tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458172893016186479.post3912074436492986958..comments2024-03-09T03:28:44.216-05:00Comments on Thoughts on Education Policy: Trends in College CompletionCorey Bunje Bowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09764159604965707919noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458172893016186479.post-56228951156078726102008-09-01T10:54:00.000-04:002008-09-01T10:54:00.000-04:00Anybody want to do what Dr. Dorn suggests? I have...Anybody want to do what Dr. Dorn suggests? I have too much work to do that's much more closely related to my field of interest.<BR/><BR/>Turducken: Oh good, I was hoping a higher ed expert would chime in. The question I want answered is whether, for example, a 25 year-old today is more or less likely to have a four-year degree than was a 25 year-old 5 or 10 years ago.Corey Bunje Bowerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09764159604965707919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458172893016186479.post-83054074488315838032008-09-01T10:15:00.000-04:002008-09-01T10:15:00.000-04:00Your friend is right about more students enrolling...Your friend is right about more students enrolling in college but not completing. According to Dynarski, in 1970, 51% of 23-year-olds had enrolled; in 1999, 67% had.<BR/><BR/>I took these numbers from an edited volume by Hoxby in which she argues that we have solved the access problem and now face one of completion instead. I think she overstates the case - access to any higher education is still unequally distributed by social background - but attendance at college is certainly up. What we've done, in my view, is simply increase access for the less well off at to institutions that aren't very good at graduating students. This is an argument similar to Karabel's in "The Diverted Dream." He focuses on sorting students into transfer/non-transfer programs, which still occurs in CCs. What we've started doing in the last few decades is sorting students into a set of new or growing public four-year institutions that in the name of student "convenience" remove the aspects of college that integrate students into the academic and social community. It's like putting someone on a diet when none of their friends are dieting and all the local restaurants are fast food. A few very strong individuals will succeed, and when the rest fail we can say, "What's your problem?"Eve Properhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04026926577142821030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458172893016186479.post-24497657965895830982008-08-31T20:05:00.000-04:002008-08-31T20:05:00.000-04:00A quick inspection of 30-34 y.o. stats will show t...A quick inspection of 30-34 y.o. stats will show that, yes, there is a slight growth in the proportion with B.A.'s over the years. To parse out what is an increase IN those years, you probably want to look at Carl Schmertmann's 2002 article (http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/demography/v039/39.2schmertmann.pdf, $$), which is nominally about calculating parity progression ratios from censuses, but can be adjusted to inter-survey increases in any social measure (including % with BAs). To avoid the tangles of covariance for those who leave the population, you probably want to select out new migrants for the second survey year. I don't know if American Community Survey summary stats downloaded through DataFerrett can do that, but that would probably let you avoid the hassles involved in all the weights with different surveys, etc.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com