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SD Higher Ed Graduation Rates 37th in US; Native and Mixed-Race Students Lag in Degree Chase

One more dip in the data from the Chronicle of Higher Education….

South Dakota ties Mississippi and Hawaii for 37th in university graduation rates. 51.1% of the freshmen who entered four-year institutions in South Dakota in 2010 managed to graduate by 2016. Nationally, that six-year graduation rate was 60.2%.

South Dakota is below the national graduation rate in every demographic category, race and sex. We have the third-worst American Indian graduation rate: barely one out of five of our Lakota brothers and sisters who go to college manage to finish in six years, compared to one out of two students from the overall population. Our mixed-race matriculators (or, as Al Novstrup would call them, terrorists) manage only a 32% graduation rate, the fourth-worst in the nation in that demographic column.

The only South Dakota subgroups beating the 50% mark are white students (53.5%) and women (54.6%).

21 Comments

  1. Jenny 2018-08-31 09:33

    I’m sure since South Dakotans are so poor economically from jobs that don’t make ends meet, they are forced to drop out of college to work more hours at another low way job. I knew many South Dakotans that worked more than one job when I lived there.

    South Dakota doesn’t invest in its people so you’re going to have pitiful statistics to show that.
    Things don’t change when you vote republican year after year. You would think being tied with Mississippi would want to make South Dakotans vote for people other than stingy republicans. I made the best decision ever to move to Minnesota for a much better paying job and get out of depressing South Dakota.

  2. Jenny 2018-08-31 09:51

    I still have lots of family in SD, and I have a love hate relationship with SD. South Dakotans are good people for the most part but don’t seem to understand that voting for people just because they’re republicans has just made the state poorer economically. I want South Dakotans to fight for their rights like a living wage, better schools, more and better access to mental health. The suicide rate in SD has skyrocketed! I want less discrimination and racism towards their fellow native Americans and LGBT people. My heart bleeds for them. I will always have that love hate relationship and even though I am in MN now, I still care about South Dakota.

  3. mike from iowa 2018-08-31 10:32

    Why don’t you deal with your own issues in Minnesota?

    Why don’t you, OldSnapdragon, deal with issues in South Dakota instead of lying about Drumpf’s lack of accomplishments all the time?

    Hate much?

  4. Dicta 2018-08-31 10:33

    South Dakota resident here. You can have an opinion about what goes on here. Old Sarg is not the arbiter of people having an opinion about South Dakota’s affairs, thank Christ.

  5. jerry 2018-08-31 10:53

    Russia is calling you old soviet, they want you to complete their village.

  6. mike from iowa 2018-08-31 11:44

    In case you missed this, OldSnowdrift, yer buddy’s disapproval rate is now 60% and climbing. So much winning.

    He cancelled 2% colas for federal workers because his debt and deficits are soaring.

  7. Patricia 2018-08-31 19:46

    Where I currently live the school administration let go many of their teachers and stopped teaching foregein languages and extra curricular classes. They have one student counselor for elementary, junior high and high school. Class sizes run up to 33 students per class. The reason for all of this is monetary of course. Its time South Dakota got serious about education and start making positive changes. The ones that lose the most are our students.

  8. Debbo 2018-08-31 22:59

    I’m with Jenny on this, same feelings. SD has So Much Potential and they just keep shooting themselves in the foot over and over and over . . . . My own family members still in the state are firing away right beside other Russpublican voters.

    Sigh.

    Then there’s somebody like OS saying we should butt out and leave SD alone because we are not current residents.

    SD’s biggest problem, right there in an OS nutshell. Couldn’t have illustrated it better myself.

  9. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2018-09-01 13:56

    [Again, yellow flag on OS: faced with plain facts and observations that don’t fit his prejudices, OS distracts with an effort to marginalize and exclude a speaker. Five-yard penalty, first down….]

  10. OldSarg 2018-09-01 14:09

    Cory, provide me a list of any other state in better financial condition than South Dakota that is being run, led or controlled by a democrat. You can’t. The republicans running this state may not be the best of the best but they are keeping this state in much better condition than any state controlled by democrats.

    But the truth is this whole party thing is tearing the country apart. The democrats have turned into a mad group of radicals and the republicans has a mess of soggy toast. I really don’t like either party and would like to see the 17th Amendment repealed. The 17th Amendment is what gave power to the parties over the power of the State.

