Student Success Ratings Methodology
Using the most recent institutional data reported in IPEDS, we examined four-year public and not-for-profit institutions with complete data for 2006 to 2016. The data available for first-year retention and six-year graduation always refers to the first-time, full-time, degree-seeking freshman cohort.
Eduventures’ Student Success Ratings address one publicly measurable aspect of student success: persistence to graduation. The Eduventures student success Framework defines four interrelated aspects of Student Success: persistence to graduation, student academic achievement, holistic student success, and career readiness. Persistence to graduation is the important external marker of student success, though we must be careful to consider how the other three aspects of student success that are less accessible in public data also play a role.
Performance Model
We developed a linear regression model using the most recent year of data (2016). In this model, the dependent variable was a Student Success Score. As the sum of first-year retention and six-year graduation rates, this combined index could range between 0 and 200.
The linear regression was developed by examining the influence of demographic, academic, social, and financial variables available in IPEDS on the overall Student Success Score.
From the model, we developed two metrics. The first is the absolute difference between the predicted and actual Student Success Scores. This metric penalizes institutions that do not have much room for improvement and gives a scoring advantage to those that have more room for improvement. To adjust for this, we developed the second metric, the percentage of an institution’s over- or under-performance given the potential for improvement.
Ten-Year Trends
We also looked at two very straightforward metrics to measure institutional trends:
- Absolute change in first-year retention rate between 2006 and 2016
- Absolute change in six-year graduation rate between 2006 and 2016
Final Score
To ensure that our analysis compared similar institutions, we normalized all metrics solely within the context of common institutional categories. These categories are based on institutional control and Carnegie Basic Classifications:
- Public Research/Doctoral
- Public Master’s
- Public Baccalaureate
- Private Research/Doctoral
- Private Master’s
- Private Baccalaureate
Within each of the six institutional categories, each of the four scores (predicted vs. actual, performance vs. room for improvement, retention trend, and graduation trend) were converted to normalized scales (0 to 100). The final score weighed each of the four metrics equally to also produce a normalized score that ranges between 0 and 100.
Because Eduventures’ Student Success Score only compares reasonably alike institutions, a private master’s-level institution’s score is not comparable to a public master’s-level institution’s score.
Don’t See Your Institution?
If you do not see your institution in the rankings, it may be for one of two reasons:
- It had incomplete information throughout the timeframe.
- It is identified in a specialist Carnegie Basic Classification (e.g., health professions, special focus, tribal college).
If you are an Eduventures member, we can run the analysis for you if you provide the complete information. Contact us to get started!