The Economic Price of Colleges’ Failures

[oldmom4896]

<p>Many students do not learn critical-thinking skills in college, and they’re suffering in the job market, a new study finds.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/03/upshot/the-economic-price-of-colleges-failures.html"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/03/upshot/the-economic-price-of-colleges-failures.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

[emeraldkity4]

<p>Interesting.

The council also found distinctions in the performance of students at different types of institutions. Students at baccalaureate colleges demonstrated the highest average growth on the CLA, followed by those at master’s-level colleges and universities. Students at doctoral and research universities showed the lowest average growth.

</p>

<p><a href=“http://chronicle.com/article/Students-Might-Not-Be/139395/”>http://chronicle.com/article/Students-Might-Not-Be/139395/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[ucbalumnus]

<p><a href=“http://cae.org/images/uploads/pdf/Does_College_Matter.pdf”>http://cae.org/images/uploads/pdf/Does_College_Matter.pdf&lt;/a&gt; has this:</p>

<p>

@Does College Matter

There are also highly statistically significant differences in average growth seen according to institutional selectivity (p<.001). Non- to Less Competitive institutions (those with Barron’s 28th edition values of 1-2) show the highest average effect size (.83), compared to Competitive to Competitive Plus institutions (Barron’s values of 3 and 3.5; average effect size of .76), which in turn have a higher average effect size than Very to Most Competitive institutions (Barron’s ratings of 4 or higher; average effect size of .62). These distributions are shown in Figure 8. The least competitive institutions also show slightly more variation in effect sizes, with the most competitive institutions performing more similarly to each other.

</p>

<p>Perhaps that is not too surprising – it could be that the students who enter the most competitive admission schools are already at a high level in the tested skills, so they have less room to improve than those students who enter the least competitive admission schools. It is worth noting that the seniors at the most competitive admission schools do outscore the seniors at the least competitive admission schools, even after the latter students’ greater growth.</p>

<p>This may also be a confounding factor in the other observations (bachelor’s/master’s/doctoral granting schools, minority-serving versus non-minority-serving schools, different school sizes, etc.).</p>