Reply #48: I read the whole article twice, and still didn't find the retention RATE

[alcibiades_mystery]

The article says

Enrollment has soared by 25 percent in the past decade to more than 6 million students nationwide. Yet many of them don't finish.

How many? What's the drop out RATE?

Such waivers are given to thousands of low-income students each year.

Thousands? Out of six million? OK, then.

Then I read through the whole report. There are numerous section headings that scream "low retention rates" all over the place, "lack of success," and whatnot. I searched and searched for a rate. It wasn't until I got to the end of the report that I found something like a rate for students who "didn't return," 60% of whom had transferred, while 40% of that group dropped out. According to their data source, the drop-out rate causing this big kerfuffle is....

11.1%

Between graduation and transfers to universities, it seems that nearly 90% of community college students "successfully" use the community college to their benefit. Is their some other way to read this? And why doesn't the first line of the report say "According to our data vehicles, community colleges have a drop out rate of 11.1% among full-time, first year students." Wouldn't that be the logical place to start? I can see why the SF Chronicle reporter did not include the rate in her article: it was next to impossible to find in the 22 page report.

Why do you think that might be?