Elsa Nunez: Improving Completion Rates of Minority Community College Students Tranferring to Four-Year Colleges: As the United States seeks to recapture its prominent economic position in the world, one policy issue that has received significant interest within the government and other circles is the completion rate of college students. America once had the largest percentage of college graduates among the nations of the world. Today, we are only 12th in the percentage of adults ages 25-34 with a college degree.
President Barack Obama has made it a national priority to regain our number one position in college degree attainment rates by 2020. The federal government, along with many other public and private organizations, is developing partnerships, strategies and programming to reach that goal. Paralleling the president's commitment, the College Board has issued a goal of having 55 percent of all adults ages 25-34 earning either a two- or four-year degree by 2025. Although the figure has improved since 2000 (from 38.1 to 41.1 percent), the current rate of growth will only increase the number of adults 25-34 with a degree to 46 percent by 2025, still short of goal.
