ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the two-part case for why the colleges and universities need to develop a real-time student assessment commitment that continuously improves and, thus, equitably advances all currently enrolled students to achieve a high-quality degree. The first case is the disparities in achievement levels, persistence rates, and graduation rates across the student demographics documented in longitudinally reported national data. Second is the national need for more college graduates across the student demographics to contribute to American society at large, to the 21st-century workforce and the demands of globalization, and to students’ and their families’ social and financial mobility. Longer-term perspectives on continuing diversification are substantiated by demographic data that chart the actual and projected race/ethnicity of high school students. Generation status and nativity, excluding nonresidential foreign students who account currently for about 20% of the college enrollment are closely related factors that have bearing on students’ educational attainment.
