STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AT SOUTHERN ADVENTIST UNIVERSITY

 

Figure 1. Overall 150%-time Graduation Rate (traditional IPEDS graduation rate)

Goal: Linear fit to historic data + 2 standard deviations
Threshold of Acceptability: Linear fit to historic data - 2 standard deviations

Initiatives to improve graduation rates over the past several years have likely contributed to the upward trend. The anomalous jump in the rate for the Fall 2014 cohort might be a direct result of a ~10 credit-hour reduction in the General Education requirement beginning with the 2016-1017 academic year.  This change was made with the intention of making it possible for students to change their major at least once prior to the end of their second year and still be able to graduate in four years. Many students starting in the Fall 2014 term found it advantageous to shift to the 2016-2017 Catalog and benefit from the reduced General Education requirements. If this is the primary cause for the increase, some additional increases would be expected for the next two years with a plateau starting with the Fall 2016 cohort. The apparent continued rise is likely due to additional targeted retention success efforts by the Student Retention teams.

The gold and red lines correspond to the University's goal and threshold of acceptability respectively. Because of the noticeable linear trend in the overall graduation rate data, the goal and threshold of acceptability were based on the standard deviation of the error in the linear fit for prior years. Specifically, data for prior years is fit with a straight line (dashed line). The standard deviation is calculated for difference between the linear fit and the data for each year.  The goal line is the linear fit shifted upward by twice the standard deviation. Conversely, the threshold line is the linear fit shifted downward by twice the standard deviation. The data should rarely fall below the threshold or above the goal, making the change discussed above for the Fall 2014 cohort noteworthy.

Graduation Rate by Demographic Groups

Figure 2. Graduation rate (150% time) disaggregated by (a) race, (b) ethnicity, (c) sex, and (d) Pell eligibility

It is encouraging to see that most demographics group generally are experiencing an increase in graduation rate for the cohort years shown. However, there are demographic desparities and these data inform efforts at targeted retnetion efforts. 

Alternative graduation metrics are also used in reporting and decision-making on campus. These results allow for additional benchmarking. For example, Figure 3 shows the 6-year undergraduate graduation rate collected and reported by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC). Southern Adventist University’s data (green) are compared to the mean and top quartile of the CIC cohort of institutions in the Southeast region.  Again, the Fall 2014 cohort rate is above the goal.


Figure 3.  Comparison of Southern Adventist University's 6-year undergraduate graduation rates
with median and upper quartile Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) Southeastern institutions
(Source: Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) Key Indicators Tool 2025)

Southern offers eight masters degrees and one doctoral degree, with the School of Nursing comprising about half the graduate student body. Because the vast majority of graduate students are in master's-level programs, and approximately half of the University's graduate students are part time, the University has chosen to track both three-year and six-year completion rates.  These are calculated as the number of students who are awarded degrees within three or six years of their enrollment date, as a percentage of graduate students who enrolled in the same year. (A year consists of Summer, Fall, and Winter terms. For example, the 2020 cohort year consists of Summer 2020, Fall 2020, and Winter 2021.)

Figure 4. Graduate student overall (a) 3-year and (b) 6-year completion rates.

Goal: Historic average + 2 standard deviations
Threshold of Acceptability: Historic average - 2 standard deviations

As with the undergraduate completion rates, the goal (threshold) lines are set by adding (subtracting) twice the standard deviation to (from) the mean value of recent historical data. 

The ETS Proficiency Profile is administered to graduating seniors during their final year.  Two types of results are obtained from this assessment:

• Institutional ranking on reading, writing, and mathematics scores.
• Percentages of students who are proficient in academic skills of reading, writing, and mathematics and in general academic content areas of humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.

Table 1 shows the longitudinal rankings of Southern Adventist University mean score compared to the mean scores of other institutions in the same Carnegie class.

Table 1. Southern Adventist University Rank Compared to Cohort Institutions (Percentiles)

* Moved to online, proctored testing in 2024 with a new vendor and potentially different comparison group.

