Following the herd to improve education

The Arkansas state government is changing the funding formula for state universities to reward schools that educate students who earn degrees, rather than rewarding schools who enroll a lot of students, many of whom will never obtain a degree. As you can imagine, state universities are moving their efforts away from just attracting students and are putting more effort into retaining and graduating students. Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s book, Nudge, mentions an experiment that may give some insight into how state colleges can get more of their students to graduate in a reasonable amount of time.

The experiment took place in Minnesota, where the state government wanted to increase the rate of tax compliance. They sent a different message out to four different groups of people. One group was told of all of the beneficial services that the taxes enabled. This message explained the benefits of the police, the fire department, the rescue squad, and so on. Another group read about the penalties that they would suffer if they did not file taxes. A third group was given messages about how they could obtain help on their tax forms. After all, the instructions for tax forms are often poorly written and needlessly confusing. It is possible that tax compliance was low because people simply did not understand what they should do in order to comply. However, none of these three messages were effective in increasing tax compliance in Minnesota.

On the other hand, a fourth group received a message that was extremely effective in improving tax compliance. This group received a message saying that 90 percent of the residents of Minnesota had already complied with the tax laws. People in this fourth group had a desire to conform. They wanted to do what everyone else was doing, so they complied with the tax laws.

Joe mcgarrity

The lesson from the Minnesota experiment is that people want to conform to what most other people are doing. This lesson may help UCA and other state schools improve their graduation rates Unfortunately, a look at UCA’s sta tistics reveals that only 23 percent of its students graduate in four years. Students feel that this is in the norm, so they do not feel pres sure to finish in four years.

UCA should delve into its data a bit further and find a group with at least 50 percent of its members who have graduated within four years. It could be that students who enter college with AP credit or who take Calculus I as their first math class, or who take and pass some rigorous class. Everyone in this group should be notified that most of the people in this group (that they are in) graduate in four years. Students in this group will want to conform and act like other members of their group. Just like the Minnesota tax payers complied with tax laws when they thought everyone else was complying, stu dents in a group will take the steps necessary to complete a degree in four years if they believe that this is the norm. My proposal is a low cost way for UCA, or any other university, to improve its four-year graduation rate.

Joe McGarrity is a professor of eco nomics at the University of Central Ar kansas. Contact him by email at joem@ uca.edu.