AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2006 > September > 27
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Do graduation rates matter?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The NCAA released another batch of graduation success rate data on Wednesday. The news was better for Georgia Tech, which showed improvement over last year’s figures in men’s basketball, football and baseball and continued to do well in other sports. I’m working now on analyzing the numbers and seeing where Tech ranks in comparison with other ACC schools.
The lowlight is a nine percent graduation rate for UGA men’s basketball players who enrolled between 1996-99. The Dogs also had lower grad rates in football and baseball than Tech.
What I wonder:
A) How many people care?
B) Do the people who care stop to think about what the numbers mean?
It doesn’t take a scientific study to tell you that fans devote a lot more energy to discussing and worrying about recruiting ratings than they do to comparing and analyzing graduation rates. I used to see that as an indictment of fans. I’m not so sure, anymore.
After all, what graduation rate do you want for your team? The assumption is the higher the better, but at some point doesn’t a very high graduation rate for a given school or team raise the question of whether graduation from that school means anything? If one school is demanding, and another is less demanding, how do you compare their graduation rates?
My answer has been to look for outliers and to look for trends and to ask people at the schools for explanations. Unfortunately, when it comes to academic integrity, there’s no standings and no scoreboard that provide a definitive measurement of how your school is really doing.
