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Recommendation Nine
Dramatically increase college completion rates
Recommendation documents
 

Recommendation Nine

We Recommend...

that institutions of higher education set out to dramatically increase college completion rates by improving retention, easing transfer among institutions and implementing data-based strategies to identify retention and dropout challenges.

Core indicators for this recommendation
  • Freshman-to-Sophomore Retention
    Most Recent Estimate
    As of 2008
    60%
    of full-time freshmen at public two-year colleges return for the sophomore year.
    1.0ppts
    2007-08
    View details for this indicator
  • Graduation Rates of Associate Degree– and Certificate-Seeking Students
    Most Recent Estimate
    As of 2008
    27.5%
    of full-time degree- or certificate-seeking students at two-year colleges graduate in three years or less.
    No change
    2007-08
    View details for this indicator
  • Graduation Rates of Bachelor’s Degree-Seeking Students
    Most Recent Estimate
    As of 2008
    57.7%
    of full-time bachelor’s degree-seeking students at four-year colleges graduate in six years or less.
    No change
    2007-08
    View details for this indicator
  • Degrees Awarded at Colleges and Universities
    Most Recent Estimate
    As of 2009
    36%
    of associate degrees has increased 36 percent from 1,159,550 in 2001 to 1,577,136 in 2009.
    View details for this indicator
 
 
Massachusetts
public two-year and four-year colleges are required by law to report annually to the governor and the legislature on a variety of higher education performance measures, including student success.
South Dakota, New York
require community college students to demonstrate that they are academically prepared for upper level course work. The benefit of this policy is that it monitors academic progress and ensures that students are acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge across all institutions in the state.
Arkansas
charged the Legislative Task Force on Higher Education Remediation, Retention and Graduation Rates with researching and analyzing Arkansas trends and data on student success, and compiling best practices for decreasing remedial education and increasing student retention and graduation.

How We Assemble Our Indicators

  • The indicators are rigorous
  • The indicators are measureable on a regular basis
  • The indicators have the ability to be disaggregated
Learn about the commission’s criteria to select indicators