not need is more high school or college drop outs. But instead of examining the real issue, a one size fits all approach to education, we opt to tinker with standards and expectations, then set goals that are beyond the reach of many students.





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Labels: academic preparation College Completion

In a September 15 press release Secretary Spellings noted that 4 year college completion among adults 25-34 inched forward by 2% from 2000 to 2007. This is a slow pace, and many other nations have surpassed our rate of 31% in the past decade. Some surveys have 9 nations ahead of us and others 15. Until recently the USA lead the world in college completion rates, in part because of our high level of female attainment.

Labels: academic preparation College Completion

Peter D. Hart has conducted a national poll of students in grades 9-12 on a number of topics including education. The poll found that 21% of students grades 9-12 said they spent more than 10 hours a week on homework, up from 9% in 2005. This caught my eye because other homework polls have been flat or down in the past. UCLA has reported declining homework among high school seniors going to 4 year colleges over the past 15 years. Maybe something is happening out there that will improve college preparation and college completion. But the Hart poll reports that 64% OF TEENAGERS REPORT AN AVERAGE OF 10.3 HOURS PER WEEK PLAYING OR PRACTICING A SPORT. So homework is still not much of a priority for teens.
See the poll at www.horatioalger.org

Labels: academic preparation College Completion

The Pacific Research Institute a right of center think tank in California estimates the total cost of remediation for a single cohort of college freshman at 2 and 4 year California colleges at between $3.9 billion and $13.9 billion annually, driven largely by lost individual earnings and related social costs. The direct remediation costs for Ca postsecondary institutions is $247 million. But there are high and low estimates for many other costs such as lost earnings, crime, and reduced tax receipts. The study is provocative, but hardly definitive. Yet it is good for discussion because older studies only use direct costs to colleges and are way out of date. See the study at http:liberty.pacificresearch.org. The study is titled The High Price of Failure in California.

Labels: academic preparation College Completion, college costs

USC has established a Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice. I spoke at the opening conference August 5. There are a number of new papers on the website at the core of this blog.Sandy Baum did a comprehensive paper on student aid. There is a debate on testing between Wayne Camara of College Board and Saul Geiser of University of California.
My favorites were on the lack of college policy, central leadership, and initiatives on college persistence and college completion by Don Hossler of the University of Indiana and David Kalsbeek at Depaul. No one is in charge of retention at colleges and staff resources minimal. See it all at www.usc.edu/cerpp.

Labels: academic preparation College Completion, college costs

Professor John Aubrey Douglass has written a good analysis of trends in Us higher education in the magazine , California, June 2008. As the first nation to implement mass higher education US led in most in access and college completion. But we have held steady while other nations increased and surpassed USA. USA slipped from 1 to 14 in post secondary participation rates and from 1 to 16 in completion rates.
A major cause is better policies by our competitors over many years, but the major causes says Douglass is the breakdown in the k-12 pipeline to higher education, costs increases in postsecondary, immigration growth, and the high use of community colleges in US. The completion problem is focused in broad access US higher education which is the focus of this blog.

Labels: academic preparation College Completion, college access

Guest blogger Jamie Shkolnik, American Institutes for Research

The Early College High School Initiative (ECHSI) was started in 2002 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with the goal of improving postsecondary access and success, particularly for student populations underrepresented in higher education. Schools in this initiative are characterized by partnerships with an institution of higher education (IHE) and the goal of having students earn up to two years of college credit concurrently with the high school diploma. AIR and SRI International have been contracted to conduct a national evaluation of the ECHSI.

On March 24, 2008, Jamie Shkolnik and Joel Knudson presented “Credit Where Credit is Due: An Examination of College Course-Taking at Early College High Schools,” at the American Educational Research Association conference in New York City. They presented data on Early College School (ECS) students’ college course-taking to assess the integration of college courses in high school. Data for this presentation came from a school survey administered to the population of ECSs and a student survey administered at a sample of 20 ECSs, both administered during the 2006-07 school year.

Shkolnik and Knudson found that the majority of ECSs (92%) offer college courses, and that most ECS students (65%) had taken a college class. This compared favorably to high schools nationwide, where only 5% of high school students took college classes in 2002-03 (Kleiner & Lewis, 2005). Students were increasingly likely to take college courses as they progressed through high school; 47% of ninth graders reported having taken a course, steadily increasing to 84% of twelfth graders. Students took college courses reported enrolling in an average of three courses per year.

