More than half of middle-class kids fail to earn bachelor’s degrees By Tami Luhby

Here’s a little-known, scary stat: More than half of middle class kids who start college fail to earn a bachelor’s degree within six to eight years. The low graduation rate has big implications for young adults’ ability to remain in the middle class, or to rise a few rungs above their parents on the economic ladder. A college degree, once a ticket to the middle class, is now a must-have to maintain that status. Why these kids aren’t graduating with bachelor’s degrees isn’t really known. A lot of attention and effort is focused on getting lower-income children into and through college. But few researchers study the path of students from middle class families. “It’s startling. We get people to college, but they don’t finish,” said Sandy Baum, a research professor at the George Washington University. “The middle class gets lost in the shuffle.” The U.S. Department of Education tracks college graduation rates in two ways: It follows kids in the years after they graduate high school, and, separately, it tracks all Americans who enter college in a particular year. The department periodically checks back in with them for several years. Both stats found that fewer than half of middle class students were actually leaving with a bachelor’s degree. Read the full article at: CNN Money