Colleges generally do a lousy job of keeping tabs on the graduation rates of their adult students. But that may change if accreditors follow the lead of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). Nontraditional students who are adults and attend college part-time are a large, growing segment of American higher education. They will also play a big role in the success of the national college “completion agenda.” Yet most colleges do not track the graduation or retention rates of adult students, in part because nobody makes them, according to the results of a new survey. WASC, however, is in the process of requiring institutions to report detailed information about those two key measures of student success, for all student populations, including the nontraditional ones.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/07/11/accreditor-will-require-colleges-stop-ignoring-adult-student-retention
