Saturday, April 14, 2012

US College Graduation Rates by State - 2010 Ranking

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Related Articles:
Last Year's Ranking
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 partially answered. However, to fully respond to Obama's call for more education for our kids, we need pay attentions to students' success too. College graduation rate is one of such measures.

To pursue this agenda, we compiled the IPEDS graduation data collected by the US department of Education in a state by state basis. The idea is to put the data out in the public and, hopefully, it will be used to drive states' public education agenda and achieve the goal of improving our higher education's performance.

In doing so, we decided to publish the graduation rate data related to public institutions since, for most states, public institutions are what state governments have much more influence on. We also decided to concentrate on the public four year colleges and  the public two year colleges since, based on a published data, it had been shown that there are very few public institutions that fall into categories of less-than-two year or non-degree-granting institutions. The analysis excluded the non-resident alien.


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:


Exceptions to the rule above are the District of Columbia, the state of Alaska and the state of South Dakota. The District of Columbia has a very low rate (12%) 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 and the overall four year public institution rate is at a low of 29%. As to the state of South Dakota, it simply have a very high graduation rate (53%) 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:

StateCohortGraduatesGraduation RateRankPrevious RankPrevious Rate





Iowa9,2126,39269%1169%
Delaware4,4393,05169%2664%
Virginia27,13318,55968%3268%
New Jersey15,48710,29566%4366%
California66,75143,50465%5565%
New Hampshire4,7873,08965%6465%
Washington15,5129,82263%7861%
Vermont3,1781,99763%81061%
Illinois24,92015,55862%91260%
Maryland14,4999,04762%10763%
Pennsylvania42,62726,16961%11961%
Connecticut8,7055,24760%121360%
Michigan38,02922,74360%131459%
South Carolina14,7168,69559%141160%
North Carolina28,67716,93859%151559%
Wisconsin25,12914,60858%161657%
Rhode Island3,5162,03558%171956%
Arizona14,6938,37857%182355%
Minnesota16,2849,26457%191856%
Massachusetts13,0197,31856%202255%
Nebraska6,9263,85056%211756%
Missouri17,2529,46855%222455%
Oregon9,1454,95554%232553%
Kansas11,7576,36454%242155%
US Total913,162487,74953%53%
Wyoming1,48779053%252055%
Colorado20,64010,89653%262653%
Ohio44,29122,67951%273050%
Mississippi7,9433,97350%282752%
Indiana30,35615,09450%292852%
New York45,06621,96249%302951%
North Dakota5,9392,82948%313447%
Florida60,98428,92147%323148%
Texas59,79128,28847%333646%
Alabama17,0808,06647%343347%
Maine3,9911,85246%353247%
West Virginia10,3254,78946%363944%
South Dakota4,6072,12746%374144%
Tennessee17,4327,92945%383547%
Hawaii2,4841,11845%394342%
Kentucky16,5167,41445%403845%
Georgia29,84113,36745%413745%
Montana5,1112,21443%424044%
Oklahoma15,3376,40542%434242%
Utah8,7483,50940%444441%
New Mexico6,6222,65140%454540%
Idaho4,8231,88539%464837%
Louisiana23,8349,08738%474738%
Arkansas11,6294,35837%484638%
Nevada6,4302,38537%494937%
Alaska2,11060729%505026%
District of Columbia3223912%515111%

Compare with last year's graduation rate, state of Delaware made the biggest improvement of 5% and moved up 4 spots to land on the second place, just behind state of Iowa. Both the Delaware State University and University of Delaware improved by about 5%.


For public two year institutions :
StateCohortGraduatesGraduation RateRankPrevious RankPrevious Rate





South Dakota2,0451,08253%1161%
North Dakota1,07141439%2238%
Florida12,2944,68138%3337%
Utah3,7151,32436%4534%
Iowa12,6214,16433%5732%
Wisconsin10,8273,38331%6634%
Alaska29931%7436%
Nebraska4,1121,26831%81028%
Montana1,37942431%91924%
Kansas9,5262,88830%10832%
Wyoming2,32269530%11929%
Maine2,23759327%121425%
New Hampshire1,77546726%131625%
Minnesota16,9854,46826%141127%
Mississippi17,9024,51625%151525%
Georgia17,3974,38325%161825%
Washington9,3422,34325%171226%
California95,02623,77625%181325%
Kentucky8,0861,93624%191725%
Arkansas6,5491,45522%202221%
Colorado5,7531,21021%212023%
Missouri13,0542,68621%222121%
US Total628,788127,88420%20%
North Carolina19,0513,87220%232720%
Idaho1,74935420%242421%
New York50,8279,94220%252620%
Illinois27,5565,34219%262520%
Alabama14,5312,78319%272321%
Virginia17,0743,09418%282818%
New Jersey26,4964,59317%293116%
Oklahoma7,4571,29017%302917%
Nevada67911016%314511%
Arizona8,1331,31516%323215%
Massachusetts12,5992,02316%333016%
Vermont1923016%344212%
Louisiana6,9411,08316%353315%
Michigan19,8862,97215%363515%
New Mexico6,23091715%373813%
Pennsylvania17,2742,41714%383415%
Oregon7,05796614%393614%
Maryland13,7571,87414%403913%
Hawaii2,48833413%414113%
Ohio16,4122,18313%424013%
Texas50,9286,61513%434312%
Delaware2,29627712%444810%
South Carolina12,6171,43711%454411%
Tennessee11,8481,34511%464611%
West Virginia2,80429010%473714%
Connecticut6,16163710%484710%
Rhode Island2,2512089%49499%
Indiana6,8745939%50508%
District of Columbia000%51510%


Regarding to last year's data, state of Montana shows the biggest improvement in graduation rate for public two year institutions. State of Montana moved its rate up by about 7% and moved up 10 spots to earn the state number 9 spot in the ranking. Browsing through Montana's two year public schools, it revealed that almost all schools contribute to the overall improvement with Miles Community College leading the way with an improvement of about 22%, from 38 to 60%.

As we all know, reasons for variations in the rates are many. For example, the open access policy of school enrollment 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.

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