Why Do Low-Income Students Take Longer To Graduate?
Financial-aid restrictions are woefully out of keeping with the way most students attend school today.
The golden image of college students walking brick-paved paths to attend small classes in ivy-covered buildings hasn't matched the reality of higher education for a while now. Nearly half of U.S. college students commute to classes at open-enrollment community colleges and have never lived or studied in a dorm. Many of those students juggle family and other responsibilities between classes, work to cover living expenses and tuition, and don't have the credits to graduate after four years.
Yet when policymakers talk about boosting college graduation rates, they often seem to have an antiquated ideal of college in mind. A pair of studies released this month by the Campaign for College Opportunity found that accurate information about how students pursue college degrees and how long it takes them are two of the most critical but poorly understood aspects of higher education policy.
The studies examine student patterns at California's network of state universities and community colleges. Together these institutions make up the largest public higher-education system in the country, serve one of the nation's most diverse student bodies, and reflect patterns that have come to define the Why Do Low-Income Students Take Longer To Graduate? - Janell Ross - The Atlantic:
