Three Schools Rank Among Nation?s Best In Graduation Success - AmericaEast.com
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The NCAA released its most recent Graduation Success Rate (GSR) data this afternoon, and three America East schools earned overall GSR scores of over 90. Additionally, nearly one-third of all America East teams received perfect scores.
University of New Hampshire achieved a GSR of 95, while Boston University and University of Vermont each earned scores of 94. University at Albany had the largest improvement of any of the conference’s schools with a six-point jump from last year’s data. The Great Danes received an 85 after scoring 79 last year.
The GSR data indicates the number of student-athletes earning a degree within six years. The NCAA developed the GSR to more accurately assess the academic success of student-athletes. The GSR, unlike the federal graduation rate, holds the institution accountable for transfer students. The GSR also accounts for midyear enrollees and is calculated for every sport.
The GSR for student-athletes who began college in 2003, the latest data just released, is 79 percent. Eight of nine America East institutions met or exceeded the national rate of graduation.
“America East member institutions are as much dedicated to the education and graduation of its student-athletes as they are to athletic success, and this data is evidence of all that hard work,” said America East Commissioner Patrick Nero. “The conference is proud of the achievements of all of its student-athletes and believes that a college degree is the ultimate accomplishment.”
“Our work toward enhancing the opportunities for student-athletes to be successful academically isn’t finished, but we continue to make progress,” stressed NCAA President Mark Emmert, who took over as NCAA president Oct. 5 after a lengthy career as a university president and chancellor at multiple Division I institutions. “Our student-athletes are engaged on their campuses, they are competing hard in all that they do, and there are achieving important successes on and off the field and court.”
Forty America East squads achieved perfect GSRs, nearly one-third of the 122 conference teams accounted for in the data. Vermont had the highest number of perfect scores with nine America East teams earning a 100, including women’s basketball, women’s lacrosse and women’s soccer. UNH and Boston University each notched six squads competing in conference with perfect scores.
Of the America East’s 18 basketball squads, five were perfect, including the men’s basketball team at Binghamton University and the women’s basketball teams at Boston U., University of Hartford, UMBC and Vermont.
The Graduation Success Rate was developed by the NCAA as part of its academic reform initiative to more accurately measure the academic success of Division I student-athletes by better accounting for the many different academic paths followed by today’s college students.
Under the GSR calculation, institutions are not penalized for outgoing transfer students who leave in good academic standing. These outgoing transfers are essentially passed to the receiving institution’s GSR cohort. The NCAA also calculates the federal graduation rate for student-athletes, because it is the only rate to compare student-athletes to the general student body.
The most recent Graduation Success Rates are based on the four entering freshmen classes in Division I from 2000-2001 through 2003-04. There are almost 105,000 student-athletes included in the most recent four classes using the GSR methodology, as compared to just slightly fewer than 77,000 in the federal rate. This year marks the ninth year of GSR data that have been collected. The NCAA began collecting GSR data with the entering freshman class of 1995. The latest entering class for which data are available is 2003.