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A recent report shows that despite growing college enrollment and financial aid dollars, graduation rates at four-year colleges stayed the same from 2007 to 2008. In both years, only 57 percent of first-time, full-time students at four-year institutions graduated within six years.

The report, "Enrollment in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2008; Graduation Rates, 2002 and 2005 Cohorts; and Financial Statistics, Fiscal Year 2008," was published by the National Center for Education Statistics, the statistical branch of the U.S. Department of Education.

The report also focused on the graduation gap between for-profit and non-profit colleges, confirming what many others have observed. About 65 percent of students at private non-profit colleges graduated within six years. At private for-profit colleges, only 22 percent of students met that mark.

Data were collected from over 6,600 colleges and universities around the country that are eligible for federal student aid.

The NCES reported that 19.6 million students were enrolled in federal aid-eligible institutions in 2008, and that 76 percent of first-time first-year students received some form of federal aid, up from 73 percent in 2007.

So if more aid dollars are being distributed, and more students are going to college, why aren’t more students graduating from college?

Some advocates for higher education blame for-profit institutions, saying that the schools are designed to take students’ money, including federal aid dollars, and give them very little resources to help them graduate.

Last year, the for-profit University of Phoenix got $400 million in Pell Grants.

But the U.S. Department of Education has not made any statements about the best use of Pell Grant money. In fact, even non-government voices have yet to chime in on the implications of the report.

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