By Valerie Strauss and Sara Goldrick-Rab, appears in The Washington Post
Many policymakers have long pictured college students as privileged, even coddled, enjoying robust parental support while spending more time at parties than in class. With those images in mind, they have paid too little attention to the effectiveness of financial aid at making college affordable, and failed to ask important questions about why so many students are struggling to learn. Instead, they push efforts to hold colleges accountable for graduation rates and wages, without first considering that other factors beyond the institutions’ walls might also be culprits.
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