Editorial: CSU four-year graduation rates improve, but not enough

Amidst all the troubling data about the effect of the pandemic on education, there is some good news.

The California State University system continues to increase the portion of students graduating after four years. The rate is still unacceptable, but at least the numbers are trending in the right direction.

Shockingly, of the students who entered CSU as freshmen in 2010, only 19% had graduated by 2014. The good news is that, eight years later, 35% of the class that started in 2018 graduated by 2022.

The biggest improvement among the system’s 23 campuses was seen at San Jose State, while the rates at Cal State East Bay and San Francisco State lag the average.

The steady improvement is positive, but it’s not enough. CSU — which has about 460,000 students and is the largest university system in the nation — trails far behind the national average for graduation within four years, estimated at 44% in 2019, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

CSU must do a much better job of ensuring that more students — especially low-income students — finish their bachelor’s degree studies in four years.

For the schools, it means freeing up classroom and housing space sooner so more new students can be admitted. For students, graduating on time can save tens of thousands of dollars annually.

Tuition, fees, books, housing, transportation and other associated costs for one year at CSU totals more than $25,000 annually, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Financial aid that helps defray the cost might also run out if students take too long.

Meanwhile, a student who delays graduation misses out on work income. Students who graduate from CSU earn an average of $45,500 per year within their first two years of working.

The improvements we’ve seen in four-year graduation rates seem due in part to the efforts of state Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, a former member of the CSU Board of Trustees.

The problematic rates date back until at least the class that entered in 2000, of which only 13% graduated in four years. There was some improvement over the following decade, but the biggest improvements have been seen in recent years, roughly coinciding with legislation Glazer introduced.

Glazer authored Senate Bill 412, which then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed in 2016, creating an incentive system granting priority registration in classes for students who took full coursework loads and pledged to complete their degrees in four years.

Admittance to the “College Promise” program gave priority to low-income students, students from high schools that are underrepresented in college attendance, first-generation college students and transfer students.

It was a good start. San Jose State’s four-year graduation rate increased from 11% who graduated in 2014 to 37% in 2022. Unfortunately, Cal State East Bay’s rate, which increased from 14% in 2014 to 22% in 2022, and San Francisco State’s, which increased from 18% to 28%, remain disappointing.

In this era of limits on state funding, CSU needs to better ensure that it spends the money it receives most efficiently — to maximize the number of timely graduating students.