INDIANAPOLIS – Statistics for the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) released Tuesday by the NCAA indicated an 87-percent GSR for Illinois State, surpassing the previous all-time high for ISU by three percent. The Redbirds' 87-percent overall GSR is better than the national average of 82 percent.
The GSR is based on student-athletes who received athletic scholarships and entered Illinois State between 2004-2007. A total of 13 Redbird teams recorded a GSR better than the national average in their sports and five of those teams achieved perfect GSR rates: men's golf, women's golf, volleyball, men's tennis and women's tennis.
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.
"Illinois State is dedicated to developing student-athletes who graduate and the NCAA data released today speaks to that commitment," Harris stated. "We are proud of our continued and record-setting improvement in graduation rate and commend our students, coaches, and support staff."
Federal Graduation Rate data was also released and yielded additional positive outcomes. This data showed that Redbird student-athletes entering in the 2007-2008 academic year achieved a 76-percent rate, compared to the general student body, which had a 72-percent graduation rate. The national overall Division I Federal Graduation Rate for student-athletes for that year was 66-percent.
This year marks the 24th 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 in order to more accurately assess the academic success of student-athletes.
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