Feds take more steps to boost U.S. college graduation rate


ED announced $20 million in grants to improve postsecondary success.

Vice President Joe Biden on March 22 unveiled an administration plan to involve governors directly in efforts to boost college graduation rates, while providing millions in financial incentives for colleges to do the same.

Speaking at an education summit in Washington, D.C., Biden suggested each governor hold a college completion summit, and he proposed a list of ideas to help them. President Barack Obama’s goal for the United States to have the best college graduation rate in the world by 2020 is “a necessity,” Biden said. “This is not an aspiration.”

The administration’s College Completion Toolkit offers seven “low-cost or no-cost” strategies—with specific examples of how each is already being used in some places—to improve college completion:

• Set goals and develop an action plan.

• Link state funding to college success in boosting completion rates.

• Align high school standards with college entrance and placement standards.

• Make it easier for students to transfer.

• Use data to drive decision making.

• Accelerate learning and reduce costs.

• Target adults, especially those with some college but no degree.

Korea has the best college graduation rate, with 58 percent of its population ages 25-34 having finished college; the U.S. is in a four-way tie for ninth place at 42 percent, according to a study published last year by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

To regain the top spot, the Education Department (ED) projects the nation will need to hike its completion rate by 50 percent, which translates into an additional 8 million students earning associate’s or bachelor’s degrees by the end of the decade.

The department published data showing the percentage of college graduates in each state as of 2009, the number of grads needed for each state to have a 60-percent completion rate by 2020, and the number needed for a 50-percent increase in completion in that same period.

Graduation figures range from a low of 28 percent in Arkansas, Nevada, and New Mexico to 54 percent in Massachusetts. The District of Columbia topped all states, with 65 percent of its residents holding degrees.

Nineteen states already have set their own goals for increasing college completion.

ED on March 22 also announced $20 million in grants for innovations designed to improve success and productivity at postsecondary schools.

The department is accepting applications from now until May 23 for the 2011 Comprehensive Grant Program, which is part of the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE). The Comprehensive Grant Program will provide $20 million to colleges for innovative reform practices that have the potential to serve as models for the nation.

In its 2012 budget, the administration has proposed another $123 million in competitive funds for programs that speed learning, boost completion rates, and hold down tuition through a program called First in the World.

A second proposed program of $50 million would reward states and institutions for producing more college grads. That program is called College Completion Incentive Grants, and states would be eligible to apply if Congress approves the program in its 2012 budget.

Federal data shows that about one-third of first-year college students nationwide had taken at least one remedial course in the 2007-08 school year. At two-year colleges, 42 percent had taken at least one remedial course.

Former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, said the strategies recommended by Biden have proven effective but are only one part of the solution.

States also must significantly raise high school graduation rates, while increasing the preparation of high school students for college-level classes, said Wise, a Democrat.

“It’s about first getting the high school diploma, and the second step is making sure there is preparation behind the diploma,” Wise said.

Toward that end, the National Governors Association is already spearheading an effort known as the Common Core standards initiative, which set uniform academic benchmarks that have been adopted by 41 states.

Though a spokeswoman for the association did not immediately return a request for comment, Wise said he thinks state executives will be receptive.

“Every governor knows this needs to be done,” he said. “Every governor would be looking for every partner he or she could find, because they’re all definitely trying to do this.”

But Robert Schwartz, academic dean at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, cautioned that hitting the goal of a 60-percent national graduation rate by 2020 still will not be a panacea.

Schwartz heads the Pathways to Prosperity Project, which released a study in February concluding that the U.S. education system should offer greater emphasis on occupational instruction.

“What’s the strategy for the other 40 percent of people?” he said. “We can’t keep saying, ‘College for all, college for all’ and yet set targets that even if you could meet them are going to leave out very large proportions of young people.”

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