For most, a freshly minted college diploma signifies the first step on an exciting career path. But, rather than job interviews, Joe Taylor's calendar is marked with a retirement date: July 11, less than two months after completing his bachelor's degree. Nearly half a century after abandoning his college dream, the Huntington Beach resident has graduated at age 71 from Cal State Dominguez Hills. First, his college pursuit was interrupted by the Vietnam War, and then by post-traumatic stress disorder. After graduating from Venice High in 1966, Taylor played football for a while at Los Angeles Harbor College. At 20, with draft notices on the rise, he joined the U.S Navy. “I ... Read More
Archives for June 2019
The College Dropout Crisis
Opinion By David Leonhardt and Sahil Chinoy, New York Times American higher education has a dropout problem. About one in three students who enroll in college never earn a degree. But a promising solution is staring us in the face: Schools with similar students often have very different graduation rates. This suggests that the problem isn't the students – it's the schools. Here we looked at 368 colleges arranged by what we would expect their graduation rates to be, based on the average for colleges with similar student bodies. Take Western Kentucky University and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. At both, the expected six-year graduation rate is close to 60 percent. But the ... Read More