Re: data on college graduation rates

["C. Ellen Peters" <cpeters@bates.edu>]

ACT collects data on graduation and retention rates; the link below will 
connect you to several .pdf reports with trends in grad rates:    
http://www.act.org/path/policy/reports/retain.html

Postsecondary institutions that receive any federal financial aid are 
also required to report significant and detailed data to the National 
Center for Education Statistics (NCES) through the Integrated 
Postsecondary Eduction Data System each year.  Their Graduation Rates 
survey has been active for almost a decade.  It measures completion of 
first time full-time students within 1.5 times the "normal" rate.  So, 
at a 4-year college, anyone who graduates within six years counts.  The 
total number of entering first time full time students is the 
denominator, and the number who graduate within six years is the numerator:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2006155

I hope this is helpful. 

Ellen Peters



> In a message dated 4/10/2006 8:26:40 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
> campbellp@mail.montclair.edu writes:
>
>     Can anyone point me to some reliable sources or studies 
>     on the drop-out/graduation rate at public and private 4-year 
>     universities as a whole? How does this translate into lost dollars 
>     per year?