HOW GRADUATION RATES ARE CALCULATED 

 
The nomenclature of higher education can be confusing, and that clearly is the
case when educators talk about graduation rates and student completions. They
are connected, but not the same thing.
 
Completions refers to the count of students who earn diplomas. Graduation
rates are a subset of that and are calculated using strict criteria based on how
fast completers get their degrees, when they began taking classes and whether
they went to school full-time.
 
Community college students like those at the City Colleges of Chicago are
lumped into what are called cohorts of students who begin their college careers
at the same time. Under federal guidelines, only full-time students who enroll
beginning with a fall term can later be counted when determining a graduation
rate.
 
Students in any cohort are given three years to earn their diplomas or
certificates. If they meet the deadline, then they are included in the graduation
rate for that cohort. For example, a school’s graduation rate for 2013 would be
generally determined by dividing the number of students in the Fall 2010 cohort
who completed their degrees in three years by the total number of students in
same cohort.
 
Graduation rates at community colleges tend to be low because a large number
of students assigned to any given cohort either drop out, transfer without
finishing their degrees, or take longer than three years to finish.
 
Such rules, while complicated, are established by federal authorities to create a
uniform reporting standard for schools across the country.
 
When it comes to certificate programs such as City Colleges’ French Pastry
School, the course of study for most students lasts only months. Those included
in the Fall 2010 cohort likely finished with the program quickly but were not
officially counted as graduating until 2013.
 
The reason for the delay is that officials could not tabulate the graduation rate
for all students in the Fall 2010 cohort until all had been given the full threeyear window to complete their degrees.