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Let’s measure success by degrees – It’s not enough to get people into college. The goal should be to get them out – with a degree.

Access to higher education is an important issue at Montana’s colleges and universities, as it is on campuses throughout the country. That’s good. Higher education plays a huge role in the success and prosperity of our entire society. But access to college isn’t all that matters. After getting in the door, students also need to actually obtain an education to succeed.

Missoulian Editorial

http://missoulian.com/articles/2004/06/04/opinion/opinion6.txt

And on that score, too many institutions are failing the grade.

That’s the inescapable conclusion of a recent report from the Education Trust, a nonprofit organization based in the nation’s capital. "Far too many students who enter our higher education system fail to get a degree," the report laments. "Even among the students most likely to succeed – those who begin their college career as full-time freshmen in four-year colleges and universities – only six of 10 of them, on average, get a B.A. within six years."

That’s the national average. The picture is actually worse in Montana. The University of Montana’s graduation rate is just over 40 percent, according to the 2003 NCAA Graduation Rates Report.

This problem isn’t new. Nationally and locally, graduation rates have remained relatively stable over the past decade (even as the percentage of people entering college has increased). The Education Trust, however, points to something that has changed: the consequences of not attaining a degree. Gone are many of the manufacturing jobs and other blue-collar opportunities that, even a generation ago, could provide a middle-class lifestyle for someone without a college degree. Competing and thriving in today’s world requires the kind of advanced skills that few students obtain in high school. To paraphrase the Education Trust report, lack of college success no longer is simply a matter of individual disappointment – it’s a national problem. The country can’t succeed if nearly half the people who go to college leave without success.

The good news is that we don’t have to settle for disappointment. The Education Trust report notes that graduation rates vary greatly, even among comparable colleges and universities. Some institutions obviously are succeeding far more than others. Their methods are worth trying.

Montana’s university system is already trying various ways to retain students. But real progress is unlikely to come without greater awareness of the problem and support for solutions. It’s going to be tough to increase college graduation without broad public understanding of the need to do so. Raising graduation rates isn’t something the campuses can do by themselves. For starters, students need to enter college ready for college-level study; success in higher education rides largely on the success of K-12 education. More can be done, too, to help college students zero in on the learning opportunities they really want and need and are prepared for. On that score, it’s encouraging to see the state Board of Regents embarking on a study of Montana’s two-year colleges, prelude to a possible restructuring aimed at better and more efficiently serving some students.

Access – the opportunity to go to college – often hinges on cost. But cost surely plays a role in graduation, too, with some students simply running out of money before they finish their degrees. While college tuition and fees are ever rising, another factor driving up the cost is the length of time it takes a student to complete a degree. As the Education Trust report details, it’s taking the average student six years to get a degree from "four-year" schools. Are there some ways to speed things along? If so, the savings would be substantial.

You might want to read the Education Trust’s report for yourself. Find it at http://www.edtrust.org. It includes one recommendation we especially like: Change the way public colleges are funded. Quit funding them, as Montana does, based on the number of students enrolled and instead base funding on desired progress and outcomes.

As important as it is to make it possible for as many people as possible to go to college, the real goal ought to be ensuring as many people as possible get the education they need. The percentage of students who earn their degrees is a useful gauge of success. Those numbers, nationally and especially in Montana, show decided room for improvement.

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