The annual graduation rate post

I know I've been barking up the tree of "Graduation Rates are inputs, not outputs" for a long time. And I know no one is listening. So I do this, just to show you (without the dependent variable) just how unsurprising they are.

Here are four views of graduation rates at America's four-year public and private, not-for-profit colleges and universities. And I've put them in four views, with several different ways to look at the data.

The first (using the tabs across the top) shows four-, five-, and six-year graduation rates on the left, and "Chance in four" on the right. In other words, since everyone pretty much thinks they're going to graduate from the college they enroll in as a freshman, what are the chances of graduating in four years, rather than six? There are some surprises there, as you'll see.

On all the visualizations, you can apply filters to limit the colleges you're looking at. The scroll bar (to move up or down) is on the right but it's sometimes hard to see. And the size slider is set to a minimum of 1,000 students, but you can change that; just beware that small colleges often have wonky data, for several reasons.

The second view shows six-year rates by gender.

The third view breaks out six-year rates by ethnicity, comparing African-American, Hispanic, and Asian rates (the shapes) to the rate for White students (on the gray bars).

And the final view breaks out six-year rates by Pell Grant status, then shows the gap between the two on the right. On the gap chart, a negative number shows colleges where Pell graduation rates are higher than non-Pell rates.

Enjoy!

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