Unstack the Odds: Help All Kids Access College—and Graduate!
by
Joe Rottenborn
Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)
14. Success, Part 1
When it comes to “success” in college, we usually think of graduation or completion of a program (e.g., certificate). Typically, the most selective colleges—that is, those schools having the highest admission standards, taking mainly students with strong grade-point averages, class-ranks, and ACT or SAT scores—graduate the highest percentage of their students. A key statistic for college success affecting graduation is retention rate, frequently defined as the percentage of freshman who return to start their sophomore year. To see the retention rates of students admitted to colleges with varying rates of selectivity, consult the ACT report National Collegiate Retention and Persistence to Degree Rates at this link: http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/pdf/retain_2009.pdf
Insofar as why students may not succeed in college, there are a number of reasons often cited. But a recent survey by Public Agenda, underwritten by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, of over 600 young adults (ages 22 to 30) who had completed some college, belied common myths in suggesting the prime cause. According to its findings: “The number one reason students give for leaving school is the fact that they had to work and go to school at the same time and, despite their best efforts, the stress of trying to do both eventually took its toll. More than half of those who left higher ed before completing a degree or a certificate say that the ‘need to work and make money’ while attending classes is the major reason they left. Balancing work and school was an even bigger barrier than finding money for tuition. Those who dropped out are almost twice as likely to cite problems juggling work and school as their main problem as they are to blame tuition bills (54 percent to 31 percent).” (Jean Johnson, Jon Rochkind, Amber N. Ott, and Samantha DuPont, With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them: Myths and Realities About Why So Many Students Fail to Finish College, Public Agenda, December 2009, p. 5.) http://www.publicagenda.org/files/pdf/theirwholelivesaheadofthem.pdf
Other “realities” cited were the following: “Young people who fail to finish college are often going it alone financially. They’re essentially putting themselves through school.” (Ibid., p. 9.)
“Among students who don’t graduate, the college selection process is far more limited and often seems happenstance and uninformed.” (Ibid., p. 12.) Indeed, the report found that “Those who did not complete are more likely than those who completed college to have selected their school based on convenience rather than academics.” (Ibid., p. 13.)
Tamar Lewin, reporting on this study in The New York Times, emphasized the importance of students’ financial and familial situation, saying this about the findings: “Among those who dropped out, nearly six in 10 were getting no help from their parents in paying tuition. Among those who got degrees, more than six in 10 have help from their family in paying tuition. About seven in 10 of the dropouts said they had no scholarship or loan aid; among those who got degrees, only about four in 10 went without such aid.”
Lewin further underscored the income and family backgrounds of these students, as she noted: “Among those who completed a degree, 72 percent had household incomes above $35,000. Among the dropouts, more than half had household incomes below $35,000. And while 7 in 10 of the college graduates had parents who had completed at least some college work, 4 in 10 of the dropouts had parents who had not gone beyond a high school diploma.” (Tamar Lewin, “Study Sheds Light on Students Leaving College Early,” The New York Times, December 9, 2009.) http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/agenda/?src=twt&twt=NYTimesCollege
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