The value of educating; the cost of not

88% of American 8^th graders report that they expect to attend college, and yet only 25% actually graduate from a college or university.

I really hadn’t paid attention to these statistics until recently. I’ve been trying to find ways to calculate and understand the actual value – as opposed to cost – of an EDS education, and came across some staggering information.

Only about 71% of American high school students graduate from high school. Of those graduates, only 70% attend college. And the percentage of American college students who graduate in 6 years or less is only about 50%!!! Do the math and you discover this steady attrition through the system yields college and university diplomas for less than 25% of American 8^th graders.

The implications are staggering to the American economy, culture, political discourse, civil structure – pick your area of interest.

And don’t dismiss this as merely a function of socio-economic sorting. Among the students in the top 20% of our socio-economic strata, still less than half (just over 40%) graduate from college.

Now consider that all of those numbers for EDS graduates are nearly 100%. We don’t claim all the credit, but we get a significant share. By the 8^th grade our students are on a fast track to success. They have the academic and intellectual foundation, work ethic and study habits, aspirations, interpersonal skills, self-knowledge, and sense of purpose to put themselves on the right side of those statistics. What is the value of that – to them and to our community?