Students also experienced greater integration with the college environment as they progressed through the grade levels. ECSs use variety of models for providing college courses to high school students, including: a) high school teachers with adjunct status teach the courses at the high school, b) college faculty teach high school students at the high school, c) college faculty teach a group of high school student on the college campus, and d) high school students, either individually or in small groups, attend traditional college courses. Shkolnik and Knudson reported that with each successive grade level, higher percentages of students took a course on a college campus, took a course with a college instructor, and took classes with traditional college students. Most students were satisfied with their ECHS experience: 80% said that if they could start over, they would choose the ECS again.

Jamie Shkolnik is a Senior Research Scientist at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). She can be contacted at JShkolnik@air.org. Joel Knudson is a Research Associate at AIR, jknudson@air.org.

Labels: academic preparation College Completion, College Preparation

Understanding College Placement Exams: A Crucial Part of College Success

At broad access two and four year colleges, placement exams are the crucial standard that students confront when they enter, and are the pathway to credit-level courses. Many students in broad access colleges work many hours while attending postsecondary education, and receive weak and confusing signals about necessary academic preparation to pass placement exams. But secondary school students know they will be admitted if they meet minimum GPA and course requirements, or are over 18. Consequently, they are not prepared for placement exams, and end up in remedial courses. Remediation for first semester community college students is over 60%.

Research on the content, reliability, and necessary preparation for placement exams is scant, and placement standards are not well publicized to prospective students or secondary school teachers. The content, cognitive demands, and psychometric quality of placement exams are a “dark continent” in terms of the assessment research literature. Students are admitted to the postsecondary institution under a low standard, but placed in credit courses or remediation on another higher standard. Secondary school students wrongly believe that their high school graduation requirements are sufficient to be placed in postsecondary credit-level work, and rarely know about the possibility of placement exam failure that leads to starting college in remedial, non-credit courses. Students who begin in remedial reading and math courses have a lower probability of finishing their desired academic program (including vocational education certificates) (Adelman, 2006). In sum, remediation is a poor pathway from highs school to college, while being able to enter credit-level courses leads to college completion

Revision of college placement exams have not been part of the K-12 standards movement that has swept across the U.S. Indeed, placement exams are rarely part of the discussion because standards policies are made in separate K-12 and higher education orbits that rarely intersect.



Sources
David T. Conley, College Readiness (Eugene, Oregon; Educational Policy Improvement Center, 2007).

Labels: academic preparation College Completion, College Success

In prior blogs I have cautioned that state merit aid programs based on high secondary school grades may discourage students from taking difficult courses where they may get low grades. This will inhibit college success and college completion. Kentucky is concerned about this and now we have a study of Floridas merit aid program- Bright Futures- that found the worries have a basis in college course taking as well.. A study by Fla State U professor Shouping Hu shows a decline in Science and math courses at Fla colleges from students who got state scholarships from before and after Bright Futures started. Students need high college grades to maintain their aid.
This study is suggestive not conclusive, but much more research is needed because a lot of state money is devoted to these merit aid programs. Redesign of state aid may be necessary. The study is in May 29 issue of Inside Higher Ed.

Labels: academic preparation College Completion, College Success Studies

The may 31 edition of the Economist has a fascinating article on pages 84-85. Luigi Guiso of the European University Institute in Florence took data from OECD PISA that tests 276,00 15 year olds in 40 countries.In countries that have the most sexual equality like Sweden, versus low like Turkey, the sexes are even in math and reading.Geometry is the only area where boys score higher in advanced nations. Girls score much higher in reading than boys in all the equal societies, and every country ,including Turkey in the Economist chart.
Last year in the USA girls attained 58% of the bachelors degrees. The lower performance of boys seems to be an emerging issue in most European and Asian countries with more industralized economies. These trends make it difficult to figure out what to do about it in USA, and relates to college completion.

