Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America's Public Universities

Our study of 21 flagship public universities and four entire state systems (in Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia), published recently by Princeton University Press under the title above, demonstrates that if this country is to regain its leadership in higher education, it must fix two interwoven problems: (1) the stagnant level of overall educational attainment, as measured by baccalaureate completion rates that hover around 30 percent, and (2) the huge disparities in educational outcomes associated with socioeconomic status (SES) and race and ethnicity.