Graduation Initiative 2025 Methodology
Graduation Initiative 2025 (GI 2025) is the California State University’s ambitious initiative to increase graduation rates for all CSU students while eliminating opportunity and achievement gaps. Through this initiative the CSU will ensure that all students have the opportunity to graduate in a timely manner according to their personal goals, positively impacting their future and producing the graduates needed to power California and the nation. For more information, see CSU’s Graduation Initiative 2025 page.
CSU Chancellor’s Office Campus Assigned GI 2025 Goals for SDSU[edit | edit source]
- Increase the 4-year graduation rate of first-time, full-time freshmen to 54% by 2025
- Increase the 6-year graduation rate of first-time, full-time freshmen to 86% by 2025
- Increase the 2-year graduation rate of California Community College transfers to 51% by 2025
- Increase the 4-year graduation rate of California Community College transfers to 91% by 2025
- Decrease the gap between Pell received and non-Pell received first-time, full-time freshmen graduating in six years to 0%
- Decrease the gap between underrepresented minority and non-underrepresented minority first-time, full-time freshmen graduating in six years to 0%
SDSU Campus Elevated GI 2025 Goals[edit | edit source]
- Increase the 4-year graduation rate of first-time, full-time freshmen to 60% by 2025
- Increase the 6-year graduation rate of first-time, full-time freshmen to 90% by 2025
- Increase the 2-year graduation rate of California Community College transfers to 62% by 2025
- Increase the 4-year graduation rate of California Community College transfers to 95% by 2025
- Decrease the gap between Pell received and non-Pell received first-time, full-time freshmen graduating in six years to 0%
- Decrease the gap between underrepresented minority and non-underrepresented minority first-time, full-time freshmen graduating in six years to 0%
About SDSU’s GI 2025 Progress Profile Dashboard[edit | edit source]
SDSU’s GI 2025 Progress Profile dashboard was developed based off of methodology developed by the CSU Chancellor's Office to inform the campus about progress made towards reaching our Graduation Initiative 2025 goals. The Chancellor’s Office Graduation Initiative 2025 Dashboard provides overall progress on reaching 2025 graduation goals for each of the 23 campuses in the CSU system. You can find information on the Chancellor’s Office methodology on the “Methods” tab of their dashboard. The SDSU Graduation Initiative 2025 Dashboard has been developed to provide additional breakdowns and analysis of the graduation data for SDSU colleges, which the Chancellor’s Office dashboard does not provide.
SDSU’s GI 2025 Progress Profile Dashboard Methodology[edit | edit source]
Graduation Rates[edit | edit source]
Graduation rates are calculated based on the Fall Matriculation Term of incoming cohorts of First-Time, Full-Time Freshman (FTFTF) and New Upper Division Transfers. (NUDT). Graduation is determined by the year and term each student graduates (including the trailing summer of an academic year - e.g. Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Summer 2018). Graduation rates are inclusive of all students from a cohort that graduate within the time frame specified by the graduation rate.
For example, for the “Actual FTFTF 6-Year Graduation Rate” for students that entered in Fall 2016, all students from that cohort that graduated in terms up to and including the summer of 2022 would be counted as graduated in the 6-year graduation rate calculation.
Graduation rates are calculated by taking the “Cumulative Graduation” count of students from a cohort and dividing by the “Cohort Total Enrollment” for that cohort’s Matriculation Term and then multiplying by 100 for the percentage.
Calculation = (Graduation Count / Cohort Enrollment)*100.
For example, for the 2016 Fall term of FTFTF:
Cohort Enrollment = 4,812
6-Year Graduation Count = 3,754
6-Year Graduation Rate = (3,754/4,812)*100 = 78.0%
Equity Gaps[edit | edit source]
Graduation Initiative 2025 focuses on eliminating graduation equity gaps between two specific populations: students that receive Pell aid vs. those that do not receive Pell aid and students that are underrepresented minorities (URM) and those that are not URM. For the purposes of Graduation Initiative 2025, equity gap targets are set specifically for FTFTF 6-Year Graduation Rates.
Equity gaps are calculated by first deriving the FTFTF 6-Year Graduation Rates for each sub-cohort of students.
For example, for the 2009 Fall matriculation term of FTFTF:
URM 6-Year Graduation Rate:
Cohort Enrollment” = 1,460
6-Year Graduation Count = 1,086
6-Year Graduation Rate = (1,086/1,460)*100 = 74.4%
Non URM 6-Year Graduation Rate:
Cohort Enrollment = 3,352
6-Year Graduation Count = 2,668
6-Year Graduation Rate = (2,668/3,352)*100 = 79.6%
The equity gap is then calculated by taking the actual graduation rate for each of the sub-groups and subtracting the trait-present subcohort rate (e.g. “Pell Grant Received” or “URM) from the trait-absent sub-cohort rate (e.g. “No Pell Grant Received” or “Non-URM”).
Calculation = 6-Year Graduation Rate [trait-present subcohort] - 6-Year Graduation Rate [trait-absent subcohort]
For example, for the Fall 2016 Fall FTFTF Cohort:
6-Year Graduation Rate [URM] = 74.4%
6- Year Graduation Rate [Non URM] = 79.6%
6-Year Graduation URM Equity Gap” = (-5.2%)
Cohort Differences Between Graduation Initiative 2025 Dashboards and SDSU’s Retention & Graduation Dashboards[edit | edit source]
GI 2025 definitions for Transfer cohorts differ slightly between the CO and SDSU. Explanations and visualizations describing these variations are below.
Note: The visualization below is for conceptual purposes only and does not indicate the actual proportions of the cohorts described.
“Upper Division Transfer” and “Lower Division Transfer” vs. “California Community College (CCC) Transfer” Cohorts[edit | edit source]
The CSU Chancellor’s Office Graduation Initiative 2025 “Transfers” cohort is actually “California Community College (CCC) Transfers” and is based on system-wide standards. This cohort is made up of subsets of both SDSU's “Upper Division Transfer” and “Lower Division Transfer” cohort populations.
SDSU’s Retention and Graduation dashboards in the Student Data Warehouse provide data for “Upper Division Transfer” and “Lower Division Transfer” cohorts, separately. SDSU’s “Upper Division Transfers” cohort includes transfer students with junior and senior standing, that are either state-supported or self-supported, that transferred from California Community Colleges or from other colleges and universities, and that are either full-time or part-time. SDSU’s “Lower Division Transfers” cohort includes transfer students with freshman and sophomore standing, that are either state-supported or self-supported, that transferred from either California Community Colleges or from other colleges and universities, and that are either full-time or part-time.
The CSU Chancellor’s Office Graduation Initiative 2025 dashboard and SDSU Graduation Initiative 2025 dashboard both use the “California Community College (CCC) Transfers” cohort. This includes transfer students that have standing of sophomore and above, that are state-supported, that are California Community College transfers, and that are either full-time or part-time. Excluded from the “California Community College (CCC) Transfers” cohort are transfer students with freshman standing, those that are self-supported, or those that transferred from other colleges and universities that are not California Community Colleges.
Other Reporting Differences Between CO’s and SDSU’s Graduation Initiative 2025 Dashboards[edit | edit source]
When using SDSU’s Graduation Initiative 2025 dashboard, you may encounter graduation rates and equity gap differences that vary slightly when compared with the Chancellor’s Office Graduation Initiative 2025 dashboard. One reason for this is that the Chancellor’s Office reports utilize social security numbers as identification of individual student records and SDSU’s Student Data Warehouse reports utilize Student ID.
Where Data Element Appears[edit | edit source]
ASIR Tableau Server Dashboards: