--Participation rates among young people and working-age adults;
-- Affordability of higher education institutions, measured against family income;
-- Completion rates for those who enroll;
-- The extent to which graduates contribute to the economic and civic life of their states;
-- How well graduates perform on various measures of knowledge and skills.
Although the 2008 report showed some improvement in student preparation for college, as well as enrollment and completion rates, Patrick Callan, the center's president, said those improvements are slow and do not outpace advances made by other countries -- which are increasingly pushing past the U.S. in terms of educational performance.
Among 25- to 34-year-olds, for example, the United States ranks 10th in terms of the percentage with college degrees, although the country remains second only to Canada on this metric among Americans 35 and older.
"The national picture is a sobering one," Callan said. "We're trying to tweak our way through a very big problem."
John Engler, former governor of Michigan and current president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, said the failings recorded in the report could threaten U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace, where he says it has become a "global imperative" to employ the best talent in the world, which may be found outside the U.S.
Significant disparities among racial, ethnic, economic and geographic groups also remain, according to North Carolina Gov. James B. Hunt Jr., the center's chair.
In Connecticut and New York, for example, 50 percent of young white people have a high school credential -- compared to 34 percent of blacks. In Delaware, 73 percent of white students complete college within six years of enrollment, while only 41 percent of black students complete their degree in that time.
College affordability, meanwhile, has worsened, Callan said, as tuition increases continue to dramatically outpace advances in financial aid.
The problem of affordability may worsen in the face of the nation's current financial crisis, which could have damaging effects that would "spread throughout the entire report card," Callan said.
"Higher education is going to have to share in the belt tightening that is going to have to happen around the country," he said.
The non-profit National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education was established in 1998 to promote education policies and research.
Younger generation unprepared to fill Baby Boomers' shoes, study finds
December 4, 2008
America's young people may be educationally unprepared to fill the shoes of baby boomers soon to retire from the work force, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education asserted Wednesday.
Written by Allison Lowe, Hearst Newspapers
WASHINGTON - America's young people may be educationally unprepared to fill the shoes of baby boomers soon to retire from the work force, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education asserted Wednesday.
"We're on the cusp of the retirement of the best-educated generation or set of cohorts in the history of the world," said David Breneman, director of the master's program in public policy at the University of Virginia and a producer of the report. "We need to worry very deeply about the young people coming along to take those positions."
The report, "Measuring Up 2008: The National Report Card on Higher Education," is the fifth in a series of studies since 2000, and covers public and private, two- and four-year colleges.
The report gave grades to each state on six criteria:
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