Oct. 24, 2013
THE FLATS – The Graduation Success Report released today by the NCAA reveals that Georgia Tech’s student-athlete Graduation Success Rate (GSR) rose to 79 percent, an all-time high for Yellow Jacket athletics.
GSR is the NCAA’s metric for measuring graduation rates of scholarship student-athletes. For this most recent score, the 2006-07 student-athlete freshmen class is combined with the three previous years’ freshman classes to compile Georgia Tech’s Student-Athlete Graduation Success Rate of 79 percent. The Institute’s overall Federal Graduation Rate for the same time period for all students is 79 percent. Last year’s GSR was 76 percent.
“We are pleased with the continued progress and upward trend of our GSR,” athletic director Mike Bobinski said. “The emphasis placed on improving our `retention’ and `eligibility’ metrics each semester is reflected in these enhanced Graduation results. I am proud of the hard work and effort our student-athletes put into their academic endeavors and the commitment of our coaches and academic support team to their success.”
Some details:
• Ten of Tech’s combined 13 GSR sports saw their GSR increase or remain the same [baseball, men’s basketball, men’s and women’s track/CC, football, golf, men’s and women’s swimming/diving, women’s tennis and volleyball].
• Women’s tennis and volleyball joined golf and women’s swimming/diving with perfect 100% GSR (four-year average).
• Men’s basketball more than doubled its preceding GSR and now sits at 40 percent. The previously low GSR was due largely to many of the student-athletes pursuing professional athletics, not meeting NCAA degree requirements and prior to graduating. Look for men’s basketball GSR to steadily improve in the next few years as more current players complete their degrees or go professional with stronger academic status. Recent graduates like Mo Miller, Lance Storrs and Mfon Udofia have yet to be included in men’s basketball GSR. Forecast: continued increases.
• Football scored a new GSR high mark of 63%. Stand-alone, the 2006-07 football GSR freshman class had a graduation success rate of 73%.
GSR Background:
GSR definition/explanation: GSR measures graduation rates at Division I institutions and includes students transferring into the institutions. The GSR also allows institutions to exclude student-athletes who leave their institutions prior to graduation (ex: go professional, or transfer) as long as they would have been academically eligible to compete had they remained.
GSR is often compared to the Federal Graduation Rate. The federal rate does NOT factor transfers IN or transfers OUT who leave eligible. Essentially the federal rate treats all transfers out as graduation failures. The NCAA believes the GSR is a more accurate and useful measurement of graduation success.
The period of time for inclusion for both graduation metrics is six years from initial full-time enrollment.
– GSR Cohort (4-year average) = Averages four consecutive incoming classes on their graduation success.
– Each student has six years from their start date to complete their degree. 2012-13 Cohort consists of GT students who started full time in the follow years: (1)2003-04, (2)2004-05, (3)2005-06, (4)2006-07 GSR is just one part of the NCAA’s Academic reform. This three-part system consists of new standards, both initial eligibility and progress toward degree; new metrics, the APR and the GSR; and new consequences through APR penalties. These three taken together are the essential pieces of academic reform.
