November/December 2009 Issue of Data Notes Available

Data Notes is a bimonthly newsletter that presents data from the national Achieving the Dream database. Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count, is a multiyear national initiative to help more community college students succeed. The initiative focuses particularly on student groups that traditionally have faced significant barriers to success, including students of color and low-income students.

The November/December 2009 issue of Data Notes has just been released, and you can view it on the Achieving the Dream Web site at:
http://www.achievingthedream.org/DATARESEARCH/DATANOTESNEWSLETTER/default.tp.

Data Notes (Vol4No6) November/December 2009: Late Stop-Outs, Part 2:
This issue of Data Notes is the second of a two-part series investigating the characteristics of late stop-outs - students who accumulate at least 30 credits within the first two years, only to stop out without completing credentials or transferring. The data show that male students were more likely to stop out (53 percent) than female students (48 percent), and students under 20 and 30 years old and over were less likely to stop out (47 percent and 52 percent, respectively) than students in their twenties (about 55 percent). Fifty-five percent of students without a declared major or program of study left the college by the end of their fifth year, compared with 53 percent of students with a terminal goal and 47 percent of students with a transfer goal. Students who had earned at least 30 credits by the end of their second academic year and were referred to developmental education courses one level below college level—regardless of subject area—had five-year outcomes (45 to 49 percent) that were not dissimilar to those for non-referred students (50 percent).

Round 1, 2, 3, and 4 Colleges, Data Facilitators and Coaches – you can also view your individual college’s companion figures to this issue of Data Notes on www.dreamwebsubmission.org (the Achieving the Dream Web submission site). To view your college’s data, sign in to the Web submission site www.dreamwebsubmission.org using your username and password, and select the month issue under the “Reports” menu.

NSF Summary Report of Earned Doctorates

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released this year’s edition of the Summary Report from the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED). Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities: Summary Report 2007-08 is the 41st in a series of reports on research doctorates awarded by universities in the United States. Key findings include:

  • The 48,802 research doctorates awarded in 2008 is the highest number in the history of U.S. higher education, but growth rates have slowed in recent years.
  • Life sciences accounted for 11,088 research doctorates awarded in 2008; the largest number by broad field.
  • Women received 46% of all research doctorates awarded in 2008, the 13th consecutive year in which women received more than 40% of doctorates awarded.
  • A total of 6,981 U.S. citizens and permanent residents who are members of racial/ethnic minority groups were awarded research doctorates in 2008—23% of the U.S. citizens and permanent residents who earned research doctorates and reported race/ethnicity.
  • Asians earned 2,543 research doctorates in 2008, more than members of any other U.S. racial/ethnic minority group.
  • The median total time span from baccalaureate to doctorate among graduates was 9.4 years; median duration between starting and completing graduate school was 7.7 years.
  • Just over half (53%) of graduates reported having no graduate or undergraduate education-related debt, 19% reported cumulative debt of $20,000 or less, and 8% reported debt over $70,000.
  • Sixty-nine percent of graduates reported having definite postgraduation plans. Of those, 64% planned to work and 36% planned postdoctoral study, predominately in the broad fields of life sciences and physical sciences.
  • Of the graduates with firm commitments for U.S. employment, 51% planned to work in academe, 27% planned to work in industry or be self-employed, and 6% planned to work in government.

The full report is available at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf10309/.