College Admissions in the 21st Century: Education as a Commodity

Continuing my live blogging from WACAC, here are some sobering figures from high school and college graduation:

• High school attrition rates have tripled in the last 30 years
• Only 70% of 9th grade students graduate from high school (the figure is closer to 50% for low-income and minority families)
• United States ranks 11th out of 32 similar industrial nations in terms of educational attainment
• Four-year college grads made 54% more on average than those who attended but didn't graduate

The College Board is presenting a new vision for college admissions in the 21st century. They have drafted an open letter to education professionals, which includes both a declaration of values to guide your profession and a re-framed college discussion and call to action. Some interesting research tidbits and advice from a Santa Monica City College rep:

• Academics - Algebra 2 completion has a significant impact on college success
  
• Summer - keep the mind engaged and reduce cerebral shrinkage after graduation
  
• Persistence - complete at least 20 units in your first year of community college (SMCC transfers more students to 4-year colleges than any other city college)

There's big applause as the College Board rep says it's time to do away with college rankings (I agree). Here's some independent sites to replace your perusal of US News & World Report's annual rankings:

• The College Board
• U-CAN
• College Portal
• Educational Conservancy

Who's going where? There are 18 million students in higher education today. Thirty-four percent attend public universities, 33% attend private schools, 14% attend non-profit institutions of higher learning, and 8% attend for-profit colleges. Online education is the fastest-growing sector of them all, with the University of Phoenix at the top.