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 Wednesday afternoon by the NCAA. Tech has not only maintained a high level of success in the school's graduation rates overall, but the student-athlete graduation rates also 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 2016. This is the most recent graduating class for which the required six years of information is available.
"We make it clear to our student-athletes and coaches what the mission is when they come to Tennessee Tech," Tech Director of Athletics Mark Wilson said. "We want them to walk out of her with a diploma in one hand and a championship ring on the other. They understand that the student in student-athlete comes first and our students are coming in better prepared than ever and staying on track to earn their degrees."
With an 88, Tech posted a GSR of 80 or higher for the ninth straight year and 10th time in the past 11 years. The 88 marked the second-highest GSR for Tennessee Tech since the NCAA started reporting the information, trailing only last year's 89.
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. The impressive GSR mark of 88 displays the continued and sustained growth by Golden Eagle student-athletes over the past several years. Tech ranked tied for fourth in the state among public institutions in GSR.
The GSR and FGR numbers of Tech's student-athletes continue to shine when compared with the numbers for the general student body. Seven of Tech's 14 athletic programs (beach volleyball does not appear in the rankings yet due to just starting at Tech in 2022-23) received a higher FGR than Tech's general student body graduation rate.
What makes the result for Golden Eagle student-athletes even more impressive, is the fact that Tennessee Tech's general student body easily boasted the second-highest graduation rate among all Division I public institutions in the state, finishing behind only the University of Tennessee.
"Results and numbers like these just go to show the amount of hard work our student-athletes put into balancing the rigorous demands that come with learning and competing at the Division I level," Wilson said. "We are quite proud of what they have accomplished and it just speaks volumes about everyone that is involved in the process."
Tennessee Tech has a GSR of 88 for the six-year period tracking students who entered in 2016. The school's GSR was 79 in 2012, 80 in 2013, 79 in 2014, 81 in 2015, 83 in 2016, 85 in both 2017 and 2018, 87 in 2019, 84 in 2020, 85 in 2021, and 89 in 2022.
"[Assistant A.D. for Academics and Student Welfare] Dr. Leveda Birdwell and her staff are incredible at making noticeable impacts in the lives of our student-athletes," Wilson explained, "and they do so while many of our sister institutions in the state of Tennessee are working with considerably more resources and support staff. I couldn't be more proud than what our academic staff accomplishes with and alongside our student-athletes, and this is just another testament to everything they do."
Birdwell added, "I wake up every morning so excited to see our student-athletes and work on accomplishing their goals for life after athletics. These numbers are the end game for us. Our goal is to help every one of our student-athletes walk across that stage and smile proudly while they show off that diploma. Our Golden Eagles are a joy to be around, understand the importance of academics, and put in such hard work to be the best versions of themselves, it's hard not be excited when we walk in to work."
The women's golf team achieved a rank of 100 on both the GSR and FGR for the third straight year and the third time in history. For the fourth consecutive year, both the softball team and volleyball team delivered GSR marks of 100. It marked the fourth time ever with a perfect score for the softball program and the 11th time overall for the volleyball program.
The tennis team also boasted a GSR of 100 for the 13th time in program history while the men's golf team earned a 100 in the GSR for the sixth time. For the first time in school history, the men's basketball team earned a perfect 100 in the GSR, providing Tech with six sport programs producing at the highest level.
Each of the women's golf, softball, tennis, volleyball, men's golf, women's cross country/track & field, and men's basketball teams led the Ohio Valley Conference in GSR. Six of those teams also led the state of Tennessee in GSR. The football and men's cross country programs also produced top-three showings in the league.
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, impressive grade point averages earned by Golden Eagle student-athletes, and numerous academic honors across all sports programs.
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 29 straight semesters, and filled the Athletic Director's Honor Roll with more than 200 student-athletes in 24 of the last 28 semesters. This includes each of the top-six totals of student-athletes on the AD Honor Roll in program history over the past eight semesters.
Just a few weeks ago, baseball student-athlete Peyton Calitri and soccer student-athlete Yao Giada Zhou were recognized as OVC Scholar-Athletes, becoming the ninth and 10th Golden Eagles to earn the league's top honor in the past eight years.
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.
