Rhode Island’s students are less prepared for college than they were in the early 1990s, and the state’s colleges and universities are less affordable, according to “Measuring Up 2006: The National Report Card on Higher Education.”
The report was released Sept. 7 by the nonpartisan, nonprofit National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education of Washington, D.C., and San Jose, Calif. It gave the state A’s in participation and completion of higher education, a B in benefits to grads, a C+ in college preparation and an F in affordability.
Among its findings for the state:
Only 47 percent of Rhode Island ninth-graders enroll in college within four years (vs. 40 percent nationwide), and fewer than in years past finish high school on time.
Compared with a decade ago, fewer students are graduating from the state’s high schools on time.
The gap between white and non-white residents with bachelor’s degrees has widened in the past 12 years, it said, so that 35 percent of white adults in the state now have a bachelor’s degree, versus 19 percent of others.
The state’s net college costs – including room and board and tuition, but after financial aid – are extremely high. For low and middle-income students, the annual cost of attending a community college in the state was 45 percent of the average family income, which the report set at $21,099. For public four-year institutions, the cost was 58 percent of family income.
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Rhode Island’s “underperformance,” the report said, could “limit the state’s access to a competitive workforce and weaken the economy over time.”
“In a knowledge-based economy, the demand for a highly skilled and educated workforce has never been greater,” said Patrick Callan, the nonprofit’s president. “Measuring Up 2006 provides state policymakers and higher education leaders with a clear understanding of where post-secondary education needs to improve in their state.”
