State-Journal.com - KSU works to halt dropping graduation rate

Each of Kentucky’s public universities has increased the number of degrees awarded to students over the last five years - except Kentucky State University, which had 9 percent fewer graduates.

Earlier this month, the Council on Postsecondary Education published data detailing the increase. Statewide, the number of degrees from four-year institutions rose 20 percent in the last five years.

Eastern Kentucky University had the largest increase, at nearly 48 percent.

KSU President Mary Sias said Wednesday that university officials are working to correct the downward trend. She emphasized that for many students at KSU – and at historically black colleges and universities nationwide – the odds aren’t in their favor.

“You have a ratio that says, ‘Here’s the number we expect to graduate, based on the fact that everybody looks alike,’” she said. “But everybody doesn’t (look alike). We start with a very different student population.”

Students at KSU are more likely than their peers to need remedial classes, to struggle financially and to work while attending school - 30 percent of them at two jobs.

Many have families to care for, Sias said, and are forced to stop and start school several times.

“It’s a revolving door effect,” she said.

Graduation rates don’t account for students who transfer or take more than six years, which may be more common at HBCUs than at other schools.

A study released this month by the American Enterprise Institute gave KSU an overall graduation rate of 27 percent, the third lowest among Kentucky’s public and private universities. Only Lindsey Wilson College and Louisville’s Spalding University were lower.

When CPE released its data, Sias said KSU administrators looked back at the 2002 freshman class.

They found that the female students from Kentucky graduated on time, but only 7 percent of the in-state African American males made it to commencement.

“That’s when it really leaped out that the other members of that cohort were graduating,” she said. “It was black males that pulled everything down. … And that’s a national problem.”

An Associated Press analysis of government data from four-year HBCUs shows just 37 percent of African American students finish a degree within six years. That’s 4 percentage points lower than the national college graduation rate for black students.

For males, the graduation rate was 29 percent.

“What it says to me, in a very profound way, is that we are truly going to have to do something specifically for them,” she said.

Black males also had twice the debt after their first year than other KSU students, Sias said.

“They had debt at the end of that year, and they had fewer people to rely on,” she said. “You have that same phenomenon that you see all across the country – stop out, or drop out.”

Sias said some of the 2002 freshmen were successful later, or at other institutions. Two graduated in 2009, and four more are on track to finish in the coming semesters. Seven more transferred schools, and later graduated.

The university is taking an “intrusive approach” to improving graduation and retention rates, Sias said. One element is its Quality Enhancement Plan, an element of the accreditation process through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Called “Academics with Attitude,” the program, still in its pilot stage, brings remediation students to campus the summer before their freshman year.

Students meet in small groups, and advisers monitor their grades weekly. Eventually, their student identification cards will track class attendance, Sias said.

The university has hired seven new developmental education teachers, and three more will be on staff by the fall.

When the program kicks off next year, all remediation students will be required to participate. It’s free to students now, though they could be asked to pay in the future, Sias said.

It will cost KSU $1 million a year in federal funds to operate.

Sias says the university has already seen a 24 percent increase in math and reading grades, and a 97 percent retention rate among students in the pilot.

“By the end of five years, the program will pay for itself,” she said. “We will have more students staying and graduating.”

About 80 percent of KSU students need remediation in college, and half of them need three courses, Sias said.

Kentucky requires students who score below an 18 on the English, math and reading portions of the ACT exam to take developmental education classes or do supplemental work. In 2010, the minimum score will rise to 19 in math and 20 in reading.

The average score for incoming KSU students is 17.

Sue Cain, who is coordinating a developmental education initiative for CPE, said she expects to see a 7 percent jump in the number of Kentucky students who will need assistance in math – that’s 1,634 students.

The increase could be 10 percent for reading, she said, or 2,552 students.

Sias said students with remediation needs are 50 percent less likely to graduate than other students. The courses don’t count toward a degree, and students can’t move forward with credit-bearing work until they finish.

“Not in the United States, nor the commonwealth, is the school system serving those students well,” she said.

“All of us are putting on our thinking caps to come up with some programs that we can do, not just on this campus, but at HBCUs across the country.”

The university is working to reduce the number of credit hours required to graduate and offer more classes in the summer.

Administrators are also considering adding a winter intersession, Sias said.

The course load has already been lessened in mass communications, journalism and two areas of the English program.

The opportunities to work part-time on campus will also increase, Sias said. More than 80 percent of KSU students are on financial aid, and 60 percent are eligible for federal Pell grants.

There have been improvements to the tutoring center, and an increase in the number of peer tutors. University officials could also involve fraternities and sororities in the campaign, she said.

“Whatever it takes,” she said. “Because it’s now reached the proportion of a national epidemic.”

Sias has also spoken with Kentucky’s representatives in D.C. about receiving more funding for developmental education, including Sen. Mitch McConnell, Rep. John Yarmuth and Rep. Ben Chandler.

“We believe that they’re going to be very helpful in helping us to solve this problem,” she said.

Sias says she hopes to see graduation and retention rates improve in a few years – it won’t happen overnight, she says.

“K-State will be different in four or five years,” she said.

“We’re moving away from the things that we’ve always done, because we’ve always done them, to try new ways, new strategies, new pedagogies to reach those target populations.”