  11. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2018-09-01 14:14

    I’ve heard from other observers that SD ex-pats seem to hang on to their South Dakota identity with a passion distinct from other states’ ex-pats. I would casually suggest that it may be because South Dakota produces a higher proportion of people who grow up loving this place but find themselves forced to move elsewhere by economic circumstances, political oppression, or first-class asses like OldSarg.

    The numbers above and my earlier post on the increasingly diverse racial make-up of the student population nationwide combined with the anti-outsider attitude that OS irrelevantly injects into the discussion actually point to a bigger problem that we need to address. The student population has lower percentages of white kids and higher percentages of racial minorities. (Welcome to Brown America!) South Dakota’s universities are doing a poorer job than the rest of the nation in graduating those increasing black/brown/red/etc. percentages of the younger generation. Students of color looking to maximize their chances of academic success may look at our underperforming graduation rates and say, “Folks my color have more trouble graduating pretty much everywhere, but we appear to have even more trouble in South Dakota.” Having people like OS say, “You’re not from South Dakota! F-U!” would seal the deal-breaker… or at least statistically decrease the number of students from diverse backgrounds who are willing to take a chance on South Dakota universities.

    We don’t even help white students graduate in South Dakota at the same rate as their national counterparts. (There must be some economic factors, cultural factors, and maybe knuckleheadery going on, because, much as I respect our public universities, I am not convinced that SDSU, USD, and NSU teach harder than the U’s of Minn, Wisc, etc.) But if we adopt attitudes like OS that make the growing racially diverse portion of the potential student population feel unwelcome and try to appeal only to white kids from Hamlin County, the Regental system will be empty and broke in a generation.

    So, culturally, OS, be part of the solution and shut your hateful mouth.

    Politically (i.e., policy-wise), we need to figure out what students needs we aren’t meeting for different groups of students and improve our graduation numbers, not jut to improve educational outcomes for the students who are here but to convince more students they can come to South Dakota, get a great education, and maybe stick around to work and live and love here the way so many ex-pats wish they could.

  12. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2018-09-01 14:16

    [That last comment OS submitted while I was composing mine isn’t relevant. Don’t respond to it. It’s just a pastiche of fake false equivalency and distractions he’d rather talk about since he’s got nothing to contribute to this conversation. If you want to introduce new topics, OS, start your own blog.]

  13. OldSarg 2018-09-01 14:26

    *first-class asses like OldSarg. Ok, I’ll taker it.
    *Like OS say, “You’re not from South Dakota! F-U!” Ok, I never said that.
    *So, culturally, OS, be part of the solution and shut your hateful mouth. I don’t think calling out racism is hateful.

    Not in a good mood today Cory? Hope your feeling better soon.

  14. OldSarg 2018-09-01 14:29

    Oh, I just got an invitation to the Noem/Rhoden event in the mail. Trump is the speaker. It’s actually only $1,000 a couple.

  15. Porter Lansing 2018-09-01 14:53

    There are days when OS’s white privilege crosses the line into full fledged white supremacy. Being in a minority group (older, angry white males with dwindling influence) is taking it’s toll on the politically rigid. They’ll get over it. Just takes time to assimilate into the new mindset of tolerance.

  16. OldSarg 2018-09-01 15:13

    I’m ok Portly. Thanks for thinking of me but I don’t self-identify as a member of any specific group. The label you put on me is not mine so it will not stick. I am surprised, based upon my limited knowledge of the Lakota culture, that you are so willing label others because this government and the democratic party label people. It is as if you have given your own freedom of thought to this government and party. It appears you have integrated.

    “Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom, an intense and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a Supreme Power, and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations.” – Black Elk

    You should come back home.

  17. OldSarg 2018-09-01 15:38

    I didn’t say you were wrong about the price. My invitation doesn’t have the $5,000 cotton it but it doesn’t even offer me a picture with Trump. I may not be worthy.

    Back to the topic at hand: If you were the front runner and knew you had a comfortable led you would not debate either. You are too smart for that. I would like to watch you in a debate though. I am sure you are a tiger. I think I get too emotional.

  18. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2018-09-02 10:50

    OS, you’ve lost the thread. The second hald of your comment goes elsewhere. But don’t presume to tell me what I would do in any given situation. I decide what I do, not you. I am a candidate for office, and I’m advocating improving our Regental system’s graduation rates for all groups. I’m also willing to debate the need for that improvement with any other candidate, without regard to where the polls say I’m at.

  19. mike from iowa 2018-09-02 11:54

    Interesting subject for a documentary- From Victim hood to Flattery in less than a day.

Comments are closed.