College Graduation Rates Report, Co-Authored by AIR Vice President Mark Schneider

Washington, D.C. - American Institutes for Research (AIR) Vice President Mark Schneider presented a new American Enterprise Institute (AEI) report, Diplomas and Dropouts: Which Colleges Actually Graduate Their Students (and Which Don’t), at an AEI event on Wednesday, June 3, 2009.

The report was co-authored by Schneider, a visiting scholar for AEI, as well as Frederick M. Hess, AEI's director of education policy studies, Kevin Carey, policy director of Education Sector, and AEI research fellow Andrew P. Kelly.

An event discussing the report was held at AEI on Wednesday, June 3, in the Wohlstetter Conference Center. Schneider and co-author Carey presented, followed by a discussion moderated by Hess.

Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which Schneider led as Commissioner from 2005 to 2008, the report examines graduation rates across schools with similar levels of admissions selectivity. The researchers divided schools into the six admissions selectivity groups used in Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges (“noncompetitive,” “less competitive,” “competitive,” “very competitive,” “highly competitive,” and “most competitive”).

The study finds significant variation in the graduation rates across 1,300 U.S. colleges and universities. The researchers also found dramatic variation in graduation rates among institutions within the same selectivity category.

The full report will be available on the AEI Website.