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CSU four-year graduation rate stalled

The campus of Cal State-Los Angeles
Kaya
/
Flickr / Creative Commons
The campus of Cal State-Los Angeles

The system announced Monday during its Graduation Initiative 2025 symposium in San Diego that rates remain unchanged from last year for first-time students.

According to EdSource, preliminary data shows the four-year graduation rate remains unchanged from last year at 35 percent. The system's 2025 goal is 40 percent. The six-year graduation rate for first-time students also remains the same as last year at 62 percent. The 2025 goal is 70 percent.

Graduation rates for transfers also remain flat this year, although the two-year transfer rate increased by one percentage point from last year to 41 percent. The 2025 two-year transfer goal is 45 percent. However, four-year transfer rates slightly decreased from 80 percent last year to 79 percent this year. The 2025 four-year transfer goal is 85 percent.

Despite the stall, Cal State has doubled its four-year graduation rates from 19 percent, when the 2025 graduation initiative was created in 2015. And since 2016, the CSU has contributed to an additional 150,000 bachelor's degrees earned.

However, graduation equity gaps persist throughout the system. The gap between African American, Latino and Native American students and their peers increased by one point this year to a 13 percent difference.

The graduation rate for African American students is almost 50 percent. And the socioeconomic gap in graduation rates between low-income and higher-income students increased to 12 percent, said Jeff Gold, assistant vice chancellor for student success in the chancellor's office.

Sunni M. Khalid is a veteran of more than 40 years in journalism, having worked in print, radio, television, and web journalism.