Counting and not counting for the community
college
Pieces of the background tapestry for
judging “graduation rates”
Cliff Adelman, Institute for Higher Education Policy
Who is/is not counted, I: proportion entering
in the fall term
Fall Wint./Spring Summer
4-year 92% 4% 4%
Community 75 18 7
college
Other sub- 60 23 17
bacc
Who is/is not counted, II: the part-time factor
Percent part-time at some
point in 1st year
4-year 37%
Community college 67
Other sub-bacc 43
Relationship of season of entrance to part-
time experience in 1st calendar year
Fall Term Other terms
4-year 35% 55%
Community 66 72
college
Other sub-bacc 39 49
What happens to traditional-age community
college beginners if everyone is counted?
Transferred + bachelor’s degree 17%
Transfer w/AA, still working on 2
bachelor’s
Transferred, no AA, still working on bach 3
Transferred, but no longer in school 6
No transfer, but terminal associate’s 10
No transfer, but terminal certificate 5
No transfer, no credential, but >10 credits 36
No transfer, no credential, 1 course 29%
Transfer rate for those with >10 creds 36%
Proportion of status drop-outs who had been
placed on academic probation or dismissed
for academic reasons at any time 24%
Primary reason for non-completion given by
community college status drop-outs
Personal / family 35%
Job / military 19
Mood / lifestyle 19
Financial 18
Academic 6
Other 2
What do we conclude from all this?
The current GRS covers about 1/3rd of traditional-
age community college beginners
The 150% TTD marker bears no resemblance to
empirical behavior
Older beginning students track radically different
records than traditional-age students.
No matter what they say, we have a significant
portion of community college students with serious
academic problems and loose commitments to
education
Telling an honest story without Unit
Records: changing the GRS formula
Define an academic calendar year, and establish 3 tracking
cohorts within that year
The first 2 tracking cohorts divide BPS students by age—
keeping it simple---and require a minimum of 6 credits (of
any kind) in 1st term of attendance, thus excluding incidental
students and de facto visitors and tourists
The 3rd cohort consists of transfers-in.
Completion rates for the 3 cohorts reported separately
A 4th bin for “good faith effort” accounts for all who did not
complete with the reporting institution
Censoring dates for cohort reporting
2 years 4 years 6 years 8 years
Bachelor’s Optional X X
granting
Associate’s X X
granting
LT Associate’s X X
Transfer-in X X
cohort
Community college reporting bins
For each of two age groups (bins 1 and 2):
transferred to a 4-year institution
no transfer, but Associate’s degree
no transfer, but Certificate
For transfers in (bin 3)
Ave. transfer credits accepted
Associate’s degree
Certificate
“Good Faith Hunting” for residuals in each of the two age groups
(bins 1 and 2):
Left, not located
Left, transferred to another 2-year
What do we get?
Part-timers, but not incidentals
Transfers-in
Your brother-in-law distinguished from your
daughter
Realistic two-stop temporal frames
Single reporting date for both tracking cohorts and
completions / locatings
90 percent of the universe, compared with 50 percent
now. But don’t expect completion rates to increase.