Completing College – State – 2016

In the state supplement to our tenth Signature Report, a national study on college completion, we take a state-by-state look at the various pathways that students take to complete a college degree or certificate.

Suggested Citation: Shapiro, D., Dundar, A., Wakhungu, P., Yuan, X., Nathan, A & Hwang, Y. , A. (2016, February). Completing College: A State-Level View of Student Attainment Rates (Signature Report No. 10a). Herndon, VA: National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

Table of Contents

• About This Report
• Introduction
  • Cohort and Data Definitions
  • Highlighting State-Level Results
• Results
• Appendix A: Coverage
• Appendix B: Unique Student Headcounts by State and Institution Type

About This Report

AUTHORS

National Student Clearinghouse Research Center

• Doug Shapiro
• Afet Dundar

Project on Academic Success, Indiana University

• Phoebe Khasiala Wakhungu
• Xin Yuan
• Angel Nathan
• Youngsik Hwang

SPONSOR

This report was supported by a grant from the Lumina Foundation. Lumina Foundation, an Indianapolis-based private foundation, is committed to enrolling and graduating more students from college — especially 21st century students: low-income students, students of color, first-generation students and adult learners. Lumina’s goal is to increase the percentage of Americans who hold high-quality degrees and credentials to 60 percent by 2025. Lumina pursues this goal in three ways: by identifying and supporting effective practice, through public policy advocacy, and by using our communications and convening power to build public will for change. For more information, log on to www.luminafoundation.org.

Among the study’s findings:

• Nationally, the college completion rate for students who started in four-year public institutions declined from 2008 to 2009 by 1.7 percentage points, dropping to 61.2 percent from 62.9 percent. In 15 states, the direction of the change in the college completion rate was actually positive including four states (California, Connecticut, Iowa, and South Carolina) where the college completion rate for students who started in four-year public institutions increased by 1 to 2 percentage points.

• Nationally, about 13 percent of students who started at a four-year public institution, completed at a school other than the starting institution. In 21 states, students who started in four-year public institutions had a higher completion rate elsewhere, with Minnesota having the highest rate at 25 percent followed by Missouri with about 23 percent.

• The college completion rate for students who started at two-year public institutions also declined in the same period by one percentage point. In 12 states (Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Texas), the college completion rate for students who started in two-year public institutions stayed nearly unchanged or went up.

• Thirty-two percent of students who started at two-year public institutions and completed did so at an institution other than the one where they first enrolled, nationally. In 10 states, over one-third of all completions for two-year public starters happened elsewhere. In California and Texas, more than 40 percent of all completions for students in this sector took place at an institution other than the one where they first enrolled.

• Nationally, 15.1 percent — a 1.1 percent decline from last year — of those who started at a two-year public institution completed at a four-year institution (with or without first receiving a credential at a two-year institution) within six years. In five states (Iowa, North Dakota, Virginia, Kansas, and Texas), 20 or more percent of two-year starters completed at a four-year institution. In five states (California, Connecticut, Maine, North Dakota, and Washington), this rate did not decline, staying nearly unchanged or going slightly up.

• The percentage of two-year starters who completed at a four-year institution within six years was higher among women than men, nationally: 16.9 percent and 13.9 percent, respectively. In 10 states (Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Virginia, Wyoming, Kansas, and Texas), at least one in five women who started at two-year public institutions completed at a four-year institution (with or without first receiving a credential at a two-year institution). This percentage did not reach 20 percent for men in any state.

• In 16 states, at least, one in five completions for those who started at a four-year private nonprofit institution happened elsewhere. In five states (Delaware, Missouri, Kentucky, North Dakota, and South Dakota) at least one in four students who started at a four-year private non-profit institution and completed a degree did so at an institution other than the one where they first enrolled.

• In 20 states, more than five percent of the starting cohort at a four-year public institution completed in a state different than the starting institution’s state. This was true for students who started at four-year private non-profit institutions in 30 states.

The Signature Report State Supplement includes detailed tables, providing a state-by-state overview of college completion outcomes within the four-year public, two-year public, and four-year private nonprofit sectors.

Introduction

As a supplement to Completing College: A National View of Student Attainment Rates – Fall 2009 Cohort (2015), hereafter “Completing College,” this report focuses on six-year student success outcomes and college completion rates by state. The results are displayed in three sets of tables organized by institution type, showing each state’s outcomes for students who started postsecondary education at four-year public institutions, two-year public institutions, and four-year private nonprofit institutions. Each set of tables provides state-level overviews of college completion outcomes.

Further results are included, showing state-level six-year outcomes for students:

• By enrollment intensity across the six-year study period—exclusively full time (Tables 2, 11, 20), exclusively part time (Tables 3, 12, 21), and mixed (Tables 4, 13, 22);
• By age at first entry to college—age 20 and younger (Tables 5, 14, 23), over age 20 through age 24 (Tables 6, 15, 24), and over age 24 (Tables 7, 16, 25);
• By gender—women and men who started at each institution type (Tables 8, 17, 26 and 9, 18, 27, respectively).

