Two new reports from College Board on college completion

Two new reports have been issued by the College Board on college completion. The first, "College Completion Agenda: 2010 Progress Report,"  provides data on issues related to college completion rates: associate and beyond,  internationally as well as state by state, breakdowns by age and race, etc...with 10 detailed recommendations. The second is a briefer set of policy recommendations, "The College Completion Agenda: State Policy Guide."

Those least likely to go benefit most from college

A "Quick Take" in today's Inside Higher Ed alerted me to this study due to be published in the April issue of American Sociological Review. You can see a pre-print here.
"The economic value of a college degree is nearly twice as high for women from disadvantaged backgrounds as for women from privileged backgrounds, the study says. For disadvantaged men, a college education is worth three times more than is the case for privileged college-goers." (from Inside Higher Ed). There are undoubtedly confounding factors, the authors suggest, such as high motivation levels among those who overcome the hurdles presented when "college is not a culturally expected outcome" (Brand & Xie, 2010, p. 32)

Helping everyone graduate

This article today in Inside Higher Ed discusses a newly released report from Education Sector which documents some astounding gaps in the college graduation rates of black versus white students--often as high as 25-35 percentage points. And neither race nor money are the real issues--attention to the students is! The article offers concrete suggestions for helping schools improve minority graduation rates.