With too many of its students dropping out, the California State University system has a new plan to boost graduation rates and close the achievement gap for underrepresented students. Chancellor Charles Reed will discuss the plan in more detail at the CSU Trustees’ meeting this Wednesday, according to a university press release.
The plan on Wednesday’s agenda is light on the details, but this much is clear: CSU is calling for its 23 campuses to bring their six-year freshman graduation rates into alignment with other top-ranked national universities.
The initiative will include targets for transfer students, as well as incoming freshman, with the overall goal of increasing the system's graduation rate by 8 percent by 2016, the chancellor's office said. Individual CSU campuses already in the top quartile of national graduation rates are being asked to increase their rates by an extra 6 percent.
The national graduate rate for four-year universities was 53% for the class that started college in fall 2001, USA Today reported in a story last summer. Below, you can see graduation rates for CSU campuses, some of which far exceed the national average (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo) and some of which trail it by double-digit percentage points (Cal State Los Angeles).
These figures represent the percentage of first-time freshmen – that started in fall 2002 – that graduated within six years. Keep in mind that this rate doesn’t take into account students who transfer into the CSU system from another institution, such as a community college. Still, these are the figures that CSU will focus on improving.
Download the reports for yourself on the CSU web site. Or, check out a list of graduation rates for all four-year universities for the Fall 2001 class in the “Diplomas and Dropouts” report by the American Enterprise Institute.
Channel Islands is not included because the school did not begin reporting information until 2003.
Systemwide: 49%
Bakersfield: 45%
Chico: 56%
Dominguez Hills: 34%
East Bay: 44%
Fresno: 48%
Fullerton: 49%
Humboldt: 42%
Long Beach: 55%
Los Angeles: 31%
Maritime Academy: 62%
Monterey Bay: 39%
Northridge: 41%
Pomona: 50%
Sacramento: 42%
San Bernardino: 44%
San Diego: 61%
San Francisco: 44%
San Jose: 41%
San Luis Obispo: 69%
San Marcos: 45%
Sonoma: 50%
Stanislaus: 53%
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