College Graduation Rates by State - 2009 Ranking

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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:

State	US Cohort	US Graduates	Graduation Rates	Rank
Iowa	9,526	6,526	69%	1
Virginia	27,187	18,578	68%	2
New Jersey	15,460	10,215	66%	3
New Hampshire	4,737	3,081	65%	4
California	68,977	44,593	65%	5
Delaware	4,367	2,780	64%	6
Maryland	14,132	8,905	63%	7
Washington	15,537	9,550	61%	8
Pennsylvania	42,524	26,035	61%	9
Vermont	3,162	1,929	61%	10
South Carolina	14,266	8,565	60%	11
Illinois	25,350	15,167	60%	12
Connecticut	8,323	4,977	60%	13
Michigan	37,612	22,362	59%	14
North Carolina	27,898	16,438	59%	15
Wisconsin	24,955	14,257	57%	16
Nebraska	7,196	4,006	56%	17
Minnesota	16,258	9,038	56%	18
Rhode Island	3,565	1,980	56%	19
Wyoming	1,380	763	55%	20
Kansas	11,522	6,369	55%	21
Massachusetts	12,836	7,085	55%	22
Arizona	14,721	8,124	55%	23
Missouri	16,494	9,008	55%	24
US Total	903,647	481,687	53%
Oregon	9,232	4,901	53%	25
Colorado	20,140	10,659	53%	26
Mississippi	7,639	4,007	52%	27
Indiana	30,455	15,714	52%	28
New York	44,646	22,618	51%	29
Ohio	44,582	22,465	50%	30
Florida	55,264	26,515	48%	31
Maine	3,946	1,872	47%	32
Alabama	16,989	8,056	47%	33
North Dakota	5,888	2,784	47%	34
Tennessee	15,755	7,352	47%	35
Texas	59,456	27,409	46%	36
Georgia	29,771	13,434	45%	37
Kentucky	16,608	7,470	45%	38
West Virginia	10,840	4,823	44%	39
Montana	5,246	2,316	44%	40
South Dakota	4,820	2,118	44%	41
Oklahoma	15,580	6,545	42%	42
Hawaii	2,479	1,037	42%	43
Utah	8,420	3,471	41%	44
New Mexico	6,522	2,611	40%	45
Arkansas	11,495	4,418	38%	46
Louisiana	23,894	9,076	38%	47
Idaho	4,617	1,724	37%	48
Nevada	5,847	2,153	37%	49
Alaska	2,038	540	26%	50
District of Columbia	269	29	11%	51

For public two year institutions:

State	US Cohort	Graduates	Graduation Rate	Rank
South Dakota	2,086	1,280	61%	1
North Dakota	1,160	446	38%	2
Florida	15,669	5,762	37%	3
Alaska	11	4	36%	4
Utah	3,538	1,198	34%	5
Wisconsin	10,586	3,580	34%	6
Iowa	12,594	4,087	32%	7
Kansas	9,435	3,011	32%	8
Wyoming	2,177	641	29%	9
Nebraska	4,668	1,323	28%	10
Minnesota	16,558	4,462	27%	11
Washington	9,038	2,313	26%	12
California	89,289	22,733	25%	13
Maine	2,352	596	25%	14
Mississippi	16,674	4,224	25%	15
New Hampshire	1,711	425	25%	16
Kentucky	7,754	1,916	25%	17
Georgia	15,664	3,862	25%	18
Montana	1,362	333	24%	19
Colorado	6,891	1,568	23%	20
Missouri	12,453	2,644	21%	21
Arkansas	5,789	1,213	21%	22
Alabama	13,498	2,827	21%	23
Idaho	1,707	355	21%	24
US Total	601,982	122,996	20%
Illinois	26,487	5,197	20%	25
New York	47,158	9,249	20%	26
North Carolina	18,166	3,550	20%	27
Virginia	15,200	2,770	18%	28
Oklahoma	7,636	1,314	17%	29
Massachusetts	11,835	1,931	16%	30
New Jersey	25,464	3,995	16%	31
Arizona	7,865	1,205	15%	32
Louisiana	6,021	907	15%	33
Pennsylvania	16,823	2,518	15%	34
Michigan	19,669	2,893	15%	35
Oregon	6,447	885	14%	36
West Virginia	2,555	347	14%	37
New Mexico	5,512	735	13%	38
Maryland	13,169	1,753	13%	39
Ohio	15,638	2,038	13%	40
Hawaii	2,240	291	13%	41
Vermont	167	20	12%	42
Texas	48,893	5,663	12%	43
South Carolina	11,872	1,316	11%	44
Nevada	660	73	11%	45
Tennessee	12,090	1,310	11%	46
Connecticut	5,453	561	10%	47
Delaware	1,990	194	10%	48
Rhode Island	1,975	176	9%	49
Indiana	5,688	453	8%	50
District of Columbia	0	0	0%	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.