Wednesday, November 17, 2004

What's a good graduation rate 

Are University of Minnesota graduation rates too low? We can't really tell, though the graphic Craig Depken shows would tell you the U has the lowest in the Big Ten. But it hides the fact that schools like Iowa and Minnesota have state mandates that require it to admit the top half of each high school class if they wish to attend. Northwestern does not. Craig refers to this as "filtering". Likewise, the worries about graduation rates at SCSU should be studied regarding the filtering we use. Given the students we can attract, it's likely our six-year graduation rate will be lower than the U's 53.1%. Should it be 43%, 45% or 47%? How would you decide?

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