Feather River College

"Student Right-To-Know" (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 July, 2000.

SRTK is a "cohort" study. The SRTK Cohort is a group of students who are: first-time freshmen, enrolled full-time and are degree-seeking. These students are identified in a fall term and their outcomes are measured over a period of time. The SRTK Cohort produces two measures. The first measure is the Completion Rate (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). The second measure is the Transfer Rate (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. Additionally, the Federal methodology lowers the Transfer rate for Community Colleges, because transfer students who are considered completers are disallowed in the calculation of the Transfer rate.

In compliance with the Student-Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-542), it is the policy of our college district to make available its completion and transfer rates to all current and prospective students. Beginning in Fall 2000, a cohort of all certificate-, degree-, and transfer-seeking first-time, full-time students were tracked over a three-year period. Their completion and transfer rates are listed above. These rates do not represent the success rates of the entire student population at the College nor do they account for student outcomes occurring after this three-year tracking period. Based upon the cohort defined above, a Completer is a student who attained a certificate or degree or became 'transfer prepared' during a three-year period, from Fall 2002 to Spring 2005. Students who have completed 56 transferable units with a GPA of 2.0 or better are considered 'transfer-prepared'. Students who transferred to another post-secondary institution, prior to attaining a degree, certificate, or becoming 'transfer-prepared' during a five semester period, from Spring 2003 to Spring 2005 are transfer students..

INTERPRETING SRTK RATES

SRTK Rates are derived and reported yearly on the IPEDS-GRS (Integrated Postsecondary Educatonal 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.

Student Right to Know Rates For Fall 2002Cohort

Student Right to Know Rates
For Fall 2002Cohort