The New York Times reports today about something we’ve been talking about for some time – the fact that not enough of our younger citizens are going on to, and completing, higher education.
A new report presented by Gaston Caperton, the president of the College Board (which creates the SAT college entrance tests and runs the AP program) says that while the US used to rank number one in the world for the percentage of its 25- to 34-year olds with college degrees, we’ve now sunk to number 12 among 36 developed nations.
Today, Canada leads the international degree competition with 56 percent of its younger adult citizens holding at least an Associate’s Degree. In the US, only 40.4 percent from this age group hold such credentials.
Things are even worse for US minority and disadvantaged students. The College Board’s president indicated that only 30 percent of our African-Americans and just 20 percent of our Latinos hold postsecondary degrees.
A graphic included with the report shows that at present the percentage of Kentuckians aged 25 to 34 who hold at least a two-year degree ranks only 39th among the 50 states and Washington, DC.
On this map, which is a part of that graphic, more than 40 percent of the young adults in states shown in green have at least an Associate’s Degree. States shown in blue have a rate between 30 to 40 percent. Less than 30 percent of the young adults in the states shown in pink hold at least an Associate’s Degree.
What does the College Board say bears major responsiblity for the decline in US degree holders? Answer: the K to 12 education system in the United States.
The College Board had no trouble outlining many shortcomings with the K to 12 program in the US.
Of course, that will be no surprise to our steady readers.
There is a lot more of interest in the new College Board Report, so stay tuned.
(Revised post updates statistic and adds last sentence)
Friday, July 23, 2010
Americans now lag in getting college degrees
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5 comments:
Who can afford a college degree when unemployment is "9%"?
RE: Lady Cincinnatus' comment
You need to keep in mind that the data cited in the new College Board report was mostly collected BEFORE the current recession started.
We were falling behind even before our current economic woes began, and those current continuing problems may in part be triggered by our falling educational status.
In any event, if we don't improve our education rate, the unemployment situation is likely to get more onerous.
However, the current costs of education that Lady Cincinnatus is worried about are an issue. We have to figure out ways to get the job done much more efficiently. The currently skyrocketing costs of our present education system are not sustainable.
Despite the conventional wisdom, it's not clear that sending more students to college would be beneficial.
There's strong evidence that all the brightest and most motivated students are already attending.
Moreover, according to USA TODAY, 4-year colleges graduate only 53% of students in 6 years. The other 47% either transfer or drop out. If we send more unprepared students to college, are they really likely to graduate?
Lastly, the job market simply won't support more college graduates. Already, graduates are taking jobs in fields that don't really need a degree: college grads now work as flight attendants, ticket-takers, baristas, car rental personnel, and personal trainers, just to name a few. Only 7 of the 20 fastest-growing jobs in the US require a 4-year degree, according to Bureau of Labor statistics.
The Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Raleigh, NC, has done a lot of work on this issue--further reading is here.
I'd like to add briefly to my colleague Jenna Robinson's comment.
There is no more an automatic connection between higher educational "attainment" for a nation than there is for an individual. Spending more time and money in formal education does not necessarily mean more knowledge or higher earnings, as many underemployed holders of BA, Master's and doctoral degrees will attest. If a nation pushes degree completion for its own sake, all it accomplishes is a waste of resources and credential inflation. That is exactly what we've been doing.
RE: Comments from Jenna A. Robinson and George Leaf of the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy
First, we are honored to have you share your thoughts in the Bluegrass Policy Blog. In general, I think we are in agreement on a lot of issues.
You both basically allude to a question that has been discussed in Kentucky and around the nation before – is it really in the country’s best interest to prepare all, or even most, students to go on to college?
I don’t think anyone at the Bluegrass Institute is pushing a college degree for all. For one thing, I value the folks who maintain my automobiles and the air conditioning system in my house. However, we do believe that almost all students should get a public school education that allows them, not some school bureaucrat, to make the choice if they want to go on to college.
Furthermore, the ACT, Incorporated tells us that even better paying non-college track jobs, working with things like cars and environmental control systems for example, are getting more and more complex all the time. Per the ACT, entry level employees for those jobs now need just about the same skill set that college freshmen need.
Clearly, right now we are very far from that.
By the way, if you read the College Board study referenced in the main blog, you will see that their goal isn’t to have anything close to a 100 percent college graduation rate. It is only a much more modest goal to raise the current 41.6 percent of the US age 25 to 34 year old population that holds at least an Associates’ Degree to a rather modest improvement level of 55 percent.
In this day and age, a limited education is pretty much a one-way ticket to a very unhappy adult life. We proved that in Kentucky after 1990 when our education system adopted dubious standards that were definitely not college focused. The outcome: our incarceration rates recently went sky high, mostly for younger adults who could not earn an honest living.
The most important thing to me is that I don’t want school bureaucrats making often unalterable, life-impacting decisions for students who are still too young to make those decisions for themselves. Too often, the “we don’t need them prepared for college” crowd winds up creating exactly such an unsatisfactory environment, whether they intend to or not.
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