INDIANAPOLIS – Statistics for the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) released Tuesday by the NCAA indicated an 88 percent GSR for Illinois State. The 88 percent is ISU's all-time high, one percentage point higher than last year's rate. The Division I overall national average for this year's graduation rate is 86 percent.
The GSR is based on student-athletes who received athletic scholarships and entered Illinois State between 2006-2009. A total of 13-of-15 Redbird teams recorded a GSR equal to or better than the national average in their sports. Seven of those teams achieved perfect 100 percent GSR rates including: men's golf, men's tennis, women's golf, women's tennis, women's swimming & diving, women's soccer and volleyball. Four additional teams achieved a GSR equal to or greater than 90 percent, including: men's basketball, women's track & field/cross country, gymnastics and softball. Another highlight in this year's data saw the Redbird football team achieve the highest GSR within the Missouri Valley Football Conference.
Illinois State Senior Associate Athletics Director for Compliance & Student Services Cindy Harris, who is responsible for submitting and interpreting student-athlete graduation rate data on campus, emphasized how proud she is of Illinois State student-athletes and their NCAA graduation rates.
"When it comes to graduation, the truth is in the numbers," Harris stated. "It starts with our coaches, who actively seek out and recruit student-athletes with the work ethic and desire to achieve in the classroom, as well as in their chosen sport. Add to that the tremendous support the student-athletes receive from the dedicated ISU faculty, advisors, administrators and so many others on our campus, and it culminates in academic successes that we can all be proud of year in and year out."
Federal Graduation Rate data was also released and yielded additional positive outcomes. This data showed that Redbird student-athletes who entered in the four-year period from 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 achieved a 71-percent rate, which is just one percentage point shy of the Illinois State University general student body graduation rate for the same time. The national overall Division I Federal Graduation Rate for student-athletes for this data set was 66 percent. That is the same as the general student-body Federal Graduation Rate across all of Division I.
This year marks the 26th release of institutional graduation rates since Federal Student "right-to-know" legislation was passed in 1990. In 2005, the NCAA Division I Committee on Academic Performance implemented the initial release of the GSR to more accurately assess the academic success of student-athletes.
GoRedbirds.com: Your online source for Illinois State Athletics, tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
