Margaret Spellings: UNC can lead way on curbing college dropouts
David Kirp is right about the tragedy of college dropouts (“The scandal of college kids dropping out,” May 9). Even as we celebrate the thousands of students who earned diplomas this month, I worry about the missed opportunity of those who didn’t make it to graduation day.
North Carolina has already made significant strides in enhancing degree completion, and our public universities together have an overall statewide graduation success rate nearly 10 percentage points higher than the national average. But we’re eager to – and must – do more.
We’re experimenting with new technologies to help identify struggling students early, and we’re expanding mentoring programs and enhancing teacher effectiveness through research. Done right, these efforts save money for students and taxpayers, making sure that college remains a sound investment in the future.
North Carolina is the birthplace of public higher education. We can absolutely be the leader in making it work for all students.
Margaret Spellings
President, University of North Carolina system
Chapel Hill
This story was originally published May 16, 2016 at 5:19 PM with the headline "Margaret Spellings: UNC can lead way on curbing college dropouts."