Friday, October 29, 2010

US College Graduation Rates by Race by State - 2009 IPEDS

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Related Articles:
US College graduation Rate by Race by State - 2010 IPEDS
US College Graduation Rate by State for 2009-10 graduates
College Graduation Rates by State - 2009 Ranking
Data release: College Graduation Rates by State for 2008-09 graduates

Race in United States is a much debated topic. Tying race to discrimination is a sequel of historical events. The subsistence of the racism is continually disputed. The data revealed here is too limited to settle the disagreement. But we do hope the data can pointed to the weak spot in our education system and the solution with emphasis on personal obligation can be developed. In author's opinion, some of today's approach in improving minorities' education attainment is overreaching and is themselves racial biased and undermined the important principle of personal responsibility. Services should be made available to all regardless of race. It takes responsible person to seek helps. Which race group actually uses these services is not a racial issue.

Opinion aside, objective view of the data is definitely in order.

This analysis is based on the data released earlier by the CL Higher Education Center. The analysis dis-regard the non-residence alien. The US total also exclude US minor islands and territories.

The College Graduation Rates by Race for the US states are shown in table 1 while the table 2 shows the same data with the inclusion of US minor islands and territories with differences highlighted. The difference for Asian are mainly caused by the inclusion of the Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. The changes for Hispanic are the effect of including the Puerto Rico. The rest of the analysis would focus on the US states and Washington DC.

Table 1 - US states - including DC
SectorNativeAsianBlackHispanicWhiteTotal







Public 4Yr35%65%36%43%57%53%
NProfit 4Yr46%75%44%57%67%64%
Profit 4Yr41%42%31%43%40%38%
Public 2Yr17%25%12%16%23%20%
NProfit 2Yr23%51%46%47%55%51%
Profit 2Yr58%72%47%63%63%59%

Table 2 - With US minor islands and territories**
SectorNativeAsianBlackHispanicWhiteTotal







Public 4Yr35%64%36%43%57%53%
NProfit 4Yr46%75%44%43%67%63%
Profit 4Yr41%42%31%41%40%38%
Public 2Yr17%25%12%16%23%20%
NProfit 2Yr23%51%46%63%55%55%
Profit 2Yr58%72%47%61%63%59%


Fig. 1 shows the US average graduation rates by race by sector. In general, White and Asian stand out in the traditional institutions (Public and Private not-for-profit institutions). In other sectors, White and Asian college graduation rates are comparable to other races. Overall, the public two year sector shows the lowest college graduation rates for all races. Within each sector, the Black usually exhibit the lowest rate except at the public four year sector, where the Native American show the lowest college graduation rate. It is also interest to see that the private not-for-profit sectors have higher college graduation rates than their public counter parts.

Fig. 1 - US average graduation rates for each sector by race



Figure 2. present the same information as in Figure 1 except grouped by each race. Within all races, the private for-profit two year sector demonstrates high rates, only within White and Asian it seconds to the private not-for-profit four year sector.

Fig. 2 - US average college graduation rates for each race by sector


Figure 3 is an un-traditional display of a set of histogram for Asian. Each histogram/curve show the number of states at each graduation rate for a given sector. For example, there are 12 states that have college graduation rates for Asian greater than 55% and less than 60% for the public four year sector/curve while there are 9 states have college graduation rates greater than 30% and less than 35% for the private for-profit four year sector/curve.

Figure 3 demonstrates clearly that, for Asian, the average college graduation rates for each sector are representative except for the not-for-profit two year sector, where most of the states have a rate of 0% and rates are spread out without some kind of concentration or locality.

Fig. 3 - College graduation rate for Asian by sector


Figure 4 displayed similar information as in Figure 3 except it is for the Black. Even though the US average college graduation rate for the private not-for-profit four year sector is comparable to other sectors for Black, figure 4 shows that the rate varies a lot in regard to different states.

Fig. 4 - College graduation rate for Black by sector


Figure 5, 6 and 7 illustrate the same kind of information for Hispanic, Native American and White.

Fig. 5 - College graduation rate for Hispanic by sector


Fig. 6 - College graduation rate for Native American by sector


Fig. 7 - College graduation rate for White by sector


Figure 8 modeled after previous figures to display the college graduations rates for each race in the public four your sector. This chart clearly shows that the White and Asian are comparable except that there are some states where Asian exhibits higher rates.

Fig. 8 - College graduation rates for public four year sector by race


Figure 9 to 13 show the similar information as in Figure 8 for each sector.

Fig. 9 - College graduation rates for private not-for-profit four year sector by race


Fig. 10 - College graduation rates for private for-profit four year sector by race


Figure 11 is an very interested one. For one, this is the only one that all races are having good localities. Second of all, the White seems to be the one that is doing better even though the US average college going rates for public two year sector clearly show that the Asian is doing better than the White. The mystery is solved when dig deeper into the data. The data show that the high average college graduation rate for Asian in the public two year sector is caused by a single state with high Asian public two year sector enrollment, the California, which has a college graduation rate of 36% for Asian. This means that even though on average, Asian is doing good in public two year sector, it is not a Nation wide fact. It is also worth to note that the only state with meaningful high college graduation rates for the Native American is Wisconsin which enrolled 199 students. The other two states only enroll a total of 7 Native Americans. The other high rate state worth noting is the South Dakota, which post a rate of 64% for White.

