1 in 10 Ninth Graders Graduates College? What do the Data Show?

In the past two weeks, we've heard two presentations, one from an Albertson Foundation official and another from a presenter from Idaho Business for Education, in which the officials proclaimed that that 1 in 10 Idaho 9th graders graduates from college with a certificate, an Associate's Degree, or a Bachelor's Degree. Perhaps there are some school districts in Idaho in which that statement is accurate, but it's certainly not true for students in the Boise District.

We have tracked the college graduation patterns for students in the Boise District since the class of 2007, and have compiled an impressive database which includes types of degrees, college and university choices, and majors of college graduates.We also know how long it typically takes for our students to graduate from college, by institution.

For example, 1874 students graduated from high school in the Boise District class of 2008. Of that group, 592 have since graduated from college. That's a percentage of 31.6. We also know that, according to the National Student Clearinghouse data, 518 graduated from 4-year colleges, 43 received Associate Degrees, and 31 have obtained certificates. We suspect that many additional students in each class have attained a degree or certificate, or are still pursuing a degree, for several reasons:

• some colleges do not participate in the National Student Clearinghouse (notably the service academies and some prestigious colleges);
• several of the certificate-granting for-profit colleges are not members of the Clearinghouse;
• numbers for students who have entered military service, where they receive training in career pursuits, are not available;
• some students who serve their church with missionary duty and enroll afterward have not yet graduated from college.

Here are the data for the class of 2008, which is 6 years out of high school to this point:

Considering that the Boise District's high school graduation rate was 91% for the class of 2008, the college grad rate from 9th grade for this class is just under 30%.

The class of 2007 is 7 years out of high school, yet 35 additional students have graduated in the past year, bringing the college graduation rate for the class of 2007 to just over 34%:

Here are the data from the Boise School District classes of 2007, 2008, and 2009. Note that each of the three classes has a grad rate at least 2.5 times higher than the rate claimed in the Field Guide to Education in Idaho.

Among the three classes noted in the chart, almost 1,500 Boise District grads have completed some form of post-secondary training. In a future post, we'll update the areas in which training has been completed.

The Boise District continues to work toward improving college graduation rates; the District's Strategic Plan is devoted to improving those rates and finding ways to help students enter and complete post-secondary pursuits, However, grad rates for Boise's students are far higher than the 10% rate represented in the Idaho Field Guide. 

So, if Boise's college grad rates are so much higher than claimed in the Field Guide, where are the districts that are at 10% or below?