Report Faults Colleges on Completion Rates

Education Trust Offers Database Comparing Similar Institutions

Fewer than six out of 10 students finish college within six years, and higher education institutions could do much more to improve such completion rates, according to a report released last week.

The report from the Education Trust, a Washington-based policy group, compares institutions with similar resources and student populations. It concludes that while several factors such as the academic preparation of the students, the availability of financial aid, and the amount of spending on instruction and student advising, play crucial roles in graduation rates, universities also need to identify and put in place practices that have made a difference in other, similar institutions.

Kati Haycock, the executive director of the Education Trust, said that when her group considered whether colleges that are roughly similar and serve roughly the same kind of students had similar graduation rates, “the...