Are Graduation Rates and the APR Good Metrics?
Posted by mpatton on October 26th, 2011As you probably know, the Academic Progress Rating (APR) has made the news a lot lately largely because of a new NCAA rule that would exact postseason bans for teams not up to snuff academically (in the form of a 930 threshold score). Defending national champion Connecticut wouldn’t have made last year’s tournament with the stricter guideline and there was some speculation that the Huskies might not be allowed to defend their title as a result (this has since been resolved; the new threshold and punishments will go into effect next season).
Basketball writer Joe Giglio started tweeting North Carolina schools’ relative graduation rates Tuesday afternoon, sparking quite a conversation on the merit of graduation rate as an acceptable method for evaluating a school’s worth. Duke led the ACC in both general population graduation (94%) and overall athlete graduation (81%), which are phenomenal numbers. However, Giglio’s alma mater NC State only graduated 72% of its general population and 54% of its athletes (worst in the ACC in both categories). All percentages were calculated using a six-year window.
Are NC State's Low Graduation Rates Cause For Concern?
On a national scale, these numbers actually aren’t low. According to a USA Today study from 2009, the national average for four-year colleges is to graduate 53% of its students in six years — which is roughly on par with NC State’s average for athletes and much lower than its overall student body. That number is shockingly low. Even compared with fellow BCS schools, NC State compares favorably (#35 out of 67 schools) and the Wolfpack would be ranked third and fourth in the Big 12 and SEC, respectively.
Giglio quickly drew fire from Wolfpack fans for tweeting, “72%? The 6-year graduation rate for N.C. State’s student population is embarrassing.” My first thoughts were that NC State’s lower graduation rates are probably largely to blame on it boasting a large engineering school (where degrees generally take five or six years, even as a full-time student). Another NC State alum, Mel Ball, pointed out that NC State boasts a fairly liberal admissions process that gives everyone a chance, but that “doesn’t mean State will retain everyone. Actually a fair system.”
Herein lies the fault of the APR system: there are some students, both athletes and general students (with a larger percentage being athletes, since recruits have a much less rigorous admissions process), who are generally unfit to earn a college degree. This isn’t making any commentary on natural-born intellect or how “smart” a person is; rather, many students simply don’t adapt well to college life. The newfound freedom, the increased workload, and more challenging classes all will lead to some students to not quite make the cut. Put the rigors of a D-I athletic team on top of the new workload, and it’s no surprise that a relatively high percentage of athletes fail to graduate.
In its most basic sense, though, the APR has academics at heart. The original purpose of the APR was to keep schools from taking on student-athletes without any intention of graduating them or letting a struggling athlete take nothing but physical education classes (Jim Harrick, Jr?) to stay in good standing and eligible to play. These nuances are what make the stricter punishments associated with not achieving a 930 APR score dangerous. There are certainly situations where a school should be punished for not graduating its athletes (in fact, I think Connecticut as one example qualifies), but there are also many extenuating circumstances where a team shouldn’t be punished for players who were simply unable to keep up with their academics (mainly players who left after their first year or two).
The key to the APR’s effectiveness as an evaluation of a school’s academics will be in the NCAA’s consistent and even-handed enforcement of the rule that accounts for extenuating circumstances while maintaining the integrity of the rule. Based on its recent history of rule enforcement, I don’t have high hopes.
Another NC State alum, Mel Ball, pointed out that NC State boasts a fairly liberal admissions process that gives everyone a chance, but that “doesn’t mean State will retain everyone. Actually a fair system.”
Haha, they love saying that, but can’t quite admit the real reason (not too many of the best students in NC, much less nationally, want to go to NCSU).