FOUND! The Worst Writing on Earth … Anti-College Journalism
Travis Burchart, J.D.
Radical communicator who's resisting the blackhole of graceless writing, shallow ideas, and the constant churn of "content."
Another day, another hatchet job on higher education, this one from the Washington Examiner (Wikipedia describes it as “an American conservative news outlet”[1]):
Does the Washington Examiner mean “honestly” bursting? Or do they mean we’re-gonna-spin-it-by-half-reporting-and-half-ignoring-the-data bursting??
As is typical of higher ed journalism, I believe it’s the latter.?
Data Isn’t Cake; You Can’t Cut It into Slices
So it’s DOOM! (yes, all caps) for higher education (at least that’s what the Washington Examiner implies):
There are emerging signs that high schoolers are souring on the value of an undergraduate degree.
National Student Clearinghouse Research Center [NSC], which tracks higher education enrollment, released the latest numbers last week for the fall 2024 semester. What the data show is a slow but massive shift in the public’s approach to postsecondary education that may destroy the reputational and institutional power of traditional four-year college attendance.
But could there be maybe, possibly, surely (insert sarcasm) more NSC data–positive data–to report? Odd … for some reason, the Washington Examiner neglected to report this[2]:?
Enrollment in undergraduate programs is up 3% in early reporting this fall compared to similar early data from fall 2023, indicating a second straight year of undergraduate enrollment growth, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s latest report.
All sectors are seeing growth in undergraduate enrollment overall, ranging from a 1.4 increase at private non-profit 4-year institutions to 4.7 percent at public 2-year and 5.2 percent at public PAB institutions.?
Both bachelor’s (+1.9%) and associate degree (+4.3%) programs are seeing enrollment gains this fall. Graduate programs are also seeing enrollment gains (+2.1%) for a preliminary estimate of 2.9% annual growth for total postsecondary enrollment this fall.
This seems kind of important as to whether or not the “higher education bubble is finally bursting.” I wonder (insert more sarcasm) if there might be more data out there? Maybe something like ….?
Freshman enrollment grew at a faster rate this spring than overall undergraduate enrollment (+3.9% compared to spring 2023). This growth was strongest at community colleges (+6.2%, +14,000) and public PABs (+11.0%, +5,000). Freshmen women grew at a faster rate than men in spring 2024 (+3.2% vs. +2.2% for men), a reversal of the trend reported for the two previous years where men were outpacing women’s enrollment growth.
The number of dual enrolled high school students (17 and younger) grew for the third year in a row (+10.0%, +100,000), accounting for nearly 28.1 percent of the undergraduate enrollment increases. Dual enrollment at public institutions saw double-digit increases this year – up 11.0 percent at 4-years, and 10.2 percent at both PABs and 2-years.—NCS Current Term Enrollment Estimates: Spring 2024
Wait … what?!?!? Apparently, for freshmen, the bubble DIDN’T burst in Spring 2024. The bubble actually grew! And that “souring” the Washington Examiner so proudly spotlighted … apparently, “dual enrolled high school students GREW! for the third year in a row.” So MORE high schoolers (3-years running), not less![3]
Is a Google Search Really so Hard???
Okay, okay, okay … so there might’ve been some “important” data missing. But there’s more to bubble bursting than just data. How about bursting the higher ed bubble with a big heaping of broad, unsubstantiated “opinion”! According to the Washington Examiner:??
[T]he numbers make one thing clear: the public thinks the value of a college education has fallen. Its promised return on investment has increasingly failed to materialize, creating conditions to burst the higher education bubble that was built by student debt and government meddling.
But do these numbers actually “make clear” what “the public thinks”? Because I did a Google search (surely a higher ed journalist knows how to do one) and discovered this … the NCS’s Persistence and Retention report from June 27, 2024:?
The national persistence rate for students who started college in the fall of 2022 rose to 76.5 percent (+0.8 percentage points [pp] compared to the fall 2021 starting cohort), and the national retention rate was 68.2 percent (+1.0pp). This marks the second straight year of improved persistence and retention, with both rates higher than they have been at any point in the last decade.
Hmmm. So more and more college students are actually “staying” in college (presumably because they found value in their decision to enroll). A little more Google research (it’s just sooo easy), and I discovered Fidelity Investments’ 2024 College Savings Indicator. According to their research
Well that’s very, very odd!!! So there’s data showing more and more parents are saving for college DESPITE the Washington Examiner’s assertion (without any citation) that “the value of a college education has fallen.” Well, maybe it’s not “odd.” More likely, it’s just biased, half-the-story, cherry-picked journalism.?
For Journalists, Student Debt Is a Favorite Fan Fiction
Toward the end of the article, the Washington Examiner goes for the higher ed “jugular” … student debt!!!?
As the student loan crisis has spiraled out of control, more and more students are coming to the conclusion that saddling themselves with big debts [see footnote 4 to unpack this mega-myth] before starting adult careers is not an obviously wise investment.
But this appears to be more wishful thinking than factual reality. As mentioned above, “more and more students” (regardless of student debt) are actually enrolling/staying in college. The most recent NCS data (Spring/Fall 2024) proves this:
Enrollment in undergraduate programs is up 3% in early reporting this fall compared to similar early data from fall 2023, indicating a second straight year of undergraduate enrollment growth.?
Persistence and retention rates (as reported in June 2024) are “higher than they have been at any point in the last decade.”
Of course, faceless data doesn’t tell the same story as enrollment successes (and there’s a lot of them) being reported across the U.S. Here’s just a few:??
