Tag: College Graduation Rates

How To Defend A College With Zero Graduation Rate.

Higher Ed Watch 

It’s not often that you see members of Congress defending a college with a zero percent graduation rate. But that is exactly what is happening for Oregon’s Marylhurst University. Both of the state’s Senators and three of its representatives recently wrote a letter to the Department of Education defending the University against claims from the Department’s own College Scorecard that it has a 0% graduation rate. [Full Article

The defense has merit because the college is for part time students, and US Ed Dept counts graduation rates only for first time, full time students. I wonder when US Ed Dept will finally get around to using a more sensible measure.

What Is the Relationship Between College Graduation Rates And Quality?

GRADUATION RATES: A CRUDE TOOL
In truth, if a college has a really low graduation rate, it’s probably not doing a very good job with its students. If a college has really high graduation rate, it’s probably not so bad. But beyond that, it’s hard to get more specific. It appears that graduation rate doesn’t really measure quality so much as it’s just vaguely correlated with quality. Using graduating rates, as they’re currently tracked, to measure college value is, thus, not a very responsible decision. The article is in Washington Monthly.