Fig. 11 - College graduation rates for public two year sector by race


Figure 12 demonstrates that value of this kind of charts, where the meaning of average college graduation rates for private not-for-profit two year sector have very limited value.

Fig. 12 - College graduation rates for private not-for-profit two year sector by race


Fig. 13 - College graduation rates for private for-profit two year sector by race



**Updated on March 1, 2012.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

College Graduation Rates by State - 2009 Ranking

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Related Articles:
US College Graduation Rates by State for 2009-10 graduates
College Graduation Rates by State for 2008-09 graduates
US College Graduation Rates by Race by State - 2009 IPEDS

Due partly to the economic downturn, college enrollments throughout the United State are going up and President Obama's call for more higher education have been partly responded. However, to fully respond to Obama's call and the need of college graduates for our workforce, we need pay attentions to colleges' graduation rates.

To pursue that agenda, it is tempting to create integrated state rates and to rank states to draw public's attention.

It is, however, in our opinion, that we can achieving such a goal without getting into the complexity of producing an appropriately integrated state rates as outline in a tech. article.

For most states, only public higher education institutions are under the direct control of state or the public. It is, therefore, of importance to look at college graduation rates for public institutions instead of private colleges in a state.

Based on the published data, it is clear that there are very few public institutions that fall into categories of less-than-two year or non-degree-granting institutions. The two major categories are, then, the public four-year schools and the public two-year schools.

By running summarized statistics on this two groups of schools, we found that, statistically, they deserved to be compared in separate groups. As shown in the following 2 charts, almost all states have a graduation rate between 40 and 70% for public four year institutions and a graduation rate between 10 and 40% for public 2 year institutions.

Public 4 year institutions:


Public 2 year institutions:


Exception to the above rules are the District of Columbia, the state of Alaska and the state of South Dakota. The District of Columbia has a very low rate(11%) for public four year institutions. But our data also show that District of Columbia had very low public four year enrollment. Most of the enrollment at District of Columbia are in private not-for-profit institutions. The state of Alaska has hardly any other type of institutions except the four year public institutions. The four year public institution graduation rate is at a low 26%. As to the state of South Dakota, it simply have a very high graduation rate (61%) for its public two year institutions.

Ranking of the graduation rates for both the public 4 year institutions and public 2 year institutions are presented below:

For public four year institutions:
StateUS CohortUS GraduatesGraduation RatesRank





Iowa9,5266,52669%1
Virginia27,18718,57868%2
New Jersey15,46010,21566%3
New Hampshire4,7373,08165%4
California68,97744,59365%5
Delaware4,3672,78064%6
Maryland14,1328,90563%7
Washington15,5379,55061%8
Pennsylvania42,52426,03561%9
Vermont3,1621,92961%10
South Carolina14,2668,56560%11
Illinois25,35015,16760%12
Connecticut8,3234,97760%13
Michigan37,61222,36259%14
North Carolina27,89816,43859%15
Wisconsin24,95514,25757%16
Nebraska7,1964,00656%17
Minnesota16,2589,03856%18
Rhode Island3,5651,98056%19
Wyoming1,38076355%20
Kansas11,5226,36955%21
Massachusetts12,8367,08555%22
Arizona14,7218,12455%23
Missouri16,4949,00855%24
US Total903,647481,68753%
Oregon9,2324,90153%25
Colorado20,14010,65953%26
Mississippi7,6394,00752%27
Indiana30,45515,71452%28
New York44,64622,61851%29
Ohio44,58222,46550%30
Florida55,26426,51548%31
Maine3,9461,87247%32
Alabama16,9898,05647%33
North Dakota5,8882,78447%34
Tennessee15,7557,35247%35
Texas59,45627,40946%36
Georgia29,77113,43445%37
Kentucky16,6087,47045%38
West Virginia10,8404,82344%39
Montana5,2462,31644%40
South Dakota4,8202,11844%41
Oklahoma15,5806,54542%42
Hawaii2,4791,03742%43
Utah8,4203,47141%44
New Mexico6,5222,61140%45
Arkansas11,4954,41838%46
Louisiana23,8949,07638%47
Idaho4,6171,72437%48
Nevada5,8472,15337%49
Alaska2,03854026%50
District of Columbia2692911%51


