<p>I recognize that it’s hard to look at CC statistics because of the vast range of students they serve. But I think I remember a study I saw a couple of years ago purporting to match students who went to CC intending to transfer later to four-year institutions with similar students who went directly from high school to second-tier (or lower) four-year public colleges – similar in terms of high school, high-school GPA, and test scores, maybe other factors, too. Anyway, I remember the conclusions as very sobering – the students who went to CC were much, much less likely to obtain a four-year degree. The 6-year graduation rate was bad enough for the four-year colleges, but much worse for kids who went to the CC intending eventually to get a four-year degree.</p>
<p>Does anyone else remember that? Know where to find it?</p>
<p>I saw some of that in real life. At my last firm, we had an administrative assistant who had gone to the same academic magnet school as my kids. She had chosen the CC route for economic reasons, but had always intended to get a four-year degree. She has been out of high school for over ten years now, and still does not have that four-year degree – and she’s still an administrative assistant. It’s not for lack of intelligence or work capacity. She is smart as a whip, extremely organized, and a hard worker. She got addicted to working and the money it brought in, and then supporting her boyfriend as he finished school, then marriage, then a child . . . . </p>
<p>This is a woman who could be commanding battalions, and she is still at least a year away from a bachelor’s degree. I used to argue that we had a moral responsibility to fire her or cut back her hours to make her finish school, but my ex-partners did not agree. We all knew we were exploiting the heck out of her. The thing is, she felt very successful. Compared to her classmates, she was doing great and making big bucks, and it was easy enough for us to give her strokes and raises that made her feel appreciated. But she would have been much better off – and set her sights much higher – had she been in a context where ambition was more the norm.</p>