thedrifter
04-23-06, 08:23 AM
Quitting the books
About half of college freshmen fail to graduate within six years
By Eleanor Yang
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 23, 2006
Fernando Escobar knew as a teenager, scrubbing toilets and floors beside his parents, that he wanted a college education.
But it proved much harder than he imagined. He floundered in his first year at San Diego State University, and like millions of other students enrolled in U.S. colleges, he dropped out.
The odds were against Escobar from the start. He grew up in a working-class neighborhood in east San Jose and attended a high school whose test scores ranked in the bottom fifth in the state.
Teachers at Overfelt High School remember him as a dedicated student who spent hours every day helping his parents with their janitorial jobs.
“For some kids, good grades come easy,” said Dan Runyon, Escobar's high school history teacher. “Not Fernando. He was a B and C student, but he worked really hard.”
In the past few decades, college attendance has broadened as society has hammered into young people the importance of higher education.
But even as college ranks swelled to 17.4 million this year – triple the number of 40 years ago – many students leave within a year or two.
Roughly half of all freshmen enrolled in four-year institutions fail to earn a degree within six years.
Low-income students such as Escobar drop out in disproportionate numbers.
About 42 percent of low-income students graduated from four-year colleges within five years, compared with 66 percent of high-income students, according to a 2004 Department of Education study.
The failure of so many to finish college is considered a crisis in the making that could threaten the nation's competitiveness in the global economy. And it's attracting the attention of policymakers.
Today's pool of students is very different from that of 40 years ago.
It includes more students who lack basic math and writing skills, more who are the first in their family to attend college, and more who have little sense of what they want to study or do for a living.
Escobar fit into two of the categories, but not the third. He knew exactly what he wanted: to graduate in four years and teach history.
For a while, he was perilously close to giving up on his dream. He returned home to attend a community college that he found uninspiring. Then he quit school altogether, lured by the steady paychecks of a full-time job.
But his will to get a college degree drew him back to SDSU after two years.
Through steely determination, Escobar, 24, beat the odds. He will receive his diploma next month.
No longer first
The United States has fallen from first to fifth in the world in the percentage of the young work force earning college degrees, behind Canada, Japan, Korea and the Scandinavian countries.
“In the knowledge economy, the global competition is about education,” said Anthony Carnevale, an economist with the National Center on Education and the Economy, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
“Unless educational attainment improves, the competitiveness of the U.S. work force will decline,” he said.
The college graduation rate in the United States has been relatively flat for more than two decades. For most of that time, the failure rate was considered a consequence of expanded opportunity, and perhaps a luxury that the world's richest and most educated nation could afford.
But no longer.
By 2012, the United States is projected to face a shortfall of 6 million workers with bachelor's or graduate degrees, Carnevale said.
Lawmakers and economists are calling for increased accountability among higher education institutions.
The U.S. secretary of education has created a commission that's asking tough questions about what students need to get out of college.
“We know the graduation numbers are awful when it comes to all but a small percentage of colleges,” said Charles Miller, the chairman of that group, the Commission on the Future of Higher Education. “It's a failure of the system.”
Financial stress
National studies show that several factors predict success in college: Doing well in demanding high school classes, enrolling in college full time, and coming from an economically secure family.
Not quite Escobar's profile.
But then again, he's more representative of the typical student at an average public university, where most Americans go to get a degree.
He works at least 20 hours a week while juggling classes, just as 70 percent of young undergraduates do, studies show.
He has had to take remedial classes in math and writing, as do 40 percent of freshmen at four-year universities.
And he's taking more than five years to graduate, as does the average U.S. college student.
In many cases, the obstacles stack up, like hurdles that keep inching higher.
Escobar's adjustment to college at age 17 was rough. Walking on the vibrant and crowded San Diego State campus, he felt isolated in a sea of fliers for parties he was too shy or too poor to attend. In class, Escobar often felt lost in the crowd.
His parents provided him with nearly $2,000 a year, but that didn't even cover SDSU's student fees, which were $1,850 then and are $3,120 this year. SDSU estimates total expenses, including housing, books and transportation, at $16,800 annually.
Escobar worked at a Del Mar pizzeria run by family friends and shared an El Cajon apartment with two other students, a cheaper choice than a dorm.
He stretched his $300 monthly wages to cover rent, gas and food. He also racked up credit-card debt. Escobar's student debt totals $30,000, double the national average.
But financial struggles like his are increasingly common among students.
