Fixing our leaky pipeline

Who says you can never go home again? I recently got back from a terrific meeting held by the Graduate and Professional Student Senate at my good old alma mater, the University of Washington. While I could wax Husky nostalgic, I won’t. Because, in terms of access, entrance and readiness for baccalaureate (and post-grad) institutions in our state, the situation is sobering.

Of 100 Washington students who enter the 9th grade, only 19 actually make it through and complete either a four or a two-year degree. Ann Daley, executive director of Washington’s Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB), presented this statistic as not only a leaky pipeline with students as droplets, but also the tears the system is crying.

But this meeting wasn’t just about our education system’s leaky pipeline leading up to a bachelor’s degree. It was a call to educators, politicians and business leaders to wake up to the fact that—although we talk a lot about the impending deficit of individuals with an undergraduate degrees in our state—we neglect to realize we are operating at a HUGE deficit of individuals with graduate degrees.

This means that companies like Microsoft, Boeing and biotech firms (all represented at the meeting) are increasingly forced to recruit the majority of there highly-skilled researchers and developers from other regions and countries. Though collars were loosened throughout the room, it was wonderful to see the higher ed-heads agree that college-readiness (particularly in math) was a key solution to this issue. Students who are highly prepared for college work, not only finish more reliably, but are more apt to consider and enroll in the graduate programs our state’s top employers so desperately recruit from.

I don’t know about you, but as Husky, I sure hope the UW, and other Washington colleges, can band together with those in the K-12 system to set common standards and curriculum, so that patches can be made at all levels of the pipeline and students can make it as far down as they choose.

To learn more about the HECB’s Higher Education Master Plan visit their website.