FYI, In
case you didn’t have time to look at this one yourself. Everyone
who has had to “defend” ASU’s graduation rate (which is
actually STELLAR considering the wonderful low-income students we serve) will
want a copy of this article in her/his arsenal. Perhaps someone appropriate
in administration would want to send a copy to the right people at the Advertiser, etc. -- Dr. D.
From
Diverse Online
Current News
Graduation Rates Drop As
Schools Take On More Low-income Students
By Ibram Rogers
Nov 29, 2006, 08:37
Graduation rates drop systematically as the size of an
institution’s low-income student population increases, even at selective
four-year colleges and universities, according to a recently released report
from the U.S. Department of Education’s
The report, “Placing College Graduation Rates in Context:
How 4-Year College Graduation Rates Vary With Selectivity,” also found
variations in graduation rates by gender and race across the comparison groups.
“The purpose of this study was to provide a context for
comparing graduation rates among ‘similar’ institutions,” the
report states. Studies have shown that “high school academic preparation
and measures of socioeconomic status such as family income and parent’s
education are highly predictive of degree attainment. Therefore, a more
in-depth picture of graduation rates may be gained by comparing institutions
that are similar with respect to the characteristics of their student bodies,
rather than by making comparisons across all institutions.”
Researchers compared the six-year 2004 graduation rates among
1,301 four-year colleges and universities. Institutions were grouped by their
selectivity levels (very, moderately, minimally) within Carnegie
classifications (doctoral, master’s and bachelor’s). Within each of
these groups, the colleges were sub-grouped according to the low-income
enrollment size (small, moderate, large) in the graduation rate cohort.
Within these groups, the graduation rates were directly and
inversely related to the size of the low-income population. For instance, the
2004 graduation rate for those with small low-income enrollments was 69
percent, while the rates for the moderate and large enrollments were 57 percent
and 44 percent, respectively.
The study also found that the proportion of Black or Hispanic
students in the 1998 freshman cohorts used for the study increased as
low-income enrollment increased. For example, Blacks made up 29 percent of the
freshman class among baccalaureate institutions with large low-income
enrollments, and just 2 percent among institutions with small low-income
enrollments.
Moreover, of the four-year institutions included in the study, 319
(about 25 percent) were considered low-income serving. These institutions, the
study found, were more likely to have religious affiliations, be minimally
selective, have large proportions of Black and Hispanic students and smaller
undergraduate full-time-equivalent enrollment. Just over 20 percent of these
low-income institutions were HBCUs.
The 2004 median graduation rate for low-income serving
institutions was 39 percent, compared to 56 percent for other institutions.
Despite the low median graduation rate, some low-income serving
institutions, including five HBCUs, were described in the study as “high
performing” because they graduate a high proportion of their students.
“The 2004 graduation rate for
The other “high performing” HBCUs included: Fisk
University (63.8) in the moderately selective bachelor’s group, North
Carolina Central University (50.5) and Xavier University of Louisiana (48.4) in
the minimally selective master’s group, and Mills College (72.4) in the
minimally selective bachelor’s group.
Finally, in terms of gender, the average 2004 graduation rate for
women was 60 percent — 6 percentage points higher than that of men. And
generally, the study found that as the number of low-income students increased,
this gap widened.
“This study makes no attempt to determine the reasons
certain institutions were more successful with respect to graduation rates than
other low-income serving institutions,” the study says. “Rather,
the purpose is simply to point out that some institutions are graduating
relatively large proportions of students while serving large economically
disadvantaged populations.”
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
Rev. Dr. E-K. Daufin, Professor
Department of Communications
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