HOW AMERICA BECAME THE WORLD’S LEADER IN HIGHER EDUCATION – AND THEN LOST GROUND

Theda Skocpol

USW31 Wednesday, November 14, 2012

ACCESS AND EXCELLENCE IN U.S. HIGHER EDUCATION

• Today: How America Became the World’s Leader – and Then Lost Ground (Skocpol)

• Mon 11/19: The Diversity of Students and Institutional Experiences (Waters)

• Mon 11/26: How Federal, State, and Institutional Policies Matter (Skocpol)

• Wed 11/28: Who is Admitted, Who Finishes? (Waters)

Why Education Matters – and What We Need to Ask about the U.S. System

• Broad access to schooling and higher education, including for females, propels national economic growth and democracy, as well as individual advancement.

• USA was the world’s pioneer in mass schooling and then mass higher education. How and why?

• Answers have to do with our institutions as well as the individual characteristics of our people.

• Recent leveling out of access to US higher education -- and loss of ground for USA in international higher ed competition – due to institutional and policy causes, as well as causes rooted in demographic changes and changes in individual preparation and aspirations.

Changes in US Educational Mobility: Do Young Men and Women Achieve More Education than their Parents?

• The ability of college-educated parents to pass on their advantages to offspring no better now in the past – and less educated parents are no more of a hindrance to offsprings’ educational advancement.

• But overall educational mobility has declined in recent decades:– Only 40% of young men who turned 25 in the last decade achieved

more education than their fathers – compared to 67% who turned 25 in the 1960s and 1970s.

– 52% of young men who turned 25 in the past decade achieved more education than mothers, compared with 65% in the 1960s and 1970s.

– More are now downwardly mobile compared to parents.

• How is this combination possible? Fewer openings in higher ed institutions are part of the explanation.

Source: Michael Hout and Alexander Janus, “Educational Mobility in the United States Since the 1930s,” in Whither Opportunity?, edited by Greg J. Duncan and Richard J. Murnane (Russell Sage Foundation, 2011).

Early Development of U.S. Higher Education

Colonial times:

Founding of Harvard (1636), William and Mary (1693), and Yale (1701) with church and colonial support.

Additional colleges in the colonies, 1745-75

Early 19th century:

denominational colleges spread

first state colleges are founded (College of SC, 1803; U. of VA, 1824)

first agricultural colleges in 1850s: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Maryland, and Ohio

more than 40 women’s colleges chartered in 1850s; Wilberforce for free blacks in 1856

Late 19th Century

Denominational colleges continue to spread

Morrill-Land Grant Act (1862): fed government granted land to states to create or expand colleges with practical as well as classical education. 37 designated land-grant universities.

Cornell attracted largest U.S. entering class in 1868

But most land-grant institutions struggled to enroll students and would have failed without government support – and their own efforts to stimulate high school systems

Hatch Act (1887) and 2nd Morrill Act (1890): direct annual federal funds; followed by federal grants for agricultural research, extension stations, etc.

German-style research universities:

Johns Hopkins founded 1876

Harvard, Michigan, Chicago, Stanford move in the same direction

Source: Goldin and Katz.

Twentieth Century: USA to the Top Growth and standardization, 1890 to WWI

Universities become specialized and professionalized

Average size increases: 1895 ten largest had 2k students; 5k by 1915

“Collegiate ideal” for undergraduate education: church ties loosened, academic and extracurricular activities, plus athletics

A hierarchy of institutions emerges, WWI to WWII

City universities and junior colleges at the base

Elite universities combine undergraduate colleges and research

Top colleges and universities institute selective admissions (rare before 1920s)

Twentieth Century: USA to the Top, continued

After World War II: Mass higher education and research growth

GI Bill (1944) offers tuition and allowances to 2.2 million vets and families

National Defense Education Act (1958): low-interest student loans

Fed gov’t funds faculty research projects and spreads research capacities

The GI Bill of 1944, offered education benefits, family allowances, and home, business, and farm loans to some 16 million veterans of World War II.

Working-class veterans especially benefited – and GI Bill education grant recipients were more likely to participate in postwar civic life.(according to Mettler, Soldiers to Citizens)

How America Became the World’s Leader in Higher Education and

Now Faces Stiff Competition

USW 31, April 11, 2011

Theda Skocpol

Expansion of U.S. Higher Education, 1945 to 1975

1945 1975 % increase

U.S. population 139,924,000 215,465,000 +54%

Students 1,677,000 11,185,000 +567%

Faculty 150,000 628,000 +319%

Institutions(excluding branch campuses)

1,768 2,747 +55%

Degrees conferred(BA, MA, PhD etc.)

157,349 1,665,553 +959%

Revenue (in current $) $1,169,394 $39,703,166 +3295%

Source: Arthur M. Cohen, The Shaping of American Higher Education, 1998, p.176.

Education Level of U.S. Individuals Ages 25 to 34, 1940–2009

Sources: The College Board, Education Pays 2010, Figure 2.7; U.S. Census Bureau, 2009b, Table A-1.

Source: Michael Hout, Berkeley.

College-to-High School Weekly Wage Premium, 1963–2008

Sources: The College Board, Education Pays 2010, Figure 1.7a; Autor, 2010.

Source: Michael Hout, Berkeley.

Tertiary graduation and entry rates

Tertiary-type A graduation rates

Percentage of tertiary-type A graduates o the population at the typical age of

graduation                                                

                                                                                                                          Statlink             

USA No Longer First: Young Adults with at least Tertiary Degrees, 2007

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Italy

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Poland

Slove

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and

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Switzer

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Luxem

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Nether

lands

United K

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Spain

Finla

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Sweden

Denm

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United S

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Belgiu

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France

Isra

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Norway

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Japan

Russia

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USA 40.4%

Source: OECD.

GLOBAL GROWTH IN HIGHER EDUCATION

“Revolutions in higher education: USA – after WWII Europe – mass-enrollment universities grow in 1970s, 1980s China – since 1990s, explosive growth and attempt to build a system

with elite universities on top

Growth and retraction in China: Late 19th-early 20th – end of classical exam system, new public and

private schools and universities War, revolution, and esp. Cultural Rev of 1960s destroy universities 1978 – universities re-open w/ c. 860,000; only 1 million in 1996 1990s Plan to accelerate growth -- c. 6 million enrolled by 2000 Five Yr. Plan – 23 million by 2005. Aiming for 30 million by 2010 Now about 15% of 18-21 yr. olds enrolled, aiming for 40% by 2020

Planning tiered system with world-class universities: Top universities get extra $ from gov’t and international foundations. Funding of top universities may soon rival top US universities