Gallaudet's Graduation Rate. How Bad Is It?

Gallaudet's low graduation rate has been frequently referred to, particularly in the Associated Press article about the Board's decision, with the phrase "persistently fewer than 50 percent of undergraduates get their diplomas."

Wondering how bad Gallaudet's graduation rate is in comparison with other colleges, I did some research. What I found is that first, Gallaudet's graduation rate is indeed low. Second, Gallaudet's graduation rate is apparently not as bad as the graduation rates of some other colleges. A pattern that emerged from my research was that the more "big name" the college, the better the graduation rate was. Public colleges tended to have much lower graduation rates.

What are the possible reasons for the lower graduation rates of Gallaudet and other public colleges? Could it be finances? I asked someone why he thought people did not graduate from Gallaudet, and finances were one reason. Lack of academic readiness? Years ago Gallaudet terminated the prep program after the rubella baby bulge enrollment surge ended. Does Gallaudet need a prep program again, or should students be required to attend community college if they are not academically ready for Gallaudet? The only problem I have with that is that I wonder how well a struggling deaf student can do in a community college with interpreters. Is it transferring out, as there is a lot of back-and-forth transferring between Gallaudet and NTID?

Some transferring out is normal, but I noticed in one of my research sources that transfer rates were reported separately. It looks like transfer students are not counted when calculating the graduation rate. I made this conclusion based on the explanation of graduation rate and transfer rate given by one of the research sites (IPEDS):

Graduation rates are a measure of the success of students in attaining their educational goals. A graduation rate is the percentage of students in a given entering cohort (group) who graduated within a specified period of time. The number of students in the entering cohort is the denominator of the rate; the number of students graduating is the numerator of the rate. The entering cohort of an institution includes all full-time, first-time degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduate students who began in the stated cohort year. The time period is 150% of normal time to program completion (for example, for a four-year program, the graduation rate would include students who had graduated within six years of beginning the program).

Transfer-out rates are the total number of students in the entering cohort who are known to have transferred to another institution within 150% of normal time to program completion, divided by the cohort.

Research Sources and Results

The data from the much-discussed PART report (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/expectmore/detail.10003306.2005.html) was based in part on data from two other sites, Ed.gov for Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) data and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) (http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/).

Ed.Gov

For Gallaudet University on Ed.gov (http://www.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/2005plan/edlite-eda-gallaudet.html), here is the data for undergradate graduation rates:

1998...41%
1999..42%
2000.. 41%
2001...41%
2002...42%
2003..42%
2004...42%

I compared Gallaudet to NTID (http://www.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/2005plan/edlite-eda-nationaltech.html). Here is the data for undergraduate graduation rates:

1997...50%
1998...51%
1999..53%
2000..53%
2001...54%
2002..57%
2003..56%
2004..56%

I noted that the NTID data was divided into overall, sub-B.S., and B.S. The data above is from the overall column.

The only other college report found on Ed.gov was Howard University
(a historically black college, at http://www.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/2005plan/edlite-howard.html). Here is the data for Howard's undergraduate graduation rates:

1997...49%
1998..40.90%
1999..46.10%
2000..48.70%
2001..51.30%
2002..48.80%
2003...54.80%

IPEDS

Next, I decided to look on the IPEDS site for overall graduation rates for other Washington, DC colleges. This data was for undergraduates who began in 1999 as freshmen. Data was viewed by searching for colleges, then clicking the More Information link at the top of each college's summary page. On the more detailed page that appeared, I clicked on the menu item "Retention/Graduation Rates." Some result pages carried the warning that there is insufficient data for reliable estimates.

DC Colleges

American University..71%

Catholic University of America..70%

Gallaudet University..28%

George Washngton University..78%

Georgetown University..93%

Howard University..67%

University of the District of Columbia..13% (Yes, much worse than Gallaudet)

Other Colleges

I wanted to check for NTID on IPEDS, but there was only Rochester Institute of Technology with an overall graduation rate of 53%.

Finally, I ended my research on IPEDS by looking at one college (usually public) in each of a handful of state capitals. This is when the pattern of public colleges doing more poorly became apparent. Most of the ones I looked at were worse than Gallaudet.

Alabama..Alabama State University..overall graduation rate 23%

Alaska..University of Alaska Southeast...19%

Arizona...DeVry University...37%

Arkansas..University of Arkansas, Little Rock..21%

California..California State University, Sacramento..41%