Tennessee has received numerous accolades for its push over the past few years to increase college access.
But a recent report on the retention and completion rates of the state’s most vulnerable college students show that access alone isn’t enough if Tennessee wants to reach its goal for 55 percent of adults to hold a degree or certificate by 2025.
Complete Tennessee, an education advocacy group, found that despite increases in overall retention rates during the last five years at the state’s public and private institutions, African-American students at the state’s community colleges still remain 10 percentage points behind their peers. Likewise, three-year community college graduation rates remain relatively low, averaging 20 percent in 2016. The state is ranked 44th in the country in degree attainment, according to the Lumina Foundation.
The group also found that adult enrollment across the state’s colleges has dropped by 25 percent since 2011.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/01/09/tennessee-colleges-face-achievement-gaps-and-decreasing-adult-student-enrollment