Carmen Mendoza

It’s hard to get today’s college students to read. Many are unable — or unwilling — to do it, especially if they’re assigned longer texts. When they are reading, they’re struggling with comprehension and analysis. Professors say it’s much worse than what they’ve encountered with students in the past. What’s causing this change? And how are instructors responding to it?

You keep hearing about the “demographic cliff” higher education is facing. It’s an ominous-sounding term for the steep decline in traditional-age students projected to start by 2026, with the number of new high-school graduates expected to fall by about 13 percent by 2041. The consequences of the cliff will vary across geographic regions and types of institutions, yet there’s widespread worry about its effect. How did higher ed get to this precipice? And what does it mean for students?

Weak educational achievement runs like a fault line through rural American economies. Eighty-five percent of American counties with low educational attainment are rural, and far fewer young adults in rural areas are enrolled in higher education than those in urban or suburban areas. This educational disparity has far-reaching consequences, as the rural counties with the lowest levels of educational achievement have the highest levels of poverty, unemployment, and population loss.