According to the outcomes presented in Completing College, the overall six-year completion rate for first-time-in-college degree-seeking students who started college in fall 2009 was 52.9 percent, including 12.4 percent who completed at an institution different from their starting institution. In other words, nearly one in four students who completed a degree did so at an institution other than the one where they first enrolled. The number was closer to one in three for those who started at two-year public institutions. Findings from Completing College also showed that gains from completions elsewhere were higher for traditional-age students than for delayed entry students (over age 20 through age 24 at first entry) and adult learners (over age 24 at first entry).

The total completion rates for students who started at each of the three largest institution categories ranged from 38.1 percent for students who started at two‐year public institutions to 61.2 percent for those who started at four‐year public institutions and 71.5 percent for students who started at four‐year private nonprofit institutions (see Table i. below; see Completing College for further discussion). The overall proportion of students completing elsewhere, however, was roughly the same for students who started at any of these institution types — about 12 to 13 percent of the starting cohort.

Table i. Six-Year Outcomes by Starting Institution Type (N=2,911,898)

Building on the findings presented in Completing College, this follow-up report explores college completion rates for each state where the Clearinghouse historical data coverage¹ for the study cohort was 65 percent or higher. Both Completing College and this supplement report focus on the cohort entering college as first-time students in fall 2009, following them through May 31, 2015, and highlighting six-year student outcomes including degree and certificate completion and continuing enrollment (persistence). Completions were identified using a combination of degree/certificate award records submitted by institutions as part of their participation in DegreeVerify and StudentTracker^®. Details on weighting and the imputation of missing data can be found in Appendix A of Completing College.

¹ Due to the need to establish students’ first-time status, only institutions that submitted enrollment data dating back to June 1, 2005 to the Clearinghouse are included in the report. Historical coverage rates are based on these institutions.

COHORT AND DATA DEFINITIONS

The cohort examined in this study is made up of first-time degree-seeking students who started their postsecondary studies in the fall of 2009, over 2.9 million students. Fall 2009 enrollments were defined as enrollment during any term beginning August 10 through October 31, inclusive: if the institution had no term begin date during this period, then between July 13 and August 9, 2009, inclusive. First-time status was established by confirming that a student (1) did not show any postsecondary enrollment record in the four years prior to summer 2009 and (2) did not receive a degree or certificate from any postsecondary institution prior to fall 2009, according to Clearinghouse data. Former dual enrollment students, first-time college students in fall 2009 who had taken college courses while still in high school were included in the study cohort.

HIGHLIGHTING STATE-LEVEL RESULTS

This supplemental report presents student outcomes by the state of students’ entering institution. Data coverage for the cohort identified in this study varies somewhat across states and across institution types within states (see Appendix A of this report for coverage by state and institution type). Accordingly, we have included state-by-state results for four-year public, two-year public, and four-year private nonprofit institutions, including under each of these categories only those states for which the historical data coverage for the cohort is 65 percent or higher. Using this approach, we produced tables showing results for 49 and 42 of the 50 states for four-year public and two-year public institutions respectively, and 40 states plus the District of Columbia for four-year private nonprofit institutions. Table ii., below, shows the states included in the tables presented for each institution type in this supplement to the national report.

Table ii. Representation of Each State in Results Tables by Institution Type

X Included in report
* Fewer than three institutions
(blank) Lower than 65% coverage
^†† Results are not reported because the cohort includes both two-year and four-year enrollments.

To further guide readers regarding coverage, and consequently the relative confidence with which results should be interpreted, we grouped the states according to the following three levels of coverage:

• Low coverage: States with coverage between 65 and 79 percent
• Medium coverage: States with coverage between 80 and 89 percent
• High Coverage: States with coverage of 90 percent or higher

Appendix A: Coverage

Appendix B: Unique Student Headcounts by State and Institution Type

Appendix B provides unique student headcounts by state for each institution type. The final data set was created, drawing from the full cohort of all students enrolled in each sector and state, selecting out students identified as first-time-in-college, and finally excluding students identified as nondegree-seeking and applying a few other conditions. (For further detail on the definition of degree-seeking status and other exclusions applied, please see Completing College: A National View, Appendix A at Signature Report 10.) Counts from the final data set (Fall 2009 First-Time Degree-Seeking Cohort) are further broken out by student enrollment status, age at first entry, and gender.

Table B1. Total Counts for Students Who Started at Four-Year Public Institutions by Origin State

NOTE: Counts represent unique students.
^* Fewer than three institutions.
^†† Results are not reported because the cohort includes both two-year and four-year enrollments.

Table B2. Total Counts for Students Who Started at Two-Year Public Institutions, by Origin State

^* Fewer than three institutions.
^** Fewer than 50 students in subgroup.

Table B3. Total Counts for Students Who Started at Four-Year Private Nonprofit Institutions, by Origin State

^* Fewer than three institutions.
^** Fewer than 50 students in subgroup.