Page 20 - index

according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014), the In America’s agricultural and industrial past, the vast majority of
unemployment rate for college graduates is only 3%. On top of citizens did not even contemplate going to college. According to
that, over the course of a lifetime of work, college graduates can the U.S. Census Bureau (2014), in 1947, only 6% of 25- to 29-year-
expect to earn about a million dollars more than those who only olds had earned a college degree. But thanks to the G.I. Bill, a
fnish high school. boom in the creation of community colleges across the nation,
Te Brookings Institution’s “Hamilton Project” recently and an economy that increasingly relied on advanced technology
examined what college graduates in various majors earned over and needed more educated workers, by 1977 that percentage had
their careers, and whether their investment was worth it or not. increased to 24%.
While there is quite a bit of variation between a social worker Afer inching along throughout the 1980s and 90s, the drive
and a chemical engineer, they determined that a typical student’s toward improved college completion started to get a real boost
spending on college has a fnancial return of over 15%, more a decade or so ago, when philanthropists, foundations, and
than twice the average return of a stock market investment over organizations like Bill and Melinda Gates, Achieving the Dream,
the past 60 years (Hershbein & Kearney, 2014). and Complete College America joined higher education leaders
A college education still does not have to cost a fortune, and in across the country in a renewed focus on student success.
most cases, it will be well worth the investment. Read past the As an example, the Lumina Foundation’s (2013) Goal 2025
ranting headlines and know that there are choices to be made initiative boldly declares, “By 2025, 60% of Americans will hold
along the way. a high-quality college degree, certifcate or other postsecondary
credential.”
COMPLETION AND How are we doing?

COMPETITIVENESS Well, the most recent report from Lumina, “A Stronger Nation
Trough Higher Education,” reveals that in 2012, the most recent
Here is the complaint: year for which data are available, the proportion of Americans
Teaching is outdated, students are bored, and not enough of them between the ages of 25 and 64 with a two- or four-year college
graduate. Te United States is falling behind countries around the degree was 39.4% (Mathews, 2014). Tat’s up from 38.7 in 2011,
world. We have too many underemployed Liberal Arts students and is the largest year-over-year increase since Lumina started
and not enough Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math tracking our progress.
(STEM) graduates. Degree attainment in the United States, according to Lumina, is
Tere is some real truth to this one. Figures vary widely by steadily accelerating.
institution, state, and region, but as Paul Tough (2014) of And there is more to look forward to: Te degree attainment rate
New York Times Magazine recently reported in “Who Gets of young adults (ages 25-34) helps predict what the future will
to Graduate,” taken as a whole, more than 40% of American look like, and in 2012 that rate was up to 41%, three percentage
students who start at four-year colleges have not earned a degree points higher than in 2008 (Mathews, 2014).
afer six years, and if you include community college students, And when it comes to the next big breakthrough in college
the dropout rate is more than half. completion and competitiveness, one of our nation’s biggest
And when you stack us up against other developed nations, at challenges–the way we educate our most at-risk citizens–is also
frst glance we seem to be losing ground. Te Organization for one of our greatest opportunities.
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) produced Unlike many of the countries surveyed in the OECD’s
a report last year called “Education at a Glance,” comparing “Education at a Glance” report, the United States has a robust
emerging and economically advanced countries around the higher education system that is open to everyone, regardless of
world. According to the OECD (2014), the United States now gender, ethnicity, social, political, or economic background.
ranks ffh in the attainment of a college degree among 25-64
year-olds (behind the Russian Federation, Canada, Japan, and Tis is most evident in our network of “open door” community
Israel), and twelfh when considering 25-34 year-olds. colleges across the country–an option for higher education that
Lastly, since Tomas Friedman published Te World is Flat, America invented, and most countries around the world have yet
to discover.
his bestselling look at globalization and the looming threats to
America’s economic and educational dominance back in 2005, Community colleges serve nearly half of the nation’s
a number of reports from reputable business groups and think undergraduates, and the largest proportion of at-risk students,
tanks called for a signifcant increase in the number of STEM including frst generation students, minorities, students from
graduates to fuel the 21st century hi-tech economy. low-income families, students with learning disabilities,
veterans, and more.
In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama pledged to
create 100,000 new STEM teachers, and soon afer, his Council of We can be proud of opening the doors of higher education
Advisors on Science and Technology (2012) issued a report declaring widely to everyone–and it is through the challenges we fnd
that the United States needed a million new STEM workers. with at-risk student populations that we also have our greatest
Fair enough. Without question, we need to improve both the rate opportunities for improving completion and competitiveness
even farther and faster.
and the number of students who graduate from college in the
United States prepared for the world of work–and we are. For example, as that New York Times Magazine investigative

20 LEADERSHIP Vol. 20.3 Winter 2015

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