ABSTRACT
Americans have grown increasingly concerned as the last twenty years have shown a decline in the nation’s higher education ranking (Perna & Finney, 2014). In 1990, America boasted the world’s highest number of four-year-degree graduates among 25- to 34-year-olds. Since then, the United States has fallen from first to twelfth place among developed nations (The White House, 2016). In 2009, President Barack Obama signed the American Graduation Initiative, articulating his desire for America to graduate the highest proportion of postsecondary students in the world by 2020.
