Nov. 18, 2009
BERKELEY - University of California student-athletes achieved an 80 percent Graduation Success Rate in data released by the NCAA Wednesday, their highest figure since the national organization began compiling such information.
The Graduation Success Rate or GSR includes student-athletes who began their careers at Cal as freshmen or incoming transfers on athletic aid and is based on a six-year window for graduating. The most recent numbers include student-athletes who entered school between 1999-2002, reflecting a four-year average.
Cal's 2009 GSR jumped four percentage points from 2008 and continues a trend that has seen the Golden Bears' GSR rise steadily from a 73 percent rate in 2005.
"I am extremely proud of our consistent improvement in our graduation rates," Director of Athletics Sandy Barbour said. "We have set high expectations for our student-athletes on the academic front, and these results clearly show the results of their hard work, as well as the diligent efforts of the support environment created by our coaches, professors and Athletic Study Center staff."
The incoming 2002 freshman - the most recent class added to the averages - posted an 82 percent graduation rate, up a full 12 percent from the 2001 incoming class and six percentage points higher than any freshman class since the initial statistics were compiled. In addition, the football team's freshman 2002 class - head coach Jeff Tedford's first group of recruits - had a 71 percent graduation rate, an improvement of 18 percent from the previous year.
A pair of Golden Bear teams - women's golf and women's gymnastics - recorded perfect 100 percent GSRs, while six others were at or above 85 percent: volleyball (92%), women's swimming (96%), lacrosse (91%), women's crew (94%), women's basketball (92%) and men's gymnastics (85%).
In addition, four teams showed at least a 10 percent gain in their year-over-year rates - football (+11%), men's swimming (+10%), women's basketball (+21%) and women's track & field/cross country (+11%).
The Graduation Success Rate was created by the NCAA to address some of concerns about the methodology of the Federal Graduate Rate data, primarily to more accurately reflect mobility among student-athletes. The GSR includes students transferring into institutions and allows institutions to subtract student-athletes who leave their institutions prior to graduation as long as they would have been academically eligible to compete had they remained.
The GSR results come on the heels of the NCAA Academic Progress Rate report released last spring that showed 18 of Cal's 27 sports demonstrating gains from 2008 to 2009. The APR provides a real-time snapshot of academic success each semester by looking at the current progress of every student-athlete. It measures the eligibility, retention and graduation of student-athletes competing on each team, in addition to serving as a predictor of graduation success.
Women's soccer received special recognition for its academic performance after placing among the top 10 percent in its sport with an APR score of 995 (on a scale from 1 to 1,000). Others scoring 990 or higher were women's rowing (995), lacrosse (994) and volleyball (990). Football, whose score rose three points to 970, ranked in the 80th to 90th percentile, meaning its score was higher than at least 80 percent of other teams in its sport. Football also had the second-highest APR among Pac-10 schools.
California Student-Athlete Graduation Success Rates* 2009 80% 2008 76% 2007 75% 2006 73% 2005 73% *four-year averages
