ANGLING FOR GRADUATES: HOLES IN THE RETENTION NET

Melissa V. Melancon
University of Louisiana at Monroe
Lizetta M. Frederick
University of Houston
ABSTRACT
In the highly competitive, rapidly evolving business of education, one of the major
factors in accountability has been the retention rate among students and the subsequent graduation
rates. Many current state funding initiatives are based on meeting goals for graduation within
specified time periods such as four or six year spans (Sanford & Hunter, 2011;Meisenhelder,
2011; Legislature, 2010). This study examines the graduation rates of Hispanic students and
African American student in Texas public universities from 2002 to 20011. If current funding
initiatives are successful in promoting completion rates, there should be a significant increase in
the graduation rates of these groups when controlling for the use of performance based funding.
There was a significant increase in Hispanic graduation rates but funding did not enhance black
graduation rates.