Understanding Why Some Colleges Create Economic Mobility

AUSTIN, Tex. -- American higher education purports to be a driver of economic and social mobility, and compared to many other countries' systems, it is. Yet even today, a student whose family is in the top income quintile is five times likelier than a student from the lowest quintile to earn a bachelor's degree by the age of 24.

That is a problem for several reasons, including that to meet the education-attainment goals that many believe is needed for a vibrant economy -- having roughly 60 percent of citizens hold a quality postsecondary credential of some kind -- colleges and universities must enroll and graduate far larger numbers of the disadvantaged young people and adults whom they have historically struggled to serve.

Plus, "it's just morally wrong, unless we’re trying to prove that the nation can continue to flourish by disenfranchising whole portions of its population," Daniel Greenstein, director of the postsecondary success program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said Monday at a conference at the University of Texas's flagship campus here.

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