The AFT Higher Education Issues Conference was first to feature a new AFT Higher Education report challenging a Bush administration proposal to link federal higher education aid dollars to graduation rates and time spent obtaining a degree. "Student Persistence in College: More Than Counting Caps and Gowns"takes issue with one of the Bush administration's proposals for the next reauthorization of the Higher Education Act--penalizing institutions that don't graduate students within six years or that have high dropout rates.

"The administration says it wants to improve the quality of postsecondary and adult education, but this is the wrong way to go about it," said William Scheuerman, AFT vice president and president of United University Professions/SUNY.

The current proposal fails to account for the 40 percent of the students who are part-timers, says the AFT report, and treats undergraduates as traditional students when in fact most undergraduates today (57 percent) are over age 21. The proposal also does not account for the many students who transfer between institutions. The AFT report raises concerns that the proposal creates a perverse incentive for colleges to stop serving students likely to have problems in persistence or that it would encourage some institutions to lower academic standards to boost graduation rates.

"We should be rewarding those students who persevere, who stick with college for years, often while working a full-time job or caring for a family. We shouldn't be penalizing them or their institutions," Scheuerman said.

The best way to help students through college and make sure they don't drop out is to increase federal student financial aid, in particular the Pell grant program, says the report. Many students have a hard time balancing work and studies, the report adds, and students who work more than 25 hours a week increase the risk of dropping out.

Download a copy of Student Persistence in College: More Than Counting Caps and Gowns (pdf).  [Lindsay Albert]

[March 22, 2004]