The NCAA national office will be releasing the latest round of GSR and federal graduation rate data on Tuesday, Oct. 14, at 2 p.m. Eastern. The following story will provide background information for schools to use in release to their media outlets.
Official Release (Embargoed until 2 p.m. Eastern)2008 NCAA Graduation Success Rate Backgrounder KEY BACKGROUND ON GRADUATION SUCCESS RATE • The Graduation Success Rate was developed by the NCAA as part of its academic reform initiative to more accurately assess the academic success of student-athletes.
• The GSR holds institutions accountable for transfer students, unlike the federal graduation rate. The GSR also accounts for midyear enrollees and is calculated for every sport.
• 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.
• By counting incoming transfer students and midyear enrollees, the GSR increases the total number of student-athletes tracked for graduation by more than 37 percent.
• The NCAA also calculates the federal graduation rate for student-athletes, because it is the only rate by which 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 1998-99 through 2001-02.
• There are almost 100,000 student-athletes included in the most recent four classes using the GSR methodology, as compared to just over 72,000 counted in the federal rate.
• This year marks the sixth year that GSR data 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 2001.
KEY DETAILS ON GSR ROLLOUT
• The next round of GSR data will be released on Tuesday, Oct. 14. Data released will include GSR figures for each of the 329 Division I colleges and universities and their sports teams. The NCAA will also release Division II Academic Success Rate (similar to the Division I GSR) and federal graduation rate on Oct. 14.
• While the NCAA uses the GSR as the primary measurement now for overall academic achievement, it is also releasing on Tuesday the most recent federal graduation rate data for institutions and their sports teams.
• Division I college and universities already have access to their own GSR and federal graduation rate data on campus. Confidential links to aggregate data at a national level will be provided on Monday, Oct. 13, to each institution’s president, athletics director, FAR, SWA, compliance coordinator, along with conference commissioners and the Collegiate Commissioners Association Compliance Administrators (CCACA).
• The information is confidential until released by the NCAA on Tuesday, Oct. 14. The data will be made available to national media at 1 p.m. Eastern, with an embargo of 2 p.m. Eastern, when the data will be made public via the NCAA website.
• The NCAA will hold a national telephonic press conference at 2 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, Oct. 14, with NCAA President Myles Brand; Walter Harrison, president of the University of Hartford and chair of the NCAA Committee on Academic Performance; and select NCAA staff members.