Praise to Thee: Wisconsin Badger Graduation Rates

Oct 3, 2015; Madison, WI, USA; Wisconsin Badgers mascot Bucky Badger prior to the game against the Iowa Hawkeyes at Camp Randall Stadium. Iowa won 10-6. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 3, 2015; Madison, WI, USA; Wisconsin Badgers mascot Bucky Badger prior to the game against the Iowa Hawkeyes at Camp Randall Stadium. Iowa won 10-6. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports /
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A look at how Wisconsin’s graduation rates compare to other schools across the Big Ten and by year

This past weekend was commencement in Madison.  So that’s why you couldn’t get a table at one of the nicer restaurants in Madison if you tried.

Graduates heard a keynote address from Steven Levitan (’84), the creator of Emmy award magnet Modern Family.  UW reported that 42,000 people attended the ceremony at Camp Randall “including 7,200 bachelor’s and master’s degree recipients.”

Of course, since it was at Camp Randall, most of the students didn’t really arrive until at least a quarter of the event was already over.  Probably.

Numerous Badger athletes  earned their degrees including this familiar group.

https://twitter.com/BadgerMBB/status/863437484365144064

More from Badger of Honor

Wisconsin was pleased to report recently that five sports scored well on the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate metric which assesses eligibility, retention, and graduation.

"The NCAA announced on Wednesday that based on the most recent multiyear Academic Progress Rates, the Wisconsin football, men’s soccer, men’s tennis, women’s golf and women’s hockey teams all earned NCAA Public Recognition Awards for posting scores in the top 10 percent of their sport. The Badger football team joins Duke, Northwestern and Stanford as the only FBS football programs to earn APR Public Recognition Awards in each of the last five years."

The online APR tool suggests that female athletes fare better academically than their male counterparts.  Evidently gymnasts and skiers are top of the class.

I would understand if you don’t believe it, but the NCAA does actually track graduation rates by school and by individual sport.  The first move towards tracking graduation rates came in 1990, mandating reporting “disaggregated by race, gender and sport.”  In 2002, the NCAA looked to improve data collection for transfer students by shifting the academic accounting to the new school.  The NCAA called this the “Graduation Success Rate.”

"(1) removing from the calculation for a given institution any student-athlete who transferred but was academically eligible to continue their athletics participation at the institution of previous enrollment if they had stayed; and (2) including in the calculation for a given institution any student-athlete who transferred into that school."

So if you flunk out of your initial school you don’t count for purposes of the GSR as (1) indicates.  The NCAA claims it asked the U.S. Department of Education to adopt a similar standard for regular students so there can be a more direct comparison but the Department of Education declined.

The NCAA has an online tool to check the GSR by school, year, sport, state, and conference.  I did a little research so you don’t have too for a few Badger sports.