In the past decade, tuition increases have outpaced financial aid for students with little savings or help from their parents, according to College Board reports.
Tuition and fees at public universities across the nation grew by 56 percent in the eight-year period beginning in 1995, to $10,500. During that time, the average financial aid award grew by 46 percent, to $7,600.
Students have been doubly pinched as financial aid has shifted from grants to loans.
Many students say money is a big reason for dropping out.
Rachel Barter, 24, quit Fordham University in New York three years ago because she missed a deadline for submitting her financial aid forms.
Now, she trains Marines at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station to handle chemical contaminants, earning $16,000 a year.
She deeply regrets dropping out, saying, “I just didn't have the money or the discipline.”
Escobar also suffered from a lack of momentum and guidance.
At freshman orientation, he received the standard advice to take 12 units a semester. At that rate, it would have taken five years to graduate. Other counselors he approached provided little more than a quick glance at his schedule, he said.
Escobar fell further behind because he needed to take three remediation courses in math and English, none of which came with credit.
After one year of school, he had accumulated $1,200 in loans and only 15 course units. Frustrated, he headed home and enrolled in a community college.
“I was tired of living on scraps,” Escobar said, “of never having money in my pocket.”
Is college for all?
Roughly one in five San Diego State freshmen leaves after the first year.
More students leave with each passing year.
After six years, only about half will have graduated, a statistic that mirrors the national average.
The university's track record used to trail far behind the national average. About 25 years ago, only one in three SDSU students graduated within six years.
Educators at the university say the rates have improved because of increased attention to the issue and the changing profile of the students.
These numbers raise fundamental questions: Who's responsible for making sure students graduate? Is it the school? Is it solely up to the student? And are universities admitting students who simply should not be there?
“Ninety percent of American colleges take everybody who applies,” said Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. “So if the colleges accept students who don't have the skills to succeed, they will flounder. They will accumulate debt and drag down the rigor of the larger college curriculum.”
Many educators and students discount this perspective, saying the difficulty of academic curriculum is not the main reason for dropping out.
“The students we admit are very strong students,” said Ethan Singer, SDSU's associate vice president for academic affairs. “They should be able, if they want, to graduate in a timely manner.”
According to a major federal study, more than 30 percent of dropouts listed personal and family issues as the primary reason. That's followed by lifestyle, finances and job demands. Only 6 percent of dropouts cited academics.
And to buttress that point, SDSU officials point out that most SDSU students who take remediation courses graduate at rates equal to or higher than the rest of the campus.
That said, Cal State officials are still far behind their 2007 goal of having only 10 percent of freshmen needing help with college-level math and English.
Currently, 37 percent of SDSU freshmen require remediation.
Academics blame the lack of coordination between high school and college courses and poor college instruction.
Many high school students may be proficient at writing narratives, but not term papers, for example. Or they may have forgotten the algebra they studied by the time they reach college.
Although college administrators talk about wanting to improve graduation rates, many are reluctant to set goals and benchmarks.
They say it's unfair to compare public universities with private schools, because the two enroll different student bodies. To address this concern, Education Trust, a nonprofit research and advocacy group, recently created an online tool to compare college graduation rates considering many factors.
Among public universities of similar size and student body, SDSU's graduation rate ranks eighth out of 16 by this assessment. That's just below Cal State Fullerton and just above Cal State Sacramento.
SDSU President Stephen Weber concedes there's room for improvement, but he emphasizes that the university has already made progress.
In the past five years, SDSU has focused hard on improving graduation rates and succeeded, in large part, because growing competition for admission has resulted in better-qualified students.
The university has also invested millions of dollars in recent years to create and expand programs that help students stay in school and graduate sooner. It offers more classes at more times, so students can get into all the courses they need.
“We believe we can, and will, be much better,” Weber said.
Focus on classroom
When Escobar returned to SDSU in fall 2002, he made meaningful connections, those that research shows greatly boost chances for graduation.
He joined a Latino-based fraternity, Nu Alpha Kappa, where he found a group of friends and helpful academic counseling from the fraternity adviser.
He landed a tutoring job at Torrey Pines High in the Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID, program, which is designed to help blacks, Latinos and low-income students attend college in higher numbers.
He bonded with the students, who reinforced his dream to become a teacher.
Perhaps most important, Escobar found teachers on his own who inspired and motivated him.
While there are many reasons why students drop out, experts agree about what keeps them in school: focus on the classroom, especially at commuter campuses like SDSU.
