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In order to provide a broader view of retention and graduation rates, DePaul’s rates were compared to data from twenty reference institutions participating in the Consortium for Student Retention Data Exchange (CSRDE) annual survey of retention, administered by the Center for Institutional Data Exchange (C-IDEA) at the University of Oklahoma. The CSRDE consists of about 300 institutions from across the country. Participation is voluntary and many institutions, especially private institutions against which DePaul is often compared, are not members of the CSRDE. For benchmark purposes, twenty institutions (see Appendix A) were selecting, representing the best mix of private, public and urban (or urban fringe) institutions available from the CRSDE roll. The data received from CSRDE allows for benchmarking DePaul’s rates by institutional control (public versus private), Carnegie classification (Doctoral/Research Extensive versus Doctoral/Research Intensive), race and gender.
The primary analytical procedure used in this report is a boxplot (or sometimes called a box-and-whiskers plot). Appendix B provides a description of how to interpret boxplots. In this case, the retention and graduation rates of the institutions are the points distributed in the boxplots. The data received from CSRDE included retention and graduation statistics for cohorts of new full-time freshmen from 1995 through 2001. The plots provided in this report examine composite retention to the second and third years of attendance, as well as graduation rates at the end of the fourth, fifth and sixth years. Data across the seven cohorts were combined (weighting for cohort size) to single rates for each comparison.
Results
The boxplot to the right shows the overall retention and graduation rate distributions for all institutions in the comparison group. As can be seen in the figure, DePaul’s retention and graduation rates are consistently above the median for the reference group. Since the borders of the box represent the 25th and 75th percentiles (lower and upper borders, respectively), the fact that DePaul’s graduation rates fall closer to the median than the retention rates suggest that compared to the reference group, our graduation rates are not as strong relatively as our retention rates.
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Institutional Control
Typically, private institutions have considerably higher retention and graduation rates than public institutions, most likely because private institutions tend to have higher selectivity rates and higher percentages of full-time undergraduates. This reference group was comprised of 11 public institutions and 9 private institutions. The two charts below show the boxplots for the public and private institutions separately and DePaul’s relative standing among the members of each group. Comparing the charts to each other, it is apparent that the retention and graduation rates for private institutions are higher than the rates for public institutions.
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When compared to public institutions, DePaul’s rates are considerably above the median. When compared to the other private institutions in the reference group, DePaul’s rates are below the median for persistence and considerably below the median for the graduation rates.
Carnegie Classification
The Carnegie Classification is intended to be a relatively homogeneous taxonomy of colleges and universities with respect to the institutions' functions as well as student and faculty characteristics. The Classification was developed in the early 1970s by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education to aid its policy research. It was used in several Commission reports in 1971 and 1972, with category definitions documented in appendices, but comprehensive institution listings did not appear until 1973 when the Classification was published for use by others conducting research on higher education. Revised editions were published in 1976, 1987, 1994, and 2000. The institutions in this reference group belong to one of three categories:
· Doctoral/Research Universities—Extensive (7 institutions): These institutions typically offer a wide range of baccalaureate programs, and they are committed to graduate education through the doctorate. During the last review period (2000), they awarded 50 or more doctoral degrees per year across at least 15 disciplines.
· Doctoral/Research Universities—Intensive (13 institutions, including DePaul): These institutions typically offer a wide range of baccalaureate programs, and they are committed to graduate education through the doctorate. During the period studied, they awarded at least ten doctoral degrees per year across three or more disciplines, or at least 20 doctoral degrees per year overall.
· Master's Colleges and Universities I (1 institution): These institutions typically offer a wide range of baccalaureate programs, and they are committed to graduate education through the master's degree. During the period studied, they awarded 40 or more master's degrees per year across three or more disciplines.
The boxplots for the institutions by Carnegie Classification show that DePaul is above the median when compared to both DR-Extensive and –Intensive institutions. However, DePaul’s ratings are closer to the median scores for the DR-Extensive institutions, suggesting a relatively lower standing than in comparison to the DR-Intensive institutions.
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Gender
Data from CSRDE also provides the cohort data for the categories of race and gender (independently, not in interaction; i.e., we do not have data for African-American Males). The boxplots below show DePaul’s standing relative to the reference group for male and female students.
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For DePaul, male and female students were retained at very similar rates into the third year, but the graduation rates for male students were slightly lower (5 to 7 percentage points) than female students. Relative to the other institutions, though, it appears that DePaul does a slightly better job at retaining and graduating male students than female students, as evidenced by the distance between DePaul rates and the medians for each plot.
Race
On the next page are the boxplots for each racial group individually. A quick comparison on first year retention and sixth year graduation rates appear below. Relative to the institutions in the reference group, DePaul does a much better job at retaining students of color into the second year. However, there appears to be a decline of effectiveness in graduating African-American students. Tables 7A-7D provide rates by race for each institution in the reference group.
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The boxplots for each ethnic group show:
· For African-Americans, DePaul outperforms the median retention and graduation rates. DePaul’s rates, though, do approach the median as time progresses. In other words, the sixth-year graduation rate is much closer to the median than DePaul’s fourth year graduation rate.
· For Asian/Pacific Islander students, DePaul consistently outperforms the majority of the other institutions, with its rates being consistently at or above the 75th percentile.
· For Latino/a students, we see a fourth-year graduation rate near the 50th percentile (the median), but the relative standing improves by the sixth year.
· For Caucasian students, DePaul’s retention and graduation rates are consistently between the 50th and 75th percentile.
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Conclusions
In general, DePaul compares favorably to the reference group of public and private institutions.
· For most comparisons, DePaul’s graduation and retention rates range between the 67th and 75th percentile, if not higher. In other words, DePaul outperforms two-thirds to three-quarters or more of the institutions in the reference group.
· DePaul does consistently better than the public urban institutions in this group, but consistently worse than most of the other private institutions. This suggests that the best reference group for retention and graduation studies is one that contains both private and public institutions as such a group gives the best gauge of DePaul’s relative standing among urban institutions.
· DePaul appears to do a relatively better job of retaining and graduating students of color, although the graduation rate for African-American students ranks lower than those seen for the other minority groups.