Ask almost anyone in the higher education establishment how lower-tier colleges could improve and you’ll hear, “They should graduate more of their students.”

Improving your graduation rate is a good way to impress people, but what if the numbers are bogus? In this Crain’s Chicago Business piece, we read that the seven campus City Colleges of Chicago has been doing that.

Writer Steven Strahler says, “Mayor (Rahm Emanuel) and Chancellor Cheryl Hyman have pointed to soaring graduation rates as validation of an ongoing turnaround plan dubbed Reinvention, which incorporates a college to careers emphasis on vocational training.” And in recent years, the graduation rate has more than doubled — from 7 to 17 percent. Sounds great, right?

Not so fast. Strahler continues, “Some faculty members otherwise pleased with this trend contend the administration fails to disclose the creative accounting involved. ‘The big asterisk would probably be appropriate,’ suggests Julius Nadas, a math and sciences professor….”

One reason is the way the schools have lowered standards. Professor Sheldon Liebman points out that the foreign language requirement was dropped, but students can now get credits through a “catch-all general studies program.”

Not mentioned at all is the key question: Have the graduates learned much of value?

Hat tip: Bruce Gans