Repayment Rates vs. CDRs
Last week, the U.S. Department of Education released the latest set of cohort default rates. As expected, the overall average default rate continued its upward trend, with 7 percent of the students who entered repayment in the 2008 fiscal year defaulting on their federal loans within two years.
Though the average default rate is at its highest point since 1998, it’s still pretty low–93 percent of loans don’t default. But other data released by the department demonstrate that the actual repayment picture is far bleaker than these numbers suggest. Based on those numbers, about 54 to 56 percent of loan dollars borrowed by students at public or nonprofit colleges are repaid versus just 36 percent of the dollars
QUICK Hits
Quick Hits is a short compilation of question-raising news stories, blog posts, and video clips that Education Sector team members are reading or viewing each day.
- In many high-performing countries, 100 percent of teachers come from the top one-third of college graduates. What would it take to up the US percentage (currently 23%)? Hint: It’s not what you think. (McKinsey)
- Want reax to the Memphis merit pay study? (Teacher Beat)
- Richard Vedder asks: Should We Abolish Colleges of Education? (Center for College Affordability and Productivity)
- What tests are best? (Linking and thinking on education)
