Byron Auguste: evaluation

Transcript context

…Well, ex post, but ex ante. Tautologically, the people who do well do well. But ex ante, what’s the best measure of conscientiousness? College right now is a signal of many things, but I think the statistics would say it’s a huge signal of affluence and generational wealth, being able to not only be prepared for the test to go into a selective college, and being able to complete it, having the social capital. If the position is that the people who complete college never make mistakes and therefore, they’re the most conscientious, well, I disagree. I think the people who complete college make lots of mistakes, but they tend to be the ones that have more cushion, more fallback, more shots on goal. There are millions of people who aspire to go to college. We talk about people who are skilled through alternative routes, or STARs, that don’t have bachelor’s degrees. About 40 percent of them actually do have college credits, but they didn’t finish for a lot of reasons. For example, they had to work, and they had to work a lot. If their work schedule doesn’t correspond to their class schedule, then maybe they can’t get the classes they need. They basically would have to go six, seven years. They run out of money. They might just plain run out of money. There are all sorts of family instability. In other words, I just don’t agree with the view that says that the reason most people who don’t complete college don’t complete it because of some Animal House behavior. I disagree. It’s mainly because of the economic and social conditions and what they have to do to manage the totality of life. Finally, I’ll say most people in college right now are not 19-, 20-year-olds. Most people in college are actually working learners. That’s the typical college student today. They already come to this with children, with responsibilities. I just think our picture of what college is should be different than 50 years ago. It hasn’t caught up. You think it’s a market failure that the sheepskin effect is so pronounced in wages? The sheepskin effect meaning, someone who quits just short of finishing earns much less than someone who finishes.…

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