IRP&E is pleased to provide PowerPoint slides providing an overview of key student success metrics. Slide sets are available for the university overall as well as for each college. Below, we describe each slide in the CSU overall collection.
Student Demographic Trends
The Student Demographic Trends Slides show the demographic breakdown for first-time, full-time (FTFT) students from the seven most recent cohorts. For the 2024 slides these are students from Fall 2018 to Fall 2024 cohorts. (The FTFT cohort is comprised of the incoming students who have had no prior enrollment in any higher education institution and are enrolled in at least 12 credits.) The bars represent the total number of students in each cohort and each colored line shows the share of students within the cohort who hold each of the following identities: non-resident (green), limited income1 (purple), racially minoritized (red), first generation (blue), and international (yellow). Highlights show, the number of limited income and racially minoritized students enrolling at CSU has increased over the past six years while international student enrollment has remained flat.
Persistence and Graduation Rates
The next slide displays the second and fourth fall persistence and sixth-year graduation rates for the last 10 cohorts. The bars represent the total number of students in each cohort and each colored line shows the fall persistence rate: 2nd fall persistence (green), 4th fall persistence (red), 6th year graduation (blue). Highlights show, the second fall persistence rate has remained stable at about 86% for the past decade while fourth fall persistence and sixth-year graduation show a slight downward trend.
Second Fall Persistence by Racial Identity
The next slide displays the second fall persistence rates for the past 10 cohorts by duplicated racial identity, meaning students can identify across several categories (e.g., White and Native American and Latinx/e) and will be counted in each of the categories with which they identify. Highlights show, persistence rates tend to be stable among Latinx students and more volatile among Native American and Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders. All groups in the FA17 cohort experienced a decline in persistence, though rates are close to recovering in the most recent cohorts.
Persistence and Graduation Percentage Point Gaps
The following chart displays the percentage point gap in persistence and graduation rates between first generation and continuing generation students (green bars), limited income and non-limited income students (red bars), racially minoritized and non-racially minoritized students (blue bars). Percentage point gaps are calculated as the non-attribute holding group minus the attribute-holding group (e.g., non-first generation minus first generation) for the three most recent cohorts who had the opportunity to be included in the metric. For example, second fall persistence is based on the FA21, FA22, and FA23 cohorts, while fourth year graduation is based on the FA17, FA18, and FA19 cohorts.
The percentage point gaps in first spring persistence between these student populations range between 2 and 3 percentage points. The gaps double at second fall and increase again by third fall, reaching double-digits for first generation and limited income students. Gaps in fourth fall persistence and fourth- and sixth-year graduation rates are generally stable and large.
Intersection of Identities Among Gap Populations
The above Ven diagram shows the intersection of first-generation, limited income, and racially minoritized student in the FTFT FA24 cohort. CSU looks at these factors because these attributes tend to have a compounding effect on student success outcomes. The notable aspect of this graph is first, that 51.3% of the fall 2024 FTFT cohort have one or more gap attributes. Furthermore, 25.8% have a combination of two attributes and 18.8% of students have all three attributes.
Comparisons of Faculty and Student Demographics
This graph compares the non-minoritized and minoritized composition of faculty and students for the 2025 fiscal year. A breakdown of the percentage of each racially minoritized group is also presented. Highlights show, the racial composition of faculty differs from the student population, where about 84% of faculty are non-minoritized compared to 73% of students. Additionally, differences between faculty and students exist when comparing representation among racially minoritized populations. For example, about two in five racially minoritized faculty identify as Hispanic/Latino; a similar proportion identifies as Asian. For students, almost three in five identify as Hispanic/Latino and one in five as multi-racial.
