At least 36 million Americans have some college education but never completed their degree, according to a new report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
While that number seems bleak, the data also tells another story, arguably a more hopeful one. The report – titled “Some College, No Degree: A 2019 Snapshot for the Nation and 50 States” – found that 3.8 million of these former students returned to school and are now working toward or have finished their degrees. The conclusion of the report is that if institutions and state lawmakers learn more about who these returnees are, they can create targeted outreach strategies and policies to help this population graduate.
At the National Press Club on Wednesday, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center held a panel discussion to explore the implications of the data.
The panel featured Dr. Mikyung Ryu, the organization’s director of research publications, Dr. Sally Johnstone, president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, Dr. Hadass Sheffer, president of The Graduate! Network, Leanne Davis, assistant director of applied research at the Institute for Higher Education Policy and Dr. Courtney Brown, vice president of strategic impact at the Lumina Foundation.
Dr. Doug Shapiro, executive research director at the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, pointed out in his opening remarks that students who re-enroll are typically “invisible and ignored” when institutions calculate their graduation rates. They’re written off as dropouts and no longer considered a part of the equation once they leave.
“What has become abundantly clear is there are a lot of student successes among this population,” Shapiro said. “And these are successes that we should be celebrating a lot more and learning a lot more from.”
Following up on a 2014 study, the new report uses 2018 data to delve into the demographics of students returning to complete their degrees, where and when they re-enroll and specifically who makes up “potential completers,” people with two or more years of college education who show a higher likelihood of graduating when they go back to school.
