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February 02, 2009
| Improving U.S. Global Competitiveness and Combating Poverty by Growing the Proportion of Adults with College Degrees |
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This Issue Focus was originally prepared as one of 15 transition memos on pressing education and social policy issues for the incoming Obama Administration and the new Congress. To read the other memos in the series, visit Policy and Research Recommendations.
Bottom Line
A college degree is increasingly imperative in the knowledge-based global economy. In recent years, college completion rates in the U.S. have fallen behind those of several other nations. A growing body of evidence suggests that innovations in financial aid, curriculum and instruction, and student services can increase students’ persistence and success in college.
What Do We Know?
College graduates earn more. In 2005, for example, graduates of four-year institutions in the U.S. earned an average of $25,000 more than high school graduates. Adults with a two-year associate’s degree earned $8,500 more than high school graduates.
Many U.S. college students do not graduate. One-third of students at four-year colleges and universities do not complete their studies within five years. Two-thirds of students who start at a community college fail to earn a certificate or degree within five years. Completion rates are even lower for the 60 percent of students who enter community college underprepared and who need to take remedial courses.
U.S. graduation rates remain steady, while rates in other countries climb. The U.S. ranks near the top in the proportion of all adults with college degrees. However, graduation rates for younger students have fallen well below rates in other countries. Among 18- to 24-year-olds, the U.S. ranked 16th among 27 nations in the percentage with an associate’s degree or higher in 2003. The U.S. ranked much higher — 5th — in college enrollment, pointing to lack of persistence as the primary issue.
Community colleges play a critical role in higher education. The most affordable and accessible institutions in higher education, community colleges currently enroll 40 percent of all college students nationwide. Community colleges offer two-year associate’s degrees and prepare students to transfer to four-year schools. Compared with four-year schools, community colleges enroll a higher proportion of students of color, low-income students, working adults, and parents.
Changes in education policy and practice can improve students’ success. Although rigorous research in this area is new, reforms in financial aid, curriculum and instruction, and student services show promise.
- Many students struggle to cover college-related costs. A study found that performance-based scholarships, which tied payments to academic success, increased college registration, semester-to-semester persistence, and the number of credits earned among students who were low-income parents. (Please see a related brief from MDRC for more information.)
- Most students in community college are not prepared for college-level work, but standard remedial courses fail to engage students and lead to high dropout rates. Research has shown that learning communities, in which groups of students take at least some of their classes together, helped students move more quickly through remedial education requirements, increased the number of credits earned, and increased persistence.
- Most community college students receive little counseling and advising and don’t know where to turn when they are struggling in school. Some programs that provided enhanced, individualized, proactive counseling have been found to increase students’ enrollment in college and grades and help them move off probation.
What Can Be Done?
State and local institutions determine how to teach courses and what kinds of supports to provide to students. The federal government, however, can play a powerful role in encouraging bold experimentation and sponsoring research on effective strategies to determine which ones make the most difference and should be brought to scale. This could be done, for example, through one of the U.S. Department of Education’s research centers, or as a new demonstration project. The following ideas could be pursued:
Test different strategies in remedial education. Little is known about how to effectively help students move through remedial education into college-level courses. Open questions include whether new teaching methods or curricula might be more effective than current approaches; whether contextualizing remedial education within specific occupational training or academic programs is more effective; and whether using new technologies, including online instruction, improves students’ outcomes. The Department of Education is currently investigating variations of the learning community program discussed above, through the National Center for Postsecondary Research.
Test student service innovations across different settings and with different populations. New approaches to enhancing advising, counseling, and other student services at community colleges and universities that serve low-income and underprepared students can be developed and evaluated. Possible approaches include redefining and expanding the role of counselors, developing mentoring and support programs for specific populations, and integrating student services with academic instruction.
Encourage colleges and universities to become more data driven. Because most higher education institutions are funded based on fall enrollment, they have little incentive to track students over time. A national initiative, Achieving the Dream, is helping colleges to collect information on students’ progress and to use the information to allocate resources.
Key Resources
Achieving the Dream
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Community College Research Center
National Center for Postsecondary Research
Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education
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