On Top of the News
Who Gets to Graduate?
5/15/14 | New York Times Magazine

Behind the Headline
No Excuses Kids Go to College
Spring 2013 | Education Next

In the New York Times Magazine, Paul Tough looks at the challenges many low-income students face once they get to college. He writes

Whether a student graduates or not seems to depend today almost entirely on just one factor — how much money his or her parents make. To put it in blunt terms: Rich kids graduate; poor and working-class kids don’t.

Or to put it more statistically: About a quarter of college freshmen born into the bottom half of the income distribution will manage to collect a bachelor’s degree by age 24, while almost 90 percent of freshmen born into families in the top income quartile will go on to finish their degree.

In an article for Education Next, Robert Pondiscio wrote about efforts by charter school networks like KIPP to help their graduates succeed in college.

-Education Next