NCES Report: Institutions Serving Low-Income Students Have Lower Graduation Rates

Institutions that serve higher levels of low-income students tend to have lower graduation rates, according to a recent report, Placing College Graduation Rates in Context released by the National Center for Educational Statistics. Graduation rates tend to drop systematically as the size of the low-income freshman population increases. This is one of the few studies that compares four-year institutions to each other instead of comparing them to all colleges and universities nationwide, making it a unique resource to see how the size of an institutions low-income student population and selectivity of the school can affect graduation rates.

Originally posted to NASFAA’s Today’s News on 11/17/06