Author suggests 'best fit' for college: 'Finish Line' advice on graduation rates set for UW regents

Oct 15, 2009 (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- FINL | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- After more than two decades of studying the interplay between education and economics and seven years as president of Minnesota's Macalester College, Michael McPherson knows a lot about higher education. But his latest book generated eye-openers for him and his co-authors.

"We have been so taken by the fact that it's very, very hard to get information about these very consequential decisions, not simply about whether to go to college," McPherson said, "but getting to the right place, which really matters a whole lot."

McPherson is scheduled to address the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents on Friday at UW-Eau Claire about the findings in "Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America's Public Universities," the book he recently published with two co-authors.

As America tries to reassert itself as the world's leader in college-educated workers, more attention is turning to why less than half of the Americans who start college actually finish.

Kevin Reilly, UW System president, said he sees in "Crossing the Finish Line" compelling evidence supporting UW efforts to improve the state's human capital, in part by getting more students in the system to graduate.

"It really brings huge amounts of data to bear on the basic arguments that we've been making for the Growth Agenda," Reilly said, referring to the UW System's plan to develop workers, jobs and communities in the state.

According to the plan's latest report, 65.1% of new freshmen entering the system as full-time students in the fall of 2002 graduated within six years, just above the system's goal of 65%. Comparable rates came up short of goals for most minority groups, including African-American and Hispanic students.

President Barack Obama has set a goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. America had been tops until about 15 years ago, Reilly said, and now it's 10th.

The book's research is based on records of about 200,000 students at 68 public colleges, and McPherson, president of the Spencer Foundation, an education research group in Chicago, said he hopes the regents think about at least three highlights:

--"Under-matching." Students enrolling in colleges that are less selective are less likely to graduate. Environments with high expectations generally have more resources and often more highly qualified faculty, all of which appear to give students a better shot at graduating.

-- High school grades. They're better predictors of college success than standardized entrance test scores.

--Net cost of college -- tuition minus aid. In terms of getting more students to graduate, financial assistance to students based on economic need is more effective than aid based on merit. "If you can get that net tuition down for students in the bottom half of the income distribution," McPherson said, "you'll improve their college graduation rate."

Getting more students to finish the race for higher education also requires helping students and parents pick the "best fit" college and helping them figure out how to pay for it, McPherson said, especially for first-generation college students.

"Finding ways to get good advice, we really think that that's the next big thing to work on," McPherson said.

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