“If you don't provide the support in the classroom, it's not going to work,” said Vincent Tinto, a leading scholar in the field and author of the book, “Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition.”
Engage with students, don't lecture them, researchers urge instructors. Encourage students to interact and solve problems in groups, not in isolation.
Some programs enroll the same group of students together in two or more classes, to help them make friends and form study groups.
Another strategy is to create early-warning systems for students. For example, giving periodic quizzes or assigning one-minute in-class essays to help assess students' progress early in the course.
San Diego State has implemented similar programs, but their reach is limited.
One of the three largest, the Freshman Success Program, allows 1,600 of 5,300 freshmen to enroll in at least two courses with the same group of students. A student mentoring program reaches 450 low-income freshmen and transfer students.
And while university leaders say they place a high priority on improving instruction, it hasn't translated into more resources for the campus's Center for Teaching and Learning.
The center, which runs on an annual budget of $115,000, serves about 200 of the 1,450 professors on campus each year. All too often, center director Brock Allen said, professors default to lecturing, instead of using interactive approaches.
On to graduate school
Escobar is so close to reaching his goal of earning a college degree that he's already set a new one: to obtain a teaching credential and master's degree.
College wasn't the magic ticket he thought it would be, but once he found his bearings, it wasn't as hard as he feared.
It's with pride that he spends dozens of hours a week, some unpaid, mentoring high school students whose family backgrounds are like his.
He passes on the type of advice and encouragement he yearned for when he was younger.
One morning, while helping Torrey Pines High School senior Edgar Beltran with his history homework, Escobar asked how he was doing in the class.
“Not that bad, B minus,” Edgar said, shrugging.
Escobar leaned forward. “You know, it could be an A,” he said as he held his fingers centimeters apart, “if you only tried this much harder.”
Eleanor Yang: (619) 542-4564; eleanor.yang@uniontrib.com
Why students drop out
These are the top reasons students cited for dropping out of college during their freshman year. The national study, released in February, tracked 12,000 students from eighth grade through college:
31.5% – Personal or family
25.9% – Mood or lifestyle
19.7% – Finances
14.8% – Job or military
5.9% – Academic
Note: The numbers don't add up to 100 because some students quit for reasons not listed.
Source: The Toolbox Revisited, a U.S. Department of Education study
Ellie
About half of college freshmen fail to graduate within six years
By Eleanor Yang
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 23, 2006
Fernando Escobar knew as a teenager, scrubbing toilets and floors beside his parents, that he wanted a college education.
But it proved much harder than he imagined. He floundered in his first year at San Diego State University, and like millions of other students enrolled in U.S. colleges, he dropped out.
The odds were against Escobar from the start. He grew up in a working-class neighborhood in east San Jose and attended a high school whose test scores ranked in the bottom fifth in the state.
Teachers at Overfelt High School remember him as a dedicated student who spent hours every day helping his parents with their janitorial jobs.
“For some kids, good grades come easy,” said Dan Runyon, Escobar's high school history teacher. “Not Fernando. He was a B and C student, but he worked really hard.”
In the past few decades, college attendance has broadened as society has hammered into young people the importance of higher education.
But even as college ranks swelled to 17.4 million this year – triple the number of 40 years ago – many students leave within a year or two.
Roughly half of all freshmen enrolled in four-year institutions fail to earn a degree within six years.
Low-income students such as Escobar drop out in disproportionate numbers.
About 42 percent of low-income students graduated from four-year colleges within five years, compared with 66 percent of high-income students, according to a 2004 Department of Education study.
The failure of so many to finish college is considered a crisis in the making that could threaten the nation's competitiveness in the global economy. And it's attracting the attention of policymakers.
Today's pool of students is very different from that of 40 years ago.
It includes more students who lack basic math and writing skills, more who are the first in their family to attend college, and more who have little sense of what they want to study or do for a living.
Escobar fit into two of the categories, but not the third. He knew exactly what he wanted: to graduate in four years and teach history.
For a while, he was perilously close to giving up on his dream. He returned home to attend a community college that he found uninspiring. Then he quit school altogether, lured by the steady paychecks of a full-time job.
But his will to get a college degree drew him back to SDSU after two years.
Through steely determination, Escobar, 24, beat the odds. He will receive his diploma next month.
No longer first
The United States has fallen from first to fifth in the world in the percentage of the young work force earning college degrees, behind Canada, Japan, Korea and the Scandinavian countries.
