Newest Illinois State Graduation Success Rate Ties All-Time High

INDIANAPOLIS – Statistics for the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) released Wednesday by the NCAA indicated an 87-percent GSR for Illinois State. The 87-percent equals ISU's all-time high, which was reached in last year's NCAA data release.  The 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 2005-2008.  A total of 11 Redbird teams recorded a GSR equal to or better than the national average in their sports and six of those teams achieved perfect GSR rates:  men's golf, men's tennis, women's golf, women's tennis, soccer and volleyball, 

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. 

"We are very proud of the student-athletes who came to Illinois State, gave us their all on the field and off, and left here with a diploma in hand," Harris said.  "While we commend our students, coaches, and support staff for the results we see today, we view this as our top priority and will always dedicate ourselves to achieving even higher rates when it comes to graduation."

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 cohort of 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 achieved a 71-percent rate, which equals the Illinois State University general student body graduation rate for the same time period. The national overall Division I Federal Graduation Rate for student-athletes for that year was 67 percent.

This year marks the 25th 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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