Community colleges have become the new policy darlings over the last year-plus. Their lower price tag makes them an attractive place to begin a postsecondary education before transferring to a more expensive four-year school, while curricula that are more focused on local vocational needs increases their popularity as a place to get new or updated [...]
All Posts Tagged: 'graduation rates'
The Classroom Performance of College Football’s Elite Teams
Every year, the top college football teams rake in millions of dollars through lucrative bowl game appearances. But while these contests significantly raise a school’s profile and give national attention to a few superstar athletes, only about half of those playing in the games will actually leave school with a degree.
There is, however, some variability [...]
The Case Against the Case Against Affirmative Action
Crossing the Finish Line, the new book from former Princeton president William Bowen, former Macalaster College president Michael McPherson, and Matthew Chingos, is getting a lot of coverage today. (The Chronicle here, InsideHigherEd here, the Times here). I haven’t read it yet (no review copy, ahem), but it looks very interesting. The authors tracked 94,000 students [...]
Not All Higher Education Spending is Created Equal
At least that’s the conclusion reached in a new working paper from Cornell University’s Higher Education Research Institute. First mentioned in Inside Higher Ed, the paper takes advantage of data from the Delta Cost Project to study the relation between certain types of higher education spending and student achievement.
Specifically, the researchers looked at four different [...]
100% or…What?
The 2014 target for 100% proficiency is one of the most vexing parts of the No Child Left Behind Act. On one hand, it seems absurd to suggest that every single student in America, all 49 million of of them, could pass a legitimate proficiency standard in both reading and math less than six years from [...]
Uniqueness
After finishing my morning coffee and news routine, I start on the day’s slog of research. I’m looking at the website of a Mountain West state’s flagship university. Then I click on their “Campus Life” section, and I find the following passage (proper nouns removed):
[University [...]
What We Do Cannot Be Measured
Two main camps square off in education over and over again. One side, typified by the Broader, Bolder coalition in K-12, emphasizes student demographics. They point out, justifiably, that students enter school with widely divergent skills and expectations. As such, schools can only do so much to rectify the situation. The [...]
March Madness Round Two
Yesterday, we declared Stanford the winner of the ES graduation rate tournament. Today, we look at who comes out on top looking at the difference between the institution’s overall graduation rate and their basketball team’s grad rate–the one with the smallest difference wins.
–Thanks again to Abdul Kargbo, Sumner Handy and Kevin Carey.
The Big Dance with an ES Twist
Following on last year’s successful NCAA graduation rates bracket (well, not successful if you used it in your office pool), we’ve taken a look at how this year’s teams would fare at the big dance if winners were based on the team’s graduation rate. As usual, expect plenty of upsets (click on the image to [...]
The Grad Rate Tourney Bracket
Turns out Georgetown is for real, at least on the hardwood. But graduation rates? Not so much. For a look at how the March Graduation Rate madness played out, see yesterday’s Washington Post Op-chart here, from New America’s Lindsey Luebchow and yrs truly.
Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed 
College and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success
03/19/10 | Ben Miller is quoted on college graduation rates and the NCAA Tournament in the Detroit Free Press.
03/19/10 | Linda Perlstein links to Education Sector's "College- and Career-Ready" event.
03/17/10 | Ben Miller's column on graduation rates and NCAA Tournament eligibility is mentioned on The Wall Street Journal's The Daily Fix.
03/17/10 | Kevin Carey's critique of Diane Ravitch's latest book is quoted in Doublethink's Conventional Folly blog.
03/15/10 | Ben Miller pens an op-ed for US News & World Report on using graduation rates to determine NCAA Tournament eligibility.