With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them – Myths and Realities About Why So Many Students Fail to Finish College

According to the U.S. Department of Education, only 20 percent of young
people who begin their higher education at two-year institutions graduate
within three years.

There is a similar pattern in four-year institutions, where
about 4 in 10 students receive a degree within six years.2 And these bleak
statistics on national college completion rates are averages.

In some
institutions, the numbers are even gloomier.
This is clearly a personal disappointment for the students and their families,
but increasingly, experts and leaders see it as a threat to U.S. international
competitiveness and a phenomenon that perpetuates economic insecurity
and inequality. In 2009, President Barack Obama set a goal for the United
States to “have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.”
More specifically, he called for measures that would ensure that an
additional 5 million Americans would complete “degrees and certificates
in the next decade.

By Jean Johnson and Jon Rochkind with Amber N. Ott and Samantha DuPont
Prepared with support from the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Full Story: http://www.publicagenda.org/files/pdf/theirwholelivesaheadofthem.pdf?mc_cid=a2c969a7fa&mc_eid=dfa0607b67