Report finds low graduation rates, but high federal aid
A new report from the Education Trust says over $15 billion a year in federal aid goes to colleges where most of the students don’t graduate. Plus, many of the students — three out of ten — have so much debt they can’t repay it.
Not so suprising: most of the schools on the list are for-profit institutions.
There’s some argument in academic circles as to what is a good graduation rate — some students transfer, some take longer to graduate, and not everyone finishes. Judith Scott-Clayton, a professor of economics and education at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College, says while that is the case, it’s still easy to spot problematically low rates.
“I think most people could agree that 15 percent is probably too low,” Scott-Clayton says.
But over a six year period at a group of schools (many of which are for-profit), the report found that 15 percent is exactly how few students are graduating.
Michael Dannenburg, Director of Higher Education Policy with Education Trust cites the University of Phoenix, a for-profit that he says receives $4 billion a year in federal student aid and has a lot of campuses on the low graduation list. The school points out that many of its students work on top of their studies, so of course it takes them longer to graduate.
But Dannenburg notes the average college graduation rate from four year colleges after six years of enrollment is 59 percent. He also says you can’t pin low rates on low income students.
Says Dannenburg, “We’ve looked at scores of institutions that are serving similar students with similar characteristics that get very different results. In other words, demography is not destiny in higher education.”
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