BERKELEY – The latest Graduation Success Rate (GSR) data released by the NCAA on Wednesday show that Cal student-athletes continue to perform well in the classroom with rising overall graduation percentages that echo improving trends in grade-point averages and Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores.
 
The GSR for all Cal student-athletes stands at 82 percent, up one percent from last year and the highest for the school since the NCAA began tabulating results in 1998-99. In addition, 14 of 23 measured programs stood at 85 percent or higher with a school-record-tying six reaching 100 percent for the second year in a row.
 
"Being a student-athlete at Cal means having a commitment to thrive in the classroom as well as on the field of play, and our student-athletes should be commended for the effort they put toward their coursework," Director of Athletics Jim Knowlton said. "Although we can't declare victory, I am proud of the continuous overall improvement we are seeing in our graduate rates. It is a testament to the dedication our student-athletes, coaches and university have toward excellence in all we do."
 
The GSR is based on a six-year cohort, meaning that the latest report includes only those student-athletes who received athletic scholarships, enrolled at Cal as freshmen or incoming transfers from 2008-11, and completed their degree within six years.
 
Six Golden Bear teams repeated with 100 percent GSRs – men's gymnastics, women's gymnastics, women's swimming & diving, men's tennis, women's tennis and volleyball. Volleyball has the longest streak with a perfect GSR, having reached 100 percent each of the past seven years, while women's tennis stands at six consecutive years and men's gymnastics has attained the standard the last five years.
 
Three additional teams posted GSRs of at least 90 percent – field hockey (91%), men's swimming & diving (92%), men's water polo (93%).
 
Several programs have demonstrated significant improvement in their scores over the last six years, including football up 20 percent (to 64%), men's basketball up 18 percent (to 56%) and softball up 23 percent (to 80%). Baseball also achieved an 86 percent GSR, which represents a 25-percent gain since the 2014 data release.
 
While the GSR looks at results for student-athletes who enrolled between 7-10 years ago, statistics that focus on more current student-athletes also reveal strong results. The average GPA for all student-athletes during the spring 2018 semester was 3.084, with 22 of 30 teams posting GPAs above 3.0. The women's swimming & diving team led the way with a 3.429 GPA.
 
In regards to the APR, which provides a more real-time measurement of academic success than GSRs and focuses on academic progress within the past five years, Cal had a program-record 18 teams score at or above 980 in the most recent release from May 2018. Eleven teams equaled or established all-time highs and five teams earned NCAA Public Recognition awards with scores of 1,000 (the highest possible) – women's golf, lacrosse, men's and women's tennis, and volleyball. Men's basketball scored 970, which was up 31 points from four years prior, and football was two points shy of its all-time best with a score of 976 and is anticipating a record-high average when the next round of data is made public in the spring.
 
Meg Conkey, professor emerita of anthropology and chair of the 2014 Task Force on Athletics and Academics that examined the student-athlete experience on campus, said that continuing improvement in the GSR is impressive.
 
"While the 2014 Task Force report came after the students included in the GSR data first enrolled, the results perhaps speak to the culture of academic excellence and academic aspirations that has developed even further and provided the kind of context within which these students have thrived," Conkey said. "That several of our teams have improved remarkably – and in various categories, including the GSR – is a testimony to the ways in which both students and coaches have engaged with the goals articulated in 2014 by the Chancellor's Task Force on Academics and Athletics. And that GPAs and APR scores are rising adds to the overall sense of a high level academic culture at work here at Cal."