By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee Tech student-athletes posted impressive scores in the latest Graduation Success Rate (GSR) and Federal Graduation Rate (FGR) reports, released Tuesday afternoon by the NCAA. Tech has not only maintained a high level of success in the school's graduation rates overall, the student-athlete graduation rates continue to rank higher than those for the general TTU student body.
The current report gives graduation information about students and student-athletes entering in 2008. This is the most recent graduating class for which the required six years of information is available.
"We are proud that our student-athletes continue to put academic success as their top priority," said Mark Wilson, TTU Director of Athletics, "and they understand the important role that athletics plays in serving the university and the surrounding community."
Posting an overall GSR of 83, compared with a mark of 81 in last year's report, the numbers shed light on how well Tech compares with other public institutions within the state, with schools in the Ohio Valley Conference, and nationally when compared with all Division I programs.
In a head-to-head comparison with all other NCAA Division I schools, nine of Tech's 13 programs exceeded the national GSR average of their respective sports.
"We never take these numbers for granted, and once again we are extremely proud of the results," Wilson said. "Tennessee Tech's student-athletes continue to do a tremendous job in balancing the demands of both academics and athletics.
The GSR and FGR numbers of Tech's student-athletes continue to shine when compared with the numbers for the general student body. Eleven of Tech's 13 athletic programs received a higher FGR than Tech's general student body graduation rate.
What makes the result for Golden Eagle student-athletes even more credible is the fact that Tennessee Tech's general student body boasted the highest graduation rate among all Division I public institutions in the state and the third-highest rate of all Division I universities in the state.
"The results of this most recent NCAA report speak to the diligence of our student-athletes," Wilson said. "Our students are coming in better prepared when they enter Tennessee Tech, and they are staying on track to earn their degrees."
"If you layer the GSR on top of the statewide graduation rates, we can say that Tennessee Tech is among the leaders in the state for graduating our student-athletes," Wilson pointed out.
Tennessee Tech has a GSR of 83 for the six-year period tracking students who entered in 2009. The school's GSR was 77 in 2010, 78 in 2011, 79 in 2012, 80 in 2013, 79 in 2014 and 81 in 2015.
The 73 percent Federal Graduation Rate for Tech's student-athletes is up eight percent over the FGR in last year's report and is 20 percentage points higher than the FGR of Tech's general student body, which is 53 percent for the 2009 incoming freshmen in the report. Tech's FGR mark ranks the institution second in the Ohio Valley Conference and seven percent higher than all Division I student-athletes.
"When you compare the size of the staff devoted to academic support for student-athletes at Tech with the other state schools, the results are even more impressive," Wilson said. "While a couple of our sister TBR institutions have considerably more academic advisors in their athletic academic support staff, we are achieving these results with a staff of four. That speaks volumes for the job these staff members and our coaches do with stressing the importance of the academic work to our student-athletes."
Two Tech teams, men's golf and men's tennis, achieved a rank of 100 on the GSR, with men's tennis doing so for the fifth consecutive year. Those two teams also led the Ohio Valley Conference, along with the Golden Eagle football team, which tied for the best mark. Other teams in the Top-5 in the league were baseball, women's cross country/track and soccer.
The latest GSR report reflects several other positive trends including a continued high rate of students in athletics making the Athletic Director's Honor Roll, high grade point average earned by Golden Eagle student-athletes, two 2016-17 OVC Scholar-Athletes and multiple CoSIDA Academic All-District honors.
During the past several years, Tech's student-athletes have posted the highest combined GPA ever achieved at the University, earned a combined 3.0 GPA in 15 straight semesters, and filled the Athletic Director's Honor Roll with more than 200 student-athletes in 11 of the last 14 semesters.
"These most recent reports are continued good news for Tennessee Tech Athletics," Wilson said. "It verifies in numbers that we are successfully fulfilling our mission of graduating our student-athletes. One thing must not be forgotten… first and foremost, we are here to educate. As always, our goal is for every student-athlete to leave Tennessee Tech with a diploma in one hand and a championship ring on the other."
The NCAA's Graduation Success Rate includes transfer students and student-athletes who leave in good academic standing, unlike the federal rate, which includes only incoming freshmen and does not count transfers. The GSR and federal rate calculations measure graduation over six years from initial college enrollment.
Complete NCAA Graduation Success Rate data for all Division I institutions can be accessed at www.ncaa.org.
Graduation Success Rate (GSR)
Graduation Success Rate (GSR) begins with the federal cohort, and adds transfer students, mid-year enrollees, and non-scholarship students (in specified cases) to the sample. Student-athletes who leave an institution while in good academic standing before exhausting their athletics eligibility are removed from the cohort of their initial institution. This rate provides a more complete and accurate look at actual student-athlete success by taking into account the full variety of participants in Division I athletics and tracking their academic outcomes.
Federal Graduation Rate (FGR)
Federal Graduation Rate assesses only first-time full-time freshmen in a given cohort and only counts them as academic successes if they graduate from their institution of initial enrollment within a six-year period. It makes no accommodation for transfers into or out of an institution. The rate is very limited because it ignores the large number of transfer students in higher education, but it is still the only rate that allows a direct comparison between student-athletes and the general student body.
