Student-athletes continue to perform well in the classroom, graduating at a higher rate than ever before and continuing to surpass the graduation rates achieved by the general student body, NCAA data released Tuesday reveal.

The aggregate Graduation Success Rate for Division I moved to within two percentage points of NCAA President Myles Brand’s goal of 80 percent, up a point from last year’s 77 percent GSR.

In the years since the GSR was created, the academic success of student-athletes over the long term trends positively, influenced by various standards the Association has adopted to help improve academic performance. The NCAA and member institutions are committed to the academic performance of student-athletes, demonstrated by increasing academic standards both before enrollment and after student-athletes arrive on campus to learn and compete.

This commitment is bolstered by the continuing upward movement in graduation success. Nearly eight of every 10 student-athletes earn a degree within six years of matriculation. Nearly nine of 10 earn a degree within 10 years.

“We still have work to do and can’t declare victory just yet, but the trend lines are moving in the right direction,” Brand said. “The ultimate success is in the changed lives of student-athletes. The so-called ‘dumb jock’ myth is just that – a myth.”

While the aggregate GSR is now 78 percent, the year-by-year figures are trending upward also.  The most recent data collection year (student-athletes who entered in 2001-02) showed that 79 percent of student-athletes graduated within the six-year time frame.

This class was exposed to several years of the Academic Performance Program, the NCAA’s real-time metric of academic success. The NCAA began collecting eligibility and retention information for every student-athlete in the APP cohort beginning in 2003-04, so the most recent class included in these GSR data were touched by that reform as well.

Additionally, increased core-course and initial-eligibility standards were imposed for the incoming class of 2003.

The data revealed another upward trend – the rising number of graduates. About 11,000 additional student-athletes graduated over the six years between the 1995 entering class and the 2001 entering class, and about 4,000 of them because of the increase in graduation rates. The remainder are because of  a larger number of student-athletes competing in Division I.

In addition to the overall increase, the GSR for male student-athletes rose from 70 to 71 percent. The GSR for female student-athletes remained steady at an already-high 86 percent.

"I look at these results and I must say it's very satisfying and encouraging to see member instiuttions of the NCAA working hard to improve the academic success of our student-athletes," said Walter Harrison, chair of the Committee on Academic Performance and president of the University of Hartford. "Student-athletes do well academically and are increasingly doing better. I think that's something we should recognize and celebrate."

Men’s basketball rates increased one point, though it remains the lowest-performing sport overall. In the Bowl Subdivision, the GSR for football student-athletes remained steady at 67 percent, but the rate for student-athletes in the Football Championship Subdivision fell. The NCAA has already assembled working groups with representatives from basketball and football to address the issues specific to those sports and devise a plan for improving academic performance and graduation success for these student-athletes.

Baseball, the first sport to receive scrutiny from a working group, moved up two points, passing football. While the effects of rule changes to bolster academics in baseball are not yet affecting the GSR figures, signs point to a continued positive trend for the sport.

In women’s sports, basketball jumped nearly five percentage points after remaining around 80 percent since 1995.  The only women’s sport below the 80 percent goal was bowling at 68 percent, unchanged from last year.

The data are from the four-class aggregate of entering classes from 1998 through 2001 and show the percentage of student-athletes earning a degree within six years. Using the federal graduation rate, the student-athletes entering Division I institutions in 2001 graduated at their highest rate ever – 64 percent, a rate that has increased four points over the past six years. The most recent student body graduation rate was 62 percent.

The NCAA developed the GSR four years ago to account for transfer student-athletes and others not tracked by the federal graduation rate. The GSR captures about 37 percent more students than the federal rate, resulting in a more accurate assessment of the academic success of student-athletes. However, the federal rate provides the only method by which student-athletes can be compared with the general student body.