Thursday, September 16, 2004
Ohio does a mediocre job of preparing students for college, the study said.
STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
A new, independent report card flunks America's colleges in a key subject for many students and parents: affordability.
While noting progress in areas such as student preparation, the biennial study by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education drops the country to an F in affordability from the D it received in the nonprofit group's report two years ago.
Among individual states, only California, Utah and Minnesota earned higher than a D. California still had the top grade of any state, but its A from 2002 fell to a B in the latest report after sharp tuition increases.
The organization gave Ohio an F for affordability and rated the state's performance in preparing students for college as mediocre. According to the report:
UCompared with other states, a small percentage of high school students in Ohio take upper-level science (23 percent), and a small percentage of eighth-graders take algebra (22 percent).
UBlack and Hispanic high school students are about half as likely as whites to enroll in upper-level science, and only about two-thirds as likely to enroll in upper-level math.
UNet college costs for low- and middle-income students to attend community colleges represent 41 percent of their annual family income. For the same students at public four-year institutions, net college costs represent 53 percent of their income. (Net college costs equal tuition, room and board minus financial aid.)
Here's good news
The report also listed some of Ohio's strengths:
UOhio eighth-graders perform well on national assessments in math, science and writing. Over the past decade, the performance in math has substantially improved, outpacing the nationwide increased in the measure.
UA large percentage of students complete certificates and degrees relative to the number enrolled.
ULarge percentages of freshmen at two- and four-year colleges and universities return for their sophomore year.
The report card evaluates states on the performance of their private and public four-year schools and community colleges in five categories, with grades ranging from A to F.
On affordability, the report card contradicts some recent studies that argue increases in financial aid have kept pace with recent tuition increases, so real college costs have stabilized.
The report card, titled "Measuring Up 2004," grades affordability in part by comparing net college costs with the average family income in each state. By that measure, the study says, college is becoming less affordable in most states.
In New Hampshire, for instance, college costs amount to 32 percent of average family income compared with 23 percent a decade ago. In New Jersey and Oregon, colleges cost 34 percent of family income, compared with 24 percent and 25 percent, respectively, in 1994.
Who gets the boot
David Breneman, dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia and an adviser on the report, said the combination of higher prices and a population boom among college-age people is likely to bump students from four-year colleges to more affordable community colleges, and from community colleges out of the system.
"For at least another five to eight years, we're looking at a real denial of opportunity," he said.
Meanwhile, the report says Pennsylvania has performed consistently well in getting students to complete college on time. Minus financial aid, families need 35 percent of their income on average to defray the net cost of public four-year institutions and 70 percent for private schools.
Both figures represent increases from a decade ago, when 30 percent of a family's income was needed to pay for public schools and 61 percent for private schools.
The share of income needed to pay for community colleges has remained the same, at 23 percent.
Low-to-middle-income families, which earn an average of $22,108 annually, need 35 percent of their income to pay for community college and 52 percent for public colleges and universities, the report found.
Pennsylvania fares better in making sure students who do get to college are able to obtain their degrees, earning an A in completion, according to the report.
Eighty-two percent of freshmen at four-year colleges and universities return for their sophomore year, and 62 percent of incoming freshmen complete a bachelor's degree within six years.