The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center released a new report that examines the completion data for nearly 2.7 million students who entered college in the Fall of 2008. At a time when the visibility on student completion and calls for accountability at the institution level are at an all-time high, the statistics in the NSCRC report are daunting at best.
5 Major Findings for Student Completion
Finding #1: Overall completion rates declined. The total 6-year completion rate was 55%, down 1.1% from the 2007 cohort. Students who “stopped out or dropped out” without a degree or certificate increased 1.7% to 30.3 percent, or a total of over 800,000 students. By contrast, completion rates are up for students enrolling in 4-year privates.
Finding #2: Declines observed mostly in older and part-time students. Completion rates for students who waited until age 20-24 to pursue a college education fell to 38.3%, down 2.6 percentage points. Older students (over age 24 when entering) also experienced a drop in completion rates at 42.1%
Finding #3: Completion rates declined for students who started at 2-year public institutions. Regardless of whether a student went on to complete a degree at a 4-year institution or remained at a 2-year institution, completion rates fell. Most of the students who did not complete a four-year degree also did not first obtain a two-year degree. The report specifically points out that traditional graduation rates do not account for this type of student pathway from a 2-year institution to a 4-year degree, even though it is a common course for degree-seeking students.
Finding #4: Completion rates for students who started at 4-year for-profit institutions declined sharply. The 6-year completion rate for these students is down almost 4% to 42.3%. Almost 50% of students “stopped out or dropped out” without a degree or certificate, but this does not account for non-degree seeking adult learners. The number of students in this group increased dramatically, which the report cites as likely tied to pursuing education as a reaction to the 2007 recession. Some of the students who “stopped out or dropped out” could have done so because of improved job conditions as the economy recovered.
Finding #5: Eight-year completions top 60% for the 2006 Cohort. New data available on students who entered an institution beginning in the Fall of 2006 showed a 6% increase in completions over the 6-year tally. Most of the students who required the additional two years to complete a degree did so at a different institution. Part-time students saw an even bigger leap in the 8-year results, showing a 22% increase in completion versus the 6-year mark. Similarly, adult learners (starting education at over age 24) showed a 6% increase in completion versus the 6-year data.
Two Compelling Reasons to take a Larger Perspective on Student Success
The report digs deeper into the data to draw two very compelling conclusions to better inform the larger perspective on student completion and student success:
- Students’ post-secondary education ‘pathways’ become significantly more complex the longer a student remains engaged in pursuing a certificate or degree. As such, better measures are needed to capture those complex variations and how they impact overall completion data.
- Performance-based funding hasn’t had the intended positive impact on completion rates, with some cases showing performance-based funding initiatives being tied to a decrease in completion rates after 5+ years. These data “strongly suggest that selecting appropriate indicators for measuring institutional performance is crucial to the successful implementation of an outcomes-based funding approach”.
How can institutions take a larger perspective to influence student completion?
Simply put, institutions need to take a holistic view of student success. We propose starting with these four questions:
- Why is institutional leadership vital to a climate to support student success at every level of an institution?
- How can institutional culture create an environment conducive to enhancing the success of students?
- Where is the ‘student’ in student learning?
- How can institutions be fully engaged in student engagement?
How do you think institutions can take proactive measures to improve completion rates?
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