Goal: Rank of 70^th percentile or higher in each dimension
Threshold of Acceptability: Rank of 50^th percentile in each dimension

While seniors have several options to take the exam throughout the academic year, most don’t take it until late in the Winter term.  

The threshold of acceptability for this ranking measure is set at the Carnegie cohort median (50^th percentile). Because of the small number of institutions in the cohort, down to 35 in the 2025 cohort, and the binning reported by ETS, very small changes in the mean score can change the ranking substantially. 

Table 2. ETS Proficiency Profile: Percentage of Students Scoring Proficient or Marginally Proficient

* Moved to online, proctored testing in 2024 with a new vendor and potentially different comparison group.

Proficiency results are shown in Table 2. Southern consistently compares favorably to its Carnegie-class peers at each level, with the five-year average percentages generally mote than 10% peer cohort. 

Table 3. NCLEX First-time Pass Rate

Year	National		SAU
2013	83		89
2014	82		76
2015	84		83
2016	85		82
2017	87		88
2018	85		92
2019	88		92
	AS	BSN	AS	BSN
2020	82	90	88	91
2021	79	86	84	87
2022	78	82	77	87
2023	88	90	96	83
2024	91	92	99	95

Goal: Pass rate at or above the National mean pass rate
Threshold of Acceptability: Pass rate of 85%

Nursing students make about one fourth of the student body, so this is an important measure for a significant population of the student body. 

The School of Nursing has taken a number of measures to keep pass rates high including revising progression standards, increasing pre-test platforms, adding additional learning support measures, and adding incentives for timely and successful licensure exam attempts. 

Praxis and edTPA First-Time Pass Rates

Southern Adventist University's teacher education program prepares elementary and secondary teachers for success in passing licensure exams.  Since 2019, applicants for Tennessee state teaching licensure have been required to submit edTPA scores in place of one of the previously required Praxis exams.  The transition period between these licensure exams has been extended through 2021 due to issues related to COVID-19.  The table below shows the shift in the number of Praxis and edTPA exams taken by Southern Adventist University students during the transition period.   

Table 4. PRAXIS II and edTPA First-Time Pass Rates

Goal (working): 85%

Threshold of acceptability (working):  First-time pass rate of 72%

National comparison can be made for the edTPA assessment using the pass rate based on the recommended passing score of 42.  Using this criterion for passing the assessment, the national first-time pass rate in 2018 would have been 72%, and for states that require edTPA, it would have been 74%.  In practice, states are allowed to select their thresholds for passing, and many use a value less than 42.  Because of this ambiguity, and the fact that we currently only have a three-year history with the edTPA assessment, the University is still in the process of setting goals and thresholds for this assessment. 

Figure 5. Post-graduation successful placement rate: (a) full-axis and (b) expanded to show the top of the axis with goal and threshold

Goal: Historic average + 2 standard deviations
Threshold of Acceptability: Historic average - 2 standard deviations

Southern Adventist University considers the following post-graduation outcomes to be successful:

• Finding work in an area related to the chosen academic field,
• Enrollment in graduate or professional School, and
• Other placements such as completing a second undergraduate degree or engaging in post-graduating mission work or a formal study abroad opportunity. 

Figure 5 shows that successful placement outcomes remain steady at 94%, with only small variation. Only graduates with known placement outcomes are used when determining success rates. One notable feature in the data is an anomalously high fraction of students who graduated during the 2019-2020 academic year and subsequently enrolled in graduate or professional school. This may be due, in part, to difficulty entering the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The University also is interested in decreasing the number of unknown placement outcomes. Success in achieving this goal would not only give a more accurate measure of placement outcomes, but it would also indicate the University is staying in better contact with its alumni. Figure 6 shows longitudinal data for rates of unknown placement outcomes.

Figure 6. Longitudinal rate of unknown placement outcomes