Utah is preparing students for college better than many states, has more affordable tuition and is showing some of the nation's greatest improvement in terms of college completion.

But the Beehive State needs help getting students to enter college right after high school. Its numbers of ninth-graders enrolling in college by age 19 have sunk by 11 percent in the past decade. And ethnic minorities are far less likely than whites to go to college.

That's the gist of "Measuring Up: The National Report Card on Higher Education," released Wednesday by the nonprofit, nonpartisan National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. The report, which the center hopes leads to improved college effectiveness and accessibility, follows those issued biannually since 2000.

"I think overall, the report supports Utah's higher education message, which is, we're focusing on preparation, participation and completion," spurred by national trends, said Amanda Covington, communications director for the Utah System of Higher Education. "We're happy overall that we've improved, compared nationally, but we have a lot of work to do as a state."

Nationally, educational attainment is dropping, and costs are rising even faster than inflation, health-care costs and family income, center president Patrick Callan said in a Wednesday conference call with reporters. The two problems challenge the idea that the American college system is the world's best.

For instance, the United States remains a world leader in degree-holding 35- to 64-year-olds, but ranks seventh for the number of 25- to 34-year-olds with degrees.

"Perhaps for the first time in our history, the next generation will be less educated ... than the one before," Callan said. "We have to pay a lot of attention to the young population, especially for reasons of not only economic competitiveness, but so they have opportunities for middle-class jobs."

A lot of it comes down to affordability, he said. In that category, based on percentage of average family income, 43 states received failing grades.

But Utah did relatively well, with A's, B's and C's — grades that remained flat or rose, in participation and benefits categories, from the last report, Covington noted.

• Affordability: Even as tuition this fall rose between 3.5 percent and 9 percent, depending on the state college, Utah is lauded for holding the line on costs. Utah and California received C-minuses, the highest marks given.

The average Utah family will spend 18 percent of its income on public college costs (22 percent for private institutions). The number rises to 25 percent for Utah's poor.