COLLEGE GOING AND COMPLETION – AN ENCOURAGING TREND

According to the Arizona Board of Regents’ latest college going and completion data, high school students are increasingly enrolling in higher education and completing their degrees once enrolled – an encouraging trend for Arizona.

According to new data presented in an easy-to-use, interactive tool that enables students and families to view high schools’ college going and completion rates, the number of students continuing on to postsecondary education has increased 24.5 percent over the last six years.

During the same time period, Arizona has seen improvements in college completion numbers, increasing by 37.1 percent from 9,770 students graduating from a four-year postsecondary institution from the 2004- 05 high school graduating class to 13,393 graduating from the 2009-10 high school graduate cohort. From the 2008-09 class (12,971 college graduates) to 2009-10 class, there were an additional 422 students (3.25 percent) who earned degrees from four-year institutions.

There is also a steady increase among college completion rates for ethnic groups from 2005-06 to 2009-10. College completion among Hispanics rose 3.4 percent, a significant increase in Arizona where Hispanic student numbers are growing. Comparatively, Asian college completion rates during the same time period rose 5.7 percent, 2.75 percent for whites, 2.6 percent for African Americans and 2.1 percent for American Indians.

A Google Fusion map of Arizona high schools also reflects college going and completion data for individual high schools across the state.