Advances in data technology have caused educators at all levels to rely more and more on numbers to make decisions. The most important numbers to colleges include graduation and retentions rates.Colleges use these numbers to attract new students. The U.S. Department of Education also uses these numbers to either reward or penalize universities.

Using graduation rates may seem like a good way to judge a school at first, but the system is flawed according to Clifford Adelman, a senior research analyst for the U.S. Department of Education. Students who transfer to or from another school cannot be counted in either school’s graduation rates. This is a problem because statistics show that one in five students who earn a bachelor’s degree received it from a four-year college other than the one in which they were first enrolled.

This issue is coming to the forefront because the Bush administration is pushing for Congress to hold colleges more accountable for graduation rates, and Congress is preparing to renew the Higher Education Act, which governs federal student aid programs.

Louisiana, along with Ohio, Oklahoma and Virginia, has taken steps to correct this problem. They have started to include students who transfer to other colleges within the state in graduation rates. No state has put a system in place to allow for students who transfer to out of state schools to be tracked. Out of state transfers account for about 20 percent of all transfer students that graduate with a bachelor’s degree.

Nicholls’ most recently reported graduation rate is 25.3 percent for four-year students. This is comparable to similarly-sized colleges around the state such as McNeese, Northwestern, Southeastern and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Nicholls’ latest numbers are an improvement on recent years when they hovered around 21 to 22 percent. That is a significant jump according to Renee Hicks, director of assessment and institutional research.

Another important criterion used to judge colleges is freshman retention rates because research shows that the majority of students who don’t graduate quit within the first year. The average rate of returning sophomores at Nicholls is around 45 percent, which is also an improvement on recent years.

Louisiana’s Tuition Opportunity Program for Students is the reason for increased retention and graduation rates in the state, according to Hicks. “We have definitely seen a steady increase in graduation rates since the first TOPS class because the financial support is there for all four years,” Hicks said.

“Also, since TOPS has been in place we have seen a lot more kids focusing on college in high school and worried about taking the right courses then,” Hicks said.

Not only has TOPS increased the percentage of graduates but also increased the actual number of graduates at Nicholls. Four years ago the number of graduates jumped to over 1000 and has stayed there since. Nicholls had previously graduated that many students only once.

Graduation rates are also expected to take another jump here at Nicholls when new admissions requirements begin in 2005.

Hicks feels that average class size is an important advantage that is often overlooked here at Nicholls. “Nicholls retains students that statistically shouldn’t be retained; (they) tend to get retained here because of the support system in place,” Hicks said.