A study released today points to important differences between the four-year and six-year completion rates for Chicago Public Schools (CPS) graduates who received bachelor’s degrees.
“Across the board, the four-year completion rates were much lower than six-year rates—at all colleges, and for all high school types, student achievement levels, and students’ race/ethnicity and gender,” said Jenny Nagaoka, report author and deputy director of the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. “We need more awareness about this reality, and we need college leaders committed to changing this reality. We need more students graduating in the four years they expect their degree to take.”
The study investigated four-year and six-year college completion trends for 2004–14 CPS graduates, as well as patterns of bachelor’s degree completion across student characteristics and institutions for 2012– 14 CPS graduates who made an immediate transition to a bachelor’s-degree-granting institution after graduating from high school. It was a joint UChicago Consortium and To&Through Project research study.
As students and families consider the cost and overall value of college, the four-year and six-year completion rates could guide decisions on where to apply and enroll.
“It’s most common for reported institutional graduation rates to be six-year rates. And these rates do matter—more than half of Black CPS graduates who earned bachelor’s degrees took more than four years to do so,” said Shelby Mahaffie, report author and research analyst at the UChicago Consortium and the To&Through Project. “But colleges with similar six-year graduation rates can have very different four-year rates. If four-year rates were more widely available, students could make more strategic decisions, including realistic plans for time and cost to earn a degree.”
Researchers used data about 2014 CPS graduates who immediately enrolled in a bachelor’s-degree- granting institution and found:
- Fewer than one-third of CPS graduates completed a bachelor’s degree within four years (30%) but 51% of CPS graduates completed within six years (51%; see Figure 1).
- The national four-year completion rate for 2014 college enrollees was 47%; the six-year rate was 64%.
- Most CPS college graduates took more than 8 terms to complete a bachelor’s degree
- 67% of students needed one or two extra terms (completing in 9 or 10 terms);
- 12% of students took 11 or 12 terms.
- Four-year completion rates were lower than six-year rates...
- At all colleges attended by CPS graduates
- Notably, the difference between the four-year and six-year completion rates varied greatly by college
- Across all high school types in CPS, including selective enrollment high schools (SEHSs)
- Even SEHS graduates had six-year completion rates that were as much as 30 percentage points higher than four-year completion rates
- For all student achievement levels
- Even students with strong academic qualifications (GPAs between 3.5 and 4.0 and ACT scores over 24) had large differences between their four-year and six-year completion rates, around 22 percentage points
- For all student groups by race/ethnicity and gender
- The differences between the four-year rates and six-year rates were generally similar (about 20-30 percentage points) across student groups.
- At all colleges attended by CPS graduates
Research details: The Four Years Fallacy: Four-Year vs. Six-Year Bachelor’s Degree Completion Rates by Jenny Nagaoka, Shelby Mahaffie, Alexandra Usher, and Amy Arneson analyzed patterns of bachelor’s degree completion, via three questions:
- How many immediate college enrollees completed a bachelor’s degree within four vs. six years?
- For bachelor’s degree completers who took longer than four years, how many terms were they enrolled before completing their degree?
- How different were four-year and six-year bachelor’s degree completion rates...
- By college attended?
- By student characteristics?
- By high school attended?
