SACS Accreditation

4.1 Student Achievement

Federal Requirement: When evaluating success with respect to student achievement in relation to the institution’s mission, the institution includes, as appropriate, consideration of course completion, state licensing examinations, and job placement rates.

X Compliance
    Partial Compliance
    Non-compliance

Narrative:

Georgia State University evaluates its success with respect to student achievement in relationship to its mission through graduation rates, student retention data, performance on external examinations (including licensing exams), graduation surveys, and job placement rates.

Graduation and Retention Rates

Georgia State University collects and uses various indicators of student achievement in assessing its success.  Retention and graduation rate data are major topics in the University's Strategic Plan [1] and annual Action Plans for 2006 [2] and 2007 [3]. Data for undergraduates at Georgia State University show the following:

• The six-year graduation rate for undergraduate students shows an increase from 35% and 32% in 2002 and 2003 respectively, to around 40% for the past three years (40%, 39%, and 41% respectively) [4]. 
• The most recent data on students who had transferred to Georgia State University (262 students in the 2002 cohort) indicates that 64.5% of them have graduated.
• Nationally, Georgia State graduates more African-American students with bachelor degrees than any other non-Historically Black College & University, and was third nationally in FY 2004 among all colleges and universities. Graduation rates for African-American students increased to 47 percent and for white students to 36 percent. 
• The graduate rate for PhD students averages slightly more than 50% [5]

Improving retention rates is also a continuing goal for the university [6]. Retention from freshman to sophomore year for the fall 2003 cohort increased over that of the previous year to 83 percent. A goal is to increase first-year retention rates to 86 percent for the fall 2009 freshman class. Nationally, attrition rates are 20 percent for the first year, ten percent for second year, and a cumulative nine percent for the next four years. For Georgia State, over twice as many students leave during years two through six than leave after the first year. Thus, there is potential for significant improvement in second and subsequent year’s retention rates. A new goal is to decrease attrition rates to less than ten percent for the second year and less than five percent for the third year. The University tracks retention data for each major, and can be viewed by department within each college profile. [7]

Reporting and analyzing student retention data is a required component of the self-study report for all academic programs going through the Academic Program Review  process described in Core Requirement 2.5 Institutional Effectiveness. Those reports are on the Academic Program Review web site.[8]

Performance on External Examinations

Georgia State University also tracks students' performance on external examinations, including licensing exams.

PRAXIS II scores submitted to the Georgia Professional Standards Commission by the College of Education for GSU Program Completers seeking licensure in Georgia.

The College of Health and Human Sciences pass rates on licensing examinations are shown in the table below.

Students in the Georgia State University College of Law continue to pass the State Bar Examination at a very high rate as seen in the chart below.

Although not required for licensing, the Robinson College of Business requires its majors to take the ETS Major Field examination in Business. Recent results are in the chart below.

University Surveys of Graduates

The University surveys undergraduate alumni [9] and graduate alumni [10] about their perceptions of their education as part of the Academic Program Review process. Between 2003 and 2005, a total of 1141 undergraduate alumni (34.4% response rate) participated in the surveys.  For graduate students, 972 responded (4.3% response rate) over the same period. Programs under Academic Program Review are required to address the survey results from their students in evaluating the strengths and weakensses of their program and developing action plans.  The University also surveys graduating undergraduate [11, 12] and graduate students [13, 14] about their perception of their experiences at Georgia State.

Graduates' Salary Survey

In the fall of 2006 the Georgia Board of Regents conducted its annual salary survey of college and university graduates from the previous year. These data provide a limited picture of the success of our graduates after leaving the University. A total of 356 Georgia State University graduates returned the survey (only an 11.5% response rate). The largest number of respondents was from the Department of Psychology (32 or 10%) and various programs in the College of Business (71 or 20%). A total of 88% of respondents indicated they were working and being paid a salary (median salary was $33,000 — excluding those employed as teachers who are on a fixed salary scale), while another 9% indicated that they were self-employed.

Supporting Documentation:

1. Strategic Plan for 2005-2010
2. University Action Plan for 2006
3. University Action Plan for 2007
4. GSU graduation rates 
5. GSU graduation rates for doctoral students
6. Strategic Plan for 2005-2010
7. Departmental retention rates
8. Academic Program Review
9. Surveys of undergraduate student alumni
10. Surveys of graduate student alumni
11. Surveys of graduating undergraduate students – spring 2006
12. Surveys of graduating undergraduate students – fall 2006  
13. Surveys of graduating graduate students – spring 2006
14. Surveys of graduating graduate students – fall 2006