INDIANAPOLIS – Statistics for the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) released today by the NCAA indicated an 88 percent GSR for Illinois State. The 88 percent matches ISU's all-time high which was posted in last year's GSR release. The Division I overall national average for this year's GSR is 87 percent, the highest it has ever been.
The GSR is based on student-athletes who received athletic scholarships and entered Illinois State between 2007-2010. A total of 13-of-15 Redbird teams recorded a GSR equal to or better than the national average in their sports. Eight of those teams achieved perfect 100 percent GSR rates including: men's golf, men's tennis, women's golf, women's gymnastics, women's tennis, women's swimming & diving, women's soccer and volleyball. Three additional teams achieved a GSR equal to or greater than 90 percent, including: men's basketball, women's track & field/cross country, and softball.
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.
"It just never gets old seeing positive graduation rates for our Redbird student-athletes," Harris stated. "It is something, however, that we simply cannot take our attention away from or relax about. These important results keep us focused on our goal to graduate student-athletes who will go out into the world and make a difference. We take great pride in the academic success of our student-athletes. It takes the entire Illinois State campus community, from the dedicated faculty, advisors, coaches, and myriad other behind-the-scenes support units to have the success we do in graduation rates, and we are always striving to improve them."
Federal Graduation Rate data was also released and yielded additional positive outcomes. The data showed that Redbird student-athletes who entered the University in the four-year period from 2007-08, 2008-09, 2010-11 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 68 percent, which is an all-time high. That is two points higher than the general student-body Federal Graduation Rate across all of Division I.
This year marks the 27th 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.
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