|
SRTK refers to a Federally-mandated
public disclosure of a college's Completion Rate and
Transfer Rate. The intent of SRTK is to provide to the
consumer a statistic of comparable effectiveness that
they can use in the determination of college choice.
All colleges nationwide are effectively required to
participate in the disclosure of rates by January, 2000.
SRTK is a "cohort" study;
that is, a group of students who are first-time freshmen,
who are enrolled full-time in a fall term, and are degree-seeking.
Their outcomes are measured over a period of time. The
outcomes that the two SRTK rates measure are Completion
(the total number of students in the cohort who earn
either a degree, a certificate, or who successfully
completed a two-year-equivalent transfer-preparatory
program) and Transfer (the total number of cohort non-completers
who were identified as having enrolled in another institution).
The tracking period of the cohorts is three (3) years,
at which time the SRTK rates are calculated and made
public.
SRTK has its merits in that it attempts
to provide a standardized measure of college effectiveness
nationwide. However, in order to fully understand what
SRTK rates mean for a college, one should also know
its limitations. First, the cohort group can be quite
small compared to the entire Community College population,
and is therefore not fully representative of all educational
activities at a college. Many Community Colleges do
not have the primary mission of producing only transferable
students. There can also be data collection issues involved
in the acquisition of valid numbers used in deriving
SRTK rates; since there is no central nationwide "clearinghouse"
of transfer data, it is impossible to generate accurate
transfer-out rates.
SRTK Rates are derived and reported
yearly on the IPEDS-GRS (Integrated Postsecondary Educational
Data System-Graduation Rate Survey). The IPEDS-GRS also
tracks part-time student cohorts over a six (6) year
period; however, full-time cohort status after 3 years
is the only basis for calculating SRTK rates.
|
