Governor's Education Excellence Commission's college completion goal

This week, Gov. Gary Herbert's broad-based Education Excellence Commission shared an ambitious and worthy goal. The commission recommends that by 2020, 66 percent of all Utahns ages 20 to 64 should have a postsecondary degree, certification or advanced training.

Since college completion will be a major factor in achieving this goal, public officials and educators should study a sobering report released this week by the American Institutes for Research.

"Finishing the First Lap" documents the fiscal cost of college dropouts. According to the report, about one-in-three students who begin college don't return to that college the following year. Nonetheless, between 2003 and 2008 state and federal government spent more than $9 billion to help provide college education to these non-returning students.

Admittedly, not all "non-returning students" are college dropouts. Some simply transfer. But the report focuses attention on the fact that far too many college students drop out. According to collegemeasures.org, Utah's state four-year colleges rank 36th in the nation for college completion with a six-year graduation rate of 47.7 percent. In other words, for every two students that begin at a Utah state college, after six years (six years!) only one of them will have graduated.

Utah's statistics could be skewed by the missionary service that so many of Utah's youth perform during their college years. Although the U.S. Department of Education allows schools to drop from their statistics those who leave school for military service or official church missionary service, any college registrar will tell you that such service can be hard to track.

Meeting the Governor's Education Excellence Commission's goal will require increased commitment to college readiness in our primary and secondary schools. But just as important, college students need to know that our colleges and universities exist for their personal achievement and success. That might be hard for them to discern if as underclassmen they are regularly herded into auditoriums to be lectured at.

Widely used assessments like the National Survey of Student Engagement can help educators track how well they are using low-cost techniques that engage and retain students. The question now is whether we will hold colleges as accountable for success in student learning and retention as we do for obtaining research grants. Meeting the Governor's Education Excellence Commission goal will depend upon it.