News & Resources
By Jeff Selingo
The way students go to college now makes the government’s measure less useful than ever.
By Eric Kelderman
Knowing more about students can help colleges do what it takes to help them graduate. Easier said than done.
By Goldie Blumenstyk
The federal rate’s flaws loom especially large for proprietary colleges. But are their alternatives more marketing than metric?
By Sara Lipka
Transfers, people who take a year off, and part-time students – all a growing group of enrollees – are not included in national data about who finishes college.
By Judith Ramaley
Seven higher-education experts assess the meaning behind the measurements.
Previous Chronicle Coverage of Graduation Rates
Opinion
By Kevin Carey, April 11, 2010
We need sensible transfer standards to ensure acknowledgment of students’ completed course work.
By Lorelle L. Espinosa, December 12, 2010
What’s needed are prominent allies that have a vested interest in seeing more postsecondary credentials go to those young people and adults who have often been out of higher education’s reach.
By Sara Goldrick-Rab, September 9, 2009
it’s possible that students are more likely to graduate from career colleges. But they graduate with a lot more debt.
By Diane Auer Jones, April 11, 2010
In general, those numbers correlate more closely to student socioeconomic status and family situation than they do to institutional type, sector, or quality.
Reports
By Eric Hoover, January 12, 2011
Graduation rates matter to politicians and college presidents. But how much do they matter to parents of prospective applicants?
By Beckie Supiano, February 2, 2011
An annual report from the U.S. Education Department also examines what first-time, full-time students who received grants paid for college.
By Jennifer Gonzalez, August 9, 2010
The Education Trust’s reports look at individual colleges where the gaps are particularly large or small.
By Andrea Fuller, April 14, 2010
Institutions need to get college administrators and faculty members focused on student success and offer students individualized help, says a report.
By Ashley Marchand, April 6, 2010
An annual report from the department with statistics for 2008 finds that increasing numbers of students are not reflected by increasing numbers of graduates.
By David Glenn, December 7, 2009
The primary reason college-completion rates have declined is not underprepared students but insufficient resources at less-selective colleges.
By Austin Wright, June 3, 2009
Graduation rates vary widely among colleges grouped by selectivity, especially among the least-competitive institutions, the study found.
By Elyse Ashburn, March 11, 2009
The statistics show wide variation in graduation rates among different groups of students.
Chronicle Analysis
By Jeffrey Brainard and Andrea Fuller, December 5, 2010
Campus officials cite competing priorities, longer time to degree, and students’ difficult financial straits.
By David Glenn, December 6, 2010
It is a deeply flawed measure of college performance, but it is also one of the best we have.
By David Glenn, September 14, 2009
Why are some public universities’ graduation rates stronger than others’?
By Jennifer Gonzalez, October 24, 2010
But the reality of identifying, tracking down, and persuading former students to return is complicated, not to mention time-consuming.
By Elyse Ashburn, April 18, 2010
Leaders of the institution had a radical idea: Build a new community college, one that is focused on graduation rates.
By Libby Nelson, April 11, 2010
Tennessee, for example, has devised new measures to tie its financial support for public colleges to their graduation rates. It’s a start.
Obama’s 2020 Goal
By Kelly Field, May 1, 2009
President Obama’s goals for higher education are ambitious but attainable, and U.S. colleges need to do their part to control costs, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in an interview.
By Sara Hebel, July 14, 2009
President Obama has called on the nation’s community colleges to produce five million more graduates by the year 2020.
By Sara Hebel, September 21, 2010
The states must increase the number of college degrees granted by nearly 280,000 a year, each year, to have 60 percent of adults hold degrees by 2025.
By Libby Nelson, March 2, 2010
Participating states will be required to set yearly goals for improvement and to publicly report data on their progress.
By Jennifer Gonzalez, April 18, 2010
A big topic for college leaders is how to meet the president’s goal of having millions more complete their degrees.
By Andrea Fuller, May 11, 2010
At a time of anxiety in the for-profit sector, the education secretary emphasizes the colleges’ “vital role” in job training.
By Jennifer Gonzalez, May 25, 2010
President Obama, who wants the United States to have more college degrees than any other nation by 2020, has issued a challenge to improve the 30-percent dropout rate.
By Goldie Blumenstyk, May 26, 2010
The education secretary said he hopes to reallocate money from other federal programs to encourage colleges to contain costs and improve graduation rates.
By Jeffrey J. Selingo, July 11, 2010
The National Governors Association’s new chairman announced a plan to create a common set of measures to monitor progress and compare states’ achievements.
By Eric Kelderman, December 13, 2010
Federal, state, and college leaders must commit to collaborate, a report says, and colleges must put more focus on controlling costs and improving instruction.
Resources on College Graduation Rates and Other Completion Information
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), is the source of official graduation rate information, as well as a variety of other data points for students, faculty, and institutions.
nces.ed.gov/ipeds
The Voluntary System of Accountability centers graduation statistics on the student rather than the university with its Student Success and Progress Rate, providing a more accurate picture of college completion.
Details on the Voluntary System of Accountability:
voluntarysystem.org
Methods used to create the Student Success and Progress rate:
voluntarysystem.org/docs/cp/SP_Methodology.pdf (PDF)
More specifics on the source data from the National Student Clearinghouse:
studentclearinghouse.org/colleges/studenttracker/vsa.php
College Portraits, the website with a full accounting of the VSA’s data collection efforts:
collegeportraits.org
Limited information is available for many students who don’t fit into the traditional first-time, full-time mold. Complete College America provides graduation summaries for 33 participating states, including overall rates for part-time students and those who have taken remedial courses.
completecollege.org