New Study Blames Types Of Institutions Attended For College Dropouts

College Completion
Taking Aim at the Supply Side
Higher education officials often attribute the last few decades’ decline in the college completion rate on high schools, arguing that students are inadequately prepared as freshmen. A new study, though, pins the bulk of the decline on the change in the types of institutions students are attending. The study suggests that the shift of a greater proportion of first-time college students to community colleges and non-flagship publics, as well as the declining per-student resources of those institutions, have driven down completion rates.