Re: data on college graduation rates

[Peter Campbell <campbellp@mail.montclair.edu>]

Jerry,

Clucking about a 50% graduation rate may not be such a bad thing when  
you consider the mythology and salvational rhetoric that surrounds  
the institution of higher ed. For much of K-12, the whole gestalt is  
based on the unexamined dictate, "Thou shalt produce students who  
graduate and go on to college."

But as we know, many students who graduate from high school are not  
prepared for college. And those that are prepared (academically and  
in all other ways) are not prepared for Death by Lecture, Teaching by  
Grad Student, Class Size for the Masses As Taught to the Masses by  
Adjunct, and college loan debts that rival an unlucky bus tour in Vegas.

What is so great about college? There are lots of great things. But  
it would be nice to understand a bit more clearly what we mean by  
"the college experience," esp. since we are selling this idea to as  
many K-12 students as possible. What are we selling them on? And if  
only 50% of them are finishing college with a degree, maybe we should  
interpret this as a rejection of our sales pitch?

Peter

On Apr 10, 2006, at 10:24 AM, Gerald Bracey wrote:

> Peter,
>
> I think the conventional wisdom holds that 50% of all students
> who start college get a degree within 6 years.  I think that
> is a figure that actually came from a study, but I couldn't
> name it.  Even so, given the way even public institutions are
> differentiated with a state, it would seem its not a
> meaningful stat. and the only purpose that I've seen it put to
> is to cluck about it and beat up on schools.
>
> I've probably mentioned this before, but that the 50%
> completion rate is seen as bad reflects a change in values.  I
> recall the first convocation at William & Mary, the dean of
> men proudly telling us that 50% of us wouldn't make.  The
> implication was clear: We might be a public college but we've
> got standards, by god.
>
> Jerry