For public two year institutions:
StateUS CohortGraduatesGraduation RateRank





South Dakota2,0861,28061%1
North Dakota1,16044638%2
Florida15,6695,76237%3
Alaska11436%4
Utah3,5381,19834%5
Wisconsin10,5863,58034%6
Iowa12,5944,08732%7
Kansas9,4353,01132%8
Wyoming2,17764129%9
Nebraska4,6681,32328%10
Minnesota16,5584,46227%11
Washington9,0382,31326%12
California89,28922,73325%13
Maine2,35259625%14
Mississippi16,6744,22425%15
New Hampshire1,71142525%16
Kentucky7,7541,91625%17
Georgia15,6643,86225%18
Montana1,36233324%19
Colorado6,8911,56823%20
Missouri12,4532,64421%21
Arkansas5,7891,21321%22
Alabama13,4982,82721%23
Idaho1,70735521%24
US Total601,982122,99620%
Illinois26,4875,19720%25
New York47,1589,24920%26
North Carolina18,1663,55020%27
Virginia15,2002,77018%28
Oklahoma7,6361,31417%29
Massachusetts11,8351,93116%30
New Jersey25,4643,99516%31
Arizona7,8651,20515%32
Louisiana6,02190715%33
Pennsylvania16,8232,51815%34
Michigan19,6692,89315%35
Oregon6,44788514%36
West Virginia2,55534714%37
New Mexico5,51273513%38
Maryland13,1691,75313%39
Ohio15,6382,03813%40
Hawaii2,24029113%41
Vermont1672012%42
Texas48,8935,66312%43
South Carolina11,8721,31611%44
Nevada6607311%45
Tennessee12,0901,31011%46
Connecticut5,45356110%47
Delaware1,99019410%48
Rhode Island1,9751769%49
Indiana5,6884538%50
District of Columbia000%51


As we all know, reasons for the rate variation are many. For example, the open access policy of institutions could easily affect the graduation rates. The posting and ranking of the state college graduation rates nevertheless provides the context for dialogs between citizen, policy makers and educators. Further research should help to reveal the favorable mechanism to improve college graduation rates.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

College Graduation Rates by State for 2008-09 graduates

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CL Higher Education Center

Related articles:
US College graduation Rates by State - 2009-10 Graduates

College Graduation Rates Ranking by State - 2008-09 Graduates
US College Graduation Rates by Race by State - 2009 IPEDS

The CL Higher Education Center just released the compiled state by state college graduation rate data for 2008-09 college graduates.

The released data is based on the 2009 Graduation Rate survey conducted by the IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) division of the National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES) of the US Department of Education.

The IPEDS Graduation Rate Survey is constructed to track only the full-time, first-time college freshmen students. Part-time, transfer-in or other type of students is not considered in the survey. Even though not all students are counted, the resulting rates can be considered a general quality indicator of the institution.

For academic year based (e.g. semester, quarter ... etc.) institutions, only the full-time, first-time students who begin their college enrollment in the fall term are considered. For year round or program based schools, all full-time first-time students are account for in the IPEDS college graduation rate survey.

The graduation rates compiled in this data release is most commonly referred to as the 150% rate, which considered a student graduated only if the student graduated from a program within 150% of the length of the program. For bachelor program, only students graduated within 6 years are considered graduated. Students that take longer to graduates are not factored into the 150% graduation rate. For detailed information about the IPEDS Graduation Rate survey please check out the IPEDS graduation rate survey material.

The compiled rates includes state rates for different types/sectors of institutions breaking down by race and gender. For the purpose of comparing, the aggregated rate do not include the non-resident alien which is included in the IPEDS survey.

Related articles will be posted later.

Sunday, October 03, 2010

Job outlook for college graduates - the supply and demand in Nebraska

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CL Higher Education Center

CL Higher Education Center has just released the data behind the 'workforce supply/demand higher education - Nebraska' report. The methodology is discussed in 'college workforce supply/demand - methodology'.

The released Excel workbook contains few worksheets. One for the oversupply academic programs and one for the under supply academic programs. Besides these two worksheets, there are worksheets that help reader look into how the oversupply and under-supply lists are derived.

In the case of oversupply academic programs, let's look at the academic program: 130301 - Curriculum and Instruction - Master Degree. If we look at the XWalk_ByCIP worksheet, we found that the only appropriate occupation for this CIP is the Instructional Coordinators. That occupation has an annual job opening of 37 while Nebraska colleges produced 523 graduates in the academic year of 2008-09.

An example for the under-supply academic program should provide enough exercises for reader to understand the result better. Look under the XWalk_ByCIP worksheet for the CIP of 521001, it is clear that seven occupations are appropriate for graduates from this CIP. The seven occupations provide a total of 340 job openings a year. By looking under the RvlCIP worksheet for this CIP, we notice that three of the seven occupations can also accept graduates from two other CIPs: 521005 and 521003. These 2 CIPs produce a total 5 graduates in the 2008-09 academic year. The net result is that there can have at least 335 job opening for our focus CIP of 521001. Since during the 2008-09 academic year, there were 226 Nebraska college graduates that are from this CIP, the net results is that there will be at least 109 jobs remain unfilled.

An interesting question to ask is what's the economic implication of all these?