Less than half of Arizona high-school graduates meet eligibility requirements for Arizona’s public universities, according to study released by the Arizona Board of Regents. The 2014 overall eligibility rate of 46.5 percent remained essentially unchanged from 2009 when the last study was conducted and the rate was 46.7 percent.
Resident freshmen admission for Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University and the University of Arizona requires at least a 2.50 grade-point average and completion of 16 required competency courses with no more than two deficiencies, but deficiencies cannot both be in math and science. The number of graduates from Arizona’s public high schools increased 4.1 percent during the five-year time period between the studies.
Related article: Information On School Funding In Short Supply
“Are we increasing the number of Arizona students eligible to attend our universities? Unfortunately, the answer is no,” said Eileen Klein, president of the Arizona Board of Regents. “The data clearly indicates that we need to do a better job of ensuring students are academically ready to pursue education beyond high school, especially since we know that 68 percent of all jobs in Arizona will require some post-secondary education, including certifications and two- and four-year degrees by 2020.”
The study also indicates that African Americans, American Indians and Hispanics have substantially lower eligibility rates compared to Asian American and White students. This gap has persisted since the 2009 study and may reflect socioeconomic disparities, income differences, and school resource differences .
“The lower eligibility rates in minority populations are very troubling,” Klein said. “Hispanic students are the largest minority group in K-12 and are quickly approaching a majority of total enrollment in that system. By 2035, the U.S Census estimates that a majority of Arizona will be Hispanic. Improving the achievement rate among all students, but particularly among Hispanic students, is an imperative for economic success in our state.”
Klein noted that eligibility has a significant impact on the public universities. “We have record enrollments – but not record numbers of Arizona students,” Klein said. “Consider this – for the high-school graduating class of 2013-14, an astonishing 51 high schools, or 10.5 percent, sent zero graduates to post secondary education in fall 2014. And half of the graduates going to postsecondary education in fall 2014 graduated from 10.6 percent – or 52 – of Arizona’s 488 high schools. Many of our schools do an outstanding job preparing graduates but performance is not consistent across the board.”
“The decrease in Arizona high-school graduates who enrolled in our universities, coupled with the below average eligibility rates, greatly compromises the board’s and universities’ goals to increase bachelor’s degrees for the state,” said Greg Patterson, chair of the ABOR Academic and Student Affairs Committee. “Ultimately, this is directly correlated to meeting workforce demand in Arizona, as well as the state’s capacity to recruit major businesses to headquarter here, bringing more jobs and contributing to a robust economy.”
Academic preparation of the incoming 2013-14 university freshmen class was better than in previous years. Approximately 83 percent were admitted without academic deficiencies compared to 82 percent in fall 2012 and 80 percent in fall 2011. This change may be, in part, the result of the increase in state graduation requirements for the Class of 2013. Their first term grade-point averages were unchanged at 2.9 from fall 2010 through fall 2013.