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<p>And I see you missed my point about several decades ago…graduating students wasn’t considered a primary goal…especially in the uncritical ways it tends to be discussed within the last few decades. Lowered graduation rates because a given public institution opted for lowered/open admissions for in-staters/all students and yet, maintained their academic standards by only allowing the academically prepared and/or motivated students to graduate while effectively weeding out the academically unprepared and/or unmotivated students wasn’t considered a bad thing back then. </p>
<p>If anything, it was considered a good thing as it provided every state resident an opportunity for a college education and yet, ensured that only those who met the school’s academic standards stayed on for the last two years/graduation which not only maintained the perceived academic reputation of said institution and turned out well-educated graduates…but also ensured wastage of taxpayer subsidies on unprepared/unmotivated students was kept to the minimum. </p>
<p>Another way to ensure high graduation rates and maintain academic standards is to have high barriers of entry at the admissions stage as with the elite colleges. </p>
<p>If the goal of high graduation rates are taken too uncritically and too far…especially if they’re unable/politically unwilling to raise high entry barriers at the admissions stage, colleges may be tempted to take the path of least resistance…water down academic requirements to the point the degree is perceived by potential employers as having no value-added academically and intellectually over an average/mediocre high school diploma or worse. </p>
<p>This last phenomenon has already happened to many public K-12 schools and some colleges over the last few decades with disastrous results. One of those college systems in my hometown has spent the last decade trying to undo the severe reputation hit taken once it went on that path from the late '60s till the late '90s. While they’ve succeeded to some extent, they still have a long way to go to regain the reputation it had before that period.</p>