Higher education institutions must answer the call to see more students through to graduation.
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But the reforms will not be enough. Getting students in the front door of college is only the first step — we also have to help them reach the graduation stage. And, while the president recognized this in his call for a new $2.5 billion college completion fund, this represents only a small fraction of the national investment in higher education. Most public funding for colleges and universities comes from state governments. States also control the levers of higher education governance and regulatory power. To regain the United States’ international lead in college attainment, states must do a better job of using these tools to hold higher education institutions accountable for results.
The good news is that a great deal of new information is available to accurately measure institutional success. The federal government collects and publishes graduation rates for nearly every college in the United States. Since 2005, the data have been broken down by students’ gender and race/ethnicity. The numbers reveal large disparities at many campuses, with Black graduation rates often 10 percentage points below those of White students, or more. Nearly half of all institutions graduate fewer than 40 percent of Black students within six years. Hispanic graduation rates are much the same.
