<p>In this morning's newspaper there was a reference to a new report from the American Enterprise Institute about colleges that are similar in selectivity but which have different graduation rates. I went online and found the report. </p>
<p>Here is an exerpt:</p>
<p>"At a time when college degrees are
valuablewith employers paying a premium for
college graduatesfewer than 60 percent of new
students graduated from four-year colleges within
six years. At many institutions, graduation rates are
far worse. Graduation rates may be of limited import
to students attending the couple hundred elite, specialized
institutions that dominate the popular
imagination, but there are vast disparitieseven
among schools educating similar studentsat the less
selective institutions that educate the bulk of
Americas college students. At a time when President
Barack Obama is proposing vast new investments to
promote college attendance and completion, and
has announced an intention to see the United States
regain leadership in such tallies, these results take
on heightened significance.
This report documents the dramatic variation in
graduation rates across more than 1,300 of the
nations colleges and universities, even between those
with similar admissions criteria and students. Using
official U.S. Department of Education graduation
rates, this report identifies the top and bottom performers
among institutions that have similar levels of
admissions selectivity, as reported in the widely used
Barrons Profiles of American Colleges. Though completion
rates increase as one moves up the selectivity
scale, we show that within each category of selectivity,
there are large differences between the schools that
graduate most students and those that graduate few.
While student motivation, intent, and ability matter
greatly when it comes to college completion, our
analysis suggests that the practices of higher education
institutions matter, too."</p>