The Hechinger Report – Jill Barshay
“One educational mystery is exactly why it’s so much harder to graduate from college in four years these days. Back in the 1970s, almost 60 percent of eventual bachelor’s degree recipients graduated within four years of finishing high school. By the 1990s, that had dropped to under 45 percent. (Data source: here.) Some hypothesize that more unprepared students are now going to college and they spend their first year or two taking remedial classes before starting to rack up college credits. But other researchers say the increase in unprepared students cannot fully explain the dramatic decrease in on-time college graduation. Instead, they assert that students have to work more during college to pay for rising tuition bills, leaving less time for school, and that cash-strapped government-funded colleges are offering fewer sections of key courses, making it harder for students to squeeze in all their requirements.”(more)