领英推荐
The Washington Examiner might disagree, but I think these true stories (and there are many, many others) tell a more-balanced story than data that’s been carved up and dressed up to prove an opinion.?
Is It Fake News or Bad Journalism? It’s BOTH!?
Am I saying higher ed is problem-free? Definitely not; it has its problems (so does journalism; see footnote 5). But when I see finely sliced data, narrow sampling, and “everyone” guesswork, it gets under my skin. When it comes to higher ed, many journalists write half truths; I try to expose the full truth. These same journalists sit behind a computer cherry-picking data; I (an employee of Oral Roberts University) sit on campus watching enrollment grow:?
For the 16th consecutive year, Oral Roberts University (ORU) has once again achieved record enrollment growth, with the 2024 Fall Census reporting an all-time high of 5,936 students, a 10.5% increase from last year. The 2024 incoming class marks another historic milestone, with 2,245 residential students, including the largest incoming class in ORU’s history. ORU’s global footprint expanded, with an international student population of 21% representing 129 countries, and students from all 50 states. ORU also achieved a 92% residential retention rate.
The Washington Examiner claims that “the higher education bubble is finally bursting,” but by some miracle, Oklahoma appears immune from this dark specter. Because not only did ORU (located in Tulsa) break enrollment records this fall, so did the two largest public universities in the state:?
Bubble bursting? Nope … at least not in Oklahoma.??
[1] Does the Washington Examiner’s reporting have a glaring bias? Somebody seems to think so. According to Media Bias/Fact Check:
Overall, we rate the Washington Examiner Right Biased based on editorial positions that almost exclusively favor the right and Mixed for factual reporting due to several failed fact checks.
Here’s where I get branded a “liberal” for calling out the obvious. No, I’m a conservative voter who’s spent the last decade working to grow a conservative, Christian university. I’m not liberal; I’m just truthful!?
[2] So the Washington Examiner works hard NOT to report this specific data, but buried in the article, the author makes a very brief/passing mention of it:
[T]he total number of students enrolled in undergraduate programs did increase, and this was driven primarily by high school students joining dual enrollment programs and non-freshmen enrolling in a four-year program.
What’s funny is this: unbeknownst to the Washington Examiner, the article’s foundational assertion (the theme of the whole story) is directly opposed by the aforementioned data (an editorial slip up I guess):
The theme: “There are emerging signs that high schoolers are souring on the value of an undergraduate degree.”
The data: “This [enrollment increase] was driven primarily by high school students joining dual enrollment programs ….”
So out one side of the Washington Examiner’s mouth, high schoolers are souring on college enrollment. And yet, out the other side, Fall 2024 high schoolers (through dual enrollment) are a primary driver of college enrollment growth. The danger, I guess, of reporting “all” the data is risking a contradiction of your well-planned opinion.?
[3] This dual enrollment trend continues as more and more and more students take college courses while still in high school. According to the NCS’s October 23, 2024 data:
The number of undergraduates is growing across all age groups as well, with strong growth continuing especially for dual enrollment students (17 or younger).?
[4] Anti-college journalists love the “student debt” boogeyman. But for most of these journalists, “student debt” is more fan fiction, less reality. To create this boogeyman, the Washington Examiner trots out some cold, hard “facts”:
Cumulative federal student loan debt exceeds $1.6 trillion. That money is owed by some 40 million people, more than one in 10 people in the United States. The average borrower owes roughly $39,000 on their federal student loan balance.?
Gak!!! Those are some big numbers, BUT what’s actually behind them? In my article Trade School: The Anti-College Fairytale, I did the unpacking that anti-college writers never, ever want you to do (or they're just too lazy to do it). Similar to the Washington Examiner, the Washington Times (July 3, 2024) reported:
As living costs become bigger concerns for U.S. families, the average federal student loan debt has risen to $37,850 as of March.
Digging deeper into this average, $37,850—to which the Washington Times offers no proof or citation—appears to come from a 2024 report by Best Colleges titled Average Student Loan Debt: 2024 Statistics. Reading the report, one discovers that the $37,850 average doesn’t represent today’s 22-year-old, undergraduate-degree holder. Instead, it represents a vast pool of different ages, different degrees, and different educations. The $37,850 average actually includes:
Moreover, Best Colleges also reports that (in contrast to “average” student debt):
[T]he median student debt for all borrowers in 2023 was between $20,000 and $24,999. That means about half of student loan borrowers owe more than that, and half owe less.
It’s important to report on the median because the $37,850 average could very well skew upward. In his book Naked Statistics, Charles Wheelan explains why an average (e.g., “average” student debt) is potentially misleading and overinflated:
The mean is a simple average: the sum of the observations divided by the number of observations (The mean of 3, 4, 5, 6, and 102 is 24). … Now, the clever reader will see that there is sizeable difference between 24 and 5. If, for some reason, I would like to describe this group of numbers in a way that makes it look big, I will focus on the mean.?
[5] Hey Washington Examiner, “Let him who is without sin among you, cast the first stone”:
Americans continue to register record-low trust in the mass media, with 31% expressing a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly,” similar to last year’s 32%. Americans’ trust in the media -- such as newspapers, television and radio -- first fell to 32% in 2016 and did so again last year.
For the third consecutive year, more U.S. adults have no trust at all in the media (36%) than trust it a great deal or fair amount. Another 33% of Americans express “not very much” confidence.--Brenan, M. (2024, October 29).—Americans’ Trust in media remains at trend low. Gallup.com.