“In the knowledge economy, the global competition is about education,” said Anthony Carnevale, an economist with the National Center on Education and the Economy, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
“Unless educational attainment improves, the competitiveness of the U.S. work force will decline,” he said.
The college graduation rate in the United States has been relatively flat for more than two decades. For most of that time, the failure rate was considered a consequence of expanded opportunity, and perhaps a luxury that the world's richest and most educated nation could afford.
But no longer.
By 2012, the United States is projected to face a shortfall of 6 million workers with bachelor's or graduate degrees, Carnevale said.
Lawmakers and economists are calling for increased accountability among higher education institutions.
The U.S. secretary of education has created a commission that's asking tough questions about what students need to get out of college.
“We know the graduation numbers are awful when it comes to all but a small percentage of colleges,” said Charles Miller, the chairman of that group, the Commission on the Future of Higher Education. “It's a failure of the system.”
Financial stress
National studies show that several factors predict success in college: Doing well in demanding high school classes, enrolling in college full time, and coming from an economically secure family.
Not quite Escobar's profile.
But then again, he's more representative of the typical student at an average public university, where most Americans go to get a degree.
He works at least 20 hours a week while juggling classes, just as 70 percent of young undergraduates do, studies show.
He has had to take remedial classes in math and writing, as do 40 percent of freshmen at four-year universities.
And he's taking more than five years to graduate, as does the average U.S. college student.
In many cases, the obstacles stack up, like hurdles that keep inching higher.
Escobar's adjustment to college at age 17 was rough. Walking on the vibrant and crowded San Diego State campus, he felt isolated in a sea of fliers for parties he was too shy or too poor to attend. In class, Escobar often felt lost in the crowd.
His parents provided him with nearly $2,000 a year, but that didn't even cover SDSU's student fees, which were $1,850 then and are $3,120 this year. SDSU estimates total expenses, including housing, books and transportation, at $16,800 annually.
Escobar worked at a Del Mar pizzeria run by family friends and shared an El Cajon apartment with two other students, a cheaper choice than a dorm.
He stretched his $300 monthly wages to cover rent, gas and food. He also racked up credit-card debt. Escobar's student debt totals $30,000, double the national average.
But financial struggles like his are increasingly common among students.
In the past decade, tuition increases have outpaced financial aid for students with little savings or help from their parents, according to College Board reports.
Tuition and fees at public universities across the nation grew by 56 percent in the eight-year period beginning in 1995, to $10,500. During that time, the average financial aid award grew by 46 percent, to $7,600.
Students have been doubly pinched as financial aid has shifted from grants to loans.
Many students say money is a big reason for dropping out.
Rachel Barter, 24, quit Fordham University in New York three years ago because she missed a deadline for submitting her financial aid forms.
Now, she trains Marines at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station to handle chemical contaminants, earning $16,000 a year.
She deeply regrets dropping out, saying, “I just didn't have the money or the discipline.”
Escobar also suffered from a lack of momentum and guidance.
At freshman orientation, he received the standard advice to take 12 units a semester. At that rate, it would have taken five years to graduate. Other counselors he approached provided little more than a quick glance at his schedule, he said.
Escobar fell further behind because he needed to take three remediation courses in math and English, none of which came with credit.
After one year of school, he had accumulated $1,200 in loans and only 15 course units. Frustrated, he headed home and enrolled in a community college.
“I was tired of living on scraps,” Escobar said, “of never having money in my pocket.”
Is college for all?
Roughly one in five San Diego State freshmen leaves after the first year.
More students leave with each passing year.
After six years, only about half will have graduated, a statistic that mirrors the national average.
The university's track record used to trail far behind the national average. About 25 years ago, only one in three SDSU students graduated within six years.
Educators at the university say the rates have improved because of increased attention to the issue and the changing profile of the students.
These numbers raise fundamental questions: Who's responsible for making sure students graduate? Is it the school? Is it solely up to the student? And are universities admitting students who simply should not be there?
“Ninety percent of American colleges take everybody who applies,” said Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. “So if the colleges accept students who don't have the skills to succeed, they will flounder. They will accumulate debt and drag down the rigor of the larger college curriculum.”
Many educators and students discount this perspective, saying the difficulty of academic curriculum is not the main reason for dropping out.
“The students we admit are very strong students,” said Ethan Singer, SDSU's associate vice president for academic affairs. “They should be able, if they want, to graduate in a timely manner.”
According to a major federal study, more than 30 percent of dropouts listed personal and family issues as the primary reason. That's followed by lifestyle, finances and job demands. Only 6 percent of dropouts cited academics.
