Georgia Regents to college presidents: Improve graduation rates | jacksonville.com
April 12, 2010 at 10:24 am 2 comments
Georgia has an odd higher-education system. There is one chancellor and one Board of Regents for the whole state. There are unusual “efficiencies” built into the system, like only one medical school and only one engineering college, publicly funded in the whole state. But this is someplace where I appreciate the power of the unusual structure — the Board of Regents pushing the whole state to get graduation rates up.
Two of every five high school seniors receiving acceptance letters this spring will drop out of the Georgia public colleges they enroll in next fall rather than graduating some time in the next six years, according to state figures.That 59 percent graduation rate prompted the Board of Regents, which governs the state’s public schools through the University System of Georgia, to create a task force. Not willing to delegate the issue to staff, regents Willis Potts, Larry Ellis and Felton Jenkins are meeting individually with every college president by the end of August.
via Regents to college presidents: Improve graduation rates | jacksonville.com.
Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: BPC, broadening participation in computing, higher education, perception of university, public policy.
1.
Alan Kay | April 12, 2010 at 12:16 pm
But what are the causes for the rates? Are they failing out? Are they dropping out to get jobs? Are they being admitted with insufficient preparation in the high schools?
Perhaps the colleges are doing their job.
And with “the university as a business” these days, one might guess that universities are actually retaining students beyond their merits, so academics might not be the main issue here (except that they aren’t being tough enough on the students).
Must be more info here Mark!
Cheers,
Alan
2.
Mark Guzdial | April 12, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Hi Alan, I think that those *are* the key questions. How I read the article is that the Regents want the Presidents asking those questions. The problem may be at the K-12 level. Getting the whole University System pushing on improving K-12, with data explaining what has to happen and why, could be an important force.
Cheers,
Mark