Tuesday, Dec. 7 : Community College Graduation Rates

President Obama has made community colleges a priority, and has brought renewed focus to the educational institutions that pledge open access to higher education.  But although they may be accessible in terms of cost, flexibility, and location, their graduation rates are staggeringly low, hovering in most cases around the mid teens.  Even Quincy College, which boasts the highest graduation rate in the Massachusetts, presented diplomas to a mere 26 percent of its most recent cohort of students.  Many have pointed to these percentages as a cause for concern, but Massasoit Community College president Charles Wall says the data is leaving out a big part of the picture.  He argues that we should be fixing the way we measure success, rather than rates of graduation as they are currently calculated.  We're joined by President Wall, and by Richard Kazis, Senior Vice President of Jobs For The Future.