And to buttress that point, SDSU officials point out that most SDSU students who take remediation courses graduate at rates equal to or higher than the rest of the campus.
That said, Cal State officials are still far behind their 2007 goal of having only 10 percent of freshmen needing help with college-level math and English.
Currently, 37 percent of SDSU freshmen require remediation.
Academics blame the lack of coordination between high school and college courses and poor college instruction.
Many high school students may be proficient at writing narratives, but not term papers, for example. Or they may have forgotten the algebra they studied by the time they reach college.
Although college administrators talk about wanting to improve graduation rates, many are reluctant to set goals and benchmarks.
They say it's unfair to compare public universities with private schools, because the two enroll different student bodies. To address this concern, Education Trust, a nonprofit research and advocacy group, recently created an online tool to compare college graduation rates considering many factors.
Among public universities of similar size and student body, SDSU's graduation rate ranks eighth out of 16 by this assessment. That's just below Cal State Fullerton and just above Cal State Sacramento.
SDSU President Stephen Weber concedes there's room for improvement, but he emphasizes that the university has already made progress.
In the past five years, SDSU has focused hard on improving graduation rates and succeeded, in large part, because growing competition for admission has resulted in better-qualified students.
The university has also invested millions of dollars in recent years to create and expand programs that help students stay in school and graduate sooner. It offers more classes at more times, so students can get into all the courses they need.
“We believe we can, and will, be much better,” Weber said.
Focus on classroom
When Escobar returned to SDSU in fall 2002, he made meaningful connections, those that research shows greatly boost chances for graduation.
He joined a Latino-based fraternity, Nu Alpha Kappa, where he found a group of friends and helpful academic counseling from the fraternity adviser.
He landed a tutoring job at Torrey Pines High in the Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID, program, which is designed to help blacks, Latinos and low-income students attend college in higher numbers.
He bonded with the students, who reinforced his dream to become a teacher.
Perhaps most important, Escobar found teachers on his own who inspired and motivated him.
While there are many reasons why students drop out, experts agree about what keeps them in school: focus on the classroom, especially at commuter campuses like SDSU.
“If you don't provide the support in the classroom, it's not going to work,” said Vincent Tinto, a leading scholar in the field and author of the book, “Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition.”
Engage with students, don't lecture them, researchers urge instructors. Encourage students to interact and solve problems in groups, not in isolation.
Some programs enroll the same group of students together in two or more classes, to help them make friends and form study groups.
Another strategy is to create early-warning systems for students. For example, giving periodic quizzes or assigning one-minute in-class essays to help assess students' progress early in the course.
San Diego State has implemented similar programs, but their reach is limited.
One of the three largest, the Freshman Success Program, allows 1,600 of 5,300 freshmen to enroll in at least two courses with the same group of students. A student mentoring program reaches 450 low-income freshmen and transfer students.
And while university leaders say they place a high priority on improving instruction, it hasn't translated into more resources for the campus's Center for Teaching and Learning.
The center, which runs on an annual budget of $115,000, serves about 200 of the 1,450 professors on campus each year. All too often, center director Brock Allen said, professors default to lecturing, instead of using interactive approaches.
On to graduate school
Escobar is so close to reaching his goal of earning a college degree that he's already set a new one: to obtain a teaching credential and master's degree.
College wasn't the magic ticket he thought it would be, but once he found his bearings, it wasn't as hard as he feared.
It's with pride that he spends dozens of hours a week, some unpaid, mentoring high school students whose family backgrounds are like his.
He passes on the type of advice and encouragement he yearned for when he was younger.
One morning, while helping Torrey Pines High School senior Edgar Beltran with his history homework, Escobar asked how he was doing in the class.
“Not that bad, B minus,” Edgar said, shrugging.
Escobar leaned forward. “You know, it could be an A,” he said as he held his fingers centimeters apart, “if you only tried this much harder.”
Eleanor Yang: (619) 542-4564; eleanor.yang@uniontrib.com
Why students drop out
These are the top reasons students cited for dropping out of college during their freshman year. The national study, released in February, tracked 12,000 students from eighth grade through college:
31.5% – Personal or family
25.9% – Mood or lifestyle
19.7% – Finances
14.8% – Job or military
5.9% – Academic
Note: The numbers don't add up to 100 because some students quit for reasons not listed.
Source: The Toolbox Revisited, a U.S. Department of Education study
Ellie