Labels: academic preparation College Completion

I have waited to report on the new AAUW report "Where the Girls Are"-http://www.aauw.org- until I read more about it. The report has been very controversial in downplaying the male gap in college completion-58% female versus 42% male.The male gap is 2 to 1 in favor of females for black and hispanic students. AAUW is correct in stating this should not be framed as a win lose game, and lead to policies that favor males in some form of affirmative action. But AAUW tries to make the issue go away by emphazing older students are a large part of the gap, and that SAT scores are similar among genders. What about the male students who go to broad access postsecondary and do not take SAT! Half the first year enrollment is in community colleges.
In 1970 there were 1.5 million more men in higher education than women,and AAUW was saying this was a crisis. Now there are 2.7 million more women than men and AAUW says there is no crisis.
Each person needs to sift all the evidence in this provacative report.

Labels: academic preparation College Completion

Projections of High School Graduates show some big differences among states. Some states will decline and cause public and private colleges to lower admission standards. For example, in 2015 Iowa graduates will decline by 11%, Nebraska by 6%, NH by 10%, NY by 9%, Pa by 7%and Vermont by 23%. Many of these states have a good supply of colleges who will be scrambling to find students.
My concern is that this trend will send signals to students that they can get in easily , so do not need to study hard in high school. More colleges will become defacto open enrollment. This will lower college preparation and completion.
For the study see http://www.wiche.org/

Labels: academic preparation College Completion

The last blog had the key elements of a college culture. A new study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research found that in Chicago public schools only a third of the students went to a college matching their aspirations for a 4 year college. These students could have been accepted at a 4 year college ,but lacked information on how to apply or get financial aid. So they ended up at community colleges with much lower completion rates. The biggest factor in influencing whether they applied to a 4 year college-the college culture in the secondary school that they intended. Latino students had less college awareness than African Americans. Most students did not understand the difference between a 4 year and 2 year college.
Look at the elements of a good college climate in secondary school in the prior blog. Chicago needs much more attention to these.

Labels: academic preparation College Completion, college information

The Lumina foundation continues its committment to new programs for college success and college completion- http://www.achievingthedream.org/ This impressive effort has different approaches throughout many states. It is primarily institution based rather than state systemic refom. But a new publication is on the website about a framework for state policies to support student success from a conference of fifteeen state policy teams. It also has a state data network.
Achieving the dream is now moving to state policy implications derived from the many local innovations to turn access into success.

Labels: academic preparation College Completion, College Success

qbnsHow do we know what solutions really work to improve college preparation and completion? One excellent way is to conduct a randomized trial using control groups similar to FDA drug tests. There is a start on this for community college effectiveness and persistence through a top flight research firm MDRC-http://www.mdrc.org/. They found that some types of dual enrollment programs in New york City can prevent remediation. Now they found "learning communities " in which students take several remedial courses together can advance them to credit level college courses. The same group of students took three courses together-remedial English, health or psychology , and an orientation course.The professors worked together to reinforce each other.
These are small scale studies and it is uncertain whether the results can be generalized. But research is moving in the right direction.

Labels: academic preparation College Completion

Title 1 the main funding source for NCLB provides 14 billion annually, but only 6% of this money goes to high schools and 15% goes to middle and high schools combined ! So not much college preparation can be provided to low income students who are at risk of not completing college because of poor academic skills and knowledge. This needs to be a major focus of NCLB reauthorization. Foundation support for college preparation can not come close to matching the potential of Title 1 as a funding source.
I doubt adding new categorical programs for high schools is the best route. Congress is considering a billion for Success in Middle Schools Act, and 2.5 billion for a Graduation Promise Act. But college prep needs to be at the core of NCLB, not an add on through yet another underfunded categorical.

Labels: academic preparation College Completion, College Preparation

I attended a conference on early college high schools that enable
average students to take college courses in high school up to 60
credits. These schools are spreading through Gates foundation grants,
and are impressive. They utilize lots of innovative practices
starting in the middle grades to prepare and nurture students for
college. Most of them are in low income areas and admit by lottery.
But they require students to attend longer hours, and to pursue a
college prep curriculum. But early college high schools have many
supports for students such as mentors, counselors, parent outreach,
and stimulating curriculum. They are smaller and more personalized
than typical big city high schools.

The costs are higher for early college schools and I wonder what
will happen after the foundation money runs out. However, the results
may be worth the extra money, and I was impressed with the energetic
staff and some preliminary outcomes for students. gates is evaluating
these schools so we will know more in a few years. For an overview,
check the major technical assistance provider for early college - www.jff.org

Labels: academic preparation College Completion, college costs, college information, college knowledge, College Preparation, College Readiness, College Success, curriculum alignment, ready for college