INDIANAPOLIS – Statistics for the NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) released Wednesday indicated an 88 percent rate for Illinois State. The 88 percent rate matches ISU's score from the last two years, and is the institution's all-time high score on the measure. The Division I overall national average for this year's GSR is also 88 percent, the highest it has ever been.
The GSR is based on student-athletes who received athletic scholarships and entered Illinois State in 2008-09 through 2011-12. 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, women's golf, gymnastics, men's tennis, women's tennis, soccer and volleyball. Four additional teams achieved a GSR equal to or greater than 90 percent, including: women's basketball, women's track & field/cross country, swimming and diving and softball. The men's basketball and men's track/cross country teams also earned a GSR that ranks higher than the national average in their sport.
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 this year's score is worth celebrating.
"As a department, we set high standards for student-athlete academic achievement and graduation certainly is the goal," Harris stated. "Hitting 88 percent, a rate that equaled or exceeded the national average in each of the past three years, is an accomplishment we are all very proud of. Our coaches and student-athletes have made steady improvement in graduation rate over the years, as just 13 years ago our rate was 73 percent. Many important people on our campus continue to educate, mentor, motivate and inspire even more of our student-athletes to cross the graduation finish line so that our rate can grow higher yet."
Federal Graduation Rate data was also released, and data showed that Redbird student-athletes who entered the University in the FGR class of 2017 achieved a rate of 70%. This rate is 1 point higher than the general study body rate at Illinois State. The four-year period including 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11, and 2011-12 yielded a 69 percent rate for student-athletes, which is two percentage points shy of 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 was 68 percent for the second consecutive year.
"Student athletes continue to achieve academic success at record levels," NCAA President Mark Emmert said. "When the GSR was created more than 15 years ago, the NCAA set an aspirational goal of 80 percent of student‐athletes graduating. College athletes have met and exceeded that goal — as they often do with any challenge."
This year marks the 28th 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.
