Statistics from the U.S. Department of Education may indicate that graduation rates have more to do with individual students than their respective universities.
According to a 2006 report released by the department, graduation rates are “directly and inversely related to the size of [a university’s] low-income population.” The report also indicates that more selective universities have higher graduation rates.
The percentage of Pell Grant recipients and median SAT scores were considered for low-income and selectivity statistics, respectively.
On Sept. 7, the Daily 49er reported that GradRate.com, created and operated by author and entrepreneur David Happe, placed Cal State Long Beach on its “Hall of Shame” list because of low four-year graduation rates.
President F. King Alexander has dismissed this website as a “poorly educated operation,” in a statement.
“Rich children, from rich families, attending rich institutions, where students do not have to work, are the most likely to finish in four years,” he said in an e-mail. According to Alexander, 80 percent of students at CSULB work.
CSULB has modest six-year graduation rate at 54 percent — 7 percent higher than the average Cal State University. Its four-year rate at 12.5 percent — 2 percent lower than the average CSU — is a reflection of the university’s selectivity and size of low-income population.
During the 2007-08 school year, 36 percent of CSULB freshmen were Pell Grant recipients and the university boasts slightly high median SAT scores at 1,015.
However, according to data compiled from The Education Trust, CSUs with a 2007-08 freshmen Pell Grant population ranging from 32 to 39 percent had a graduation rate of 12.9 percent. And, CSUs with median SAT scores ranging from 1000 to 1,050 had a graduation rate of 16.2 percent.
Graduation rates, nevertheless, may indicate a larger social problem not reflecting the quality of education at CSULB.
The Department of Education’s 2006 report indicated an 18 percent gap in graduation rates between white and black students and a 12 percent gap between white and Hispanic students.
The report also asserts that this gap “narrowed as the size of the low-income population increased.”
The University of California, the more selective of California’s two state schools, has median SAT scores of 1,194 and only a 29 percent Pell Grant recipient population.
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