UNM Watch, October 2009

University of New Mexico Provost Misleads Public About Hispanic Graduation Rates at UNM and Has Not Published a Correction

Contents:

• 9/8/2009: New York Times Cites UNM as an Example of a Failure Factory
• 9/11/2009: UNM Provost Ortega Asserts UNM Hispanic Students have Graduated From UNM at Nearly Twice the National Rate
• U.S. Dept of Education Data Show UNM is Currently Graduating Hispanics at 42%, Below the 49% National Rate
• Vice-Provost Wynn Goering Asserts 23% is the National Rate, based on a 2004 Report
• The 2004 Report Used by UNM is Out-Dated and Studied Fewer than 200 Hispanics Who Completed a bachelor's Degree
• 10/13/2009 UNM Vice-Provost Wynn Goering Argues a Retraction is Not Needed
• 10/16-19/2009 Albuquerque Journal References New York Times "Failure Factory" article
• 9/26/2009 UNM Daily Lobo Publishes Letter to Editor re Graduation Rates
• 9/23/2009 Albuquerque Journal Publishes Letter to Editor re Graduation Rates
• Provost Ortega's Misleading Assertion is Damaging and Should be Publicly Corrected
• 10/2/09 Vice-Provost Wynn Goering Gives Interview about Graduation Rates But Does Not Correct Misleading Assertion
• How Bad is UNM? Its Graduation Rates Rank Last Among Its Peer Institutions

• "Less than 41 percent graduate from the University of Montana, and 44 percent from the University of New Mexico. The economist Mark Schneider refers to colleges with such dropout rates as 'failure factories,' and they are the norm."

9/11/2009: UNM Provost Ortega Asserts UNM Hispanic Students have Graduated From UNM at Nearly Twice the National Rate

• "Lost in the frequent complaints about UNM's historically 'low' graduation rates compared to more selective institutions are some remarkable areas of strength with respect to our diverse population. For many years now Hispanic students have graduated from UNM at nearly twice the rate of Hispanics nationwide."

U.S. Dept of Education Data Show UNM is Graduating Hispanics at 42%, below the 49% National Rate

UNM's current 6-year Hispanic graduation rate: 42% (reference, click on line "Retention and Graduation Rates")
The national 6-year Hispanic graduation rate: 49% (reference)
Clearly UNM is not graduating Hispanics at twice the national rate, as asserted in the op-ed by UNM Provost Ortega. UNM is graduating Hispanics below the national rate.

These data are compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education (NCES)

NCES is "the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education. The National Center for Education Statistics fulfills a Congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report complete statistics on the condition of American education; conduct and publish reports."

Vice-Provost Wynn Goering Asserts 23% is the National Rate, based on a 2004 Report

Emails (see full email chronology and meeting notes) were exchanged and two meetings (VJ, WG) were held with UNM to learn how they justified their "twice the rate" assertion. Although Provost Ortega was cc'd on emails she never responded.

Vice-Provost for Academic Affairs Wynn Goering wrote that their assertion was based on a 2004 Pew Hispanic Center Report , "Latino Youth Finishing College: the Role of Selected Pathways," which reports a Latino graduation rate of 23%.

This is not the first time that UNM has used a 23% "national" rate to measure their performance. A February 2008 memo from a task force to UNM President Schmidly, states "it is worth noting that UNM’s Hispanic graduation rates are nearly twice the national average for Latino students". Dr. Ortega is not listed as a contributor. The chair for the task force appears to be vice-provost Wynn Goering. No reference or data to support this assertion is presented in that task force report.

The 2004 Report Used by UNM is Out-Dated and Studied Fewer than 200 Hispanics Who Completed a bachelor's Degree

In contrast, data from the National Center for Education Statistics are current and track hundreds of thousands (around 700,000) Hispanic students enrolled in bachelor degree programs at all institutions in the US which receive federal aid. By regulation, UNM submits its data to the NCES/IPEDS system.

Are UNM officials exercising good scholarship and judgement, when they use an outdated, small sample statistic (23%) as the "national rate" by which to compare UNM's performance, when current data show the national Hispanic graduation rate is 49%?

Albuquerque Journal, Friday, October 16, 2009, By Martin Salazar, Journal Staff Writer
UNM To Public: We Need To Raise Bar

Excerpt:
"...The university's current six-year graduation rate is 44 percent, which President David Schmidly calls unacceptable. Economist Mark Schneider referred to UNM and other colleges with similar graduation rates as 'failure factories.' The New York Times ran a column last month that mentioned UNM's low graduation rate and referenced the 'failure factory' characterization. "We have to get back to placing more of an emphasis on" which classes students take in high school and how well they do,' Schmidly said in a speech last month to members of a Latino education task force. "We have got to expect more."

Albuquerque Journal,Monday, October 19, 2009, Editorial
Plan To Toughen UNM Standards on Target

Excerpt:
"The state's premier university should be just that. It should not be a "failure factory" as the New York Times characterized the University of New Mexico for its 44 percent six-year graduation rate. UNM has set out to erase that slur from its curriculum vitae, and it should. ..."

Despite the call for Provost Ortega to clarify her statements about UNM graduating Hispanics at twice the national rate, she has not responded.

Note: This was the first of two letters submitted to the Journal. The second, addressing Dr. Ortega's op-ed, was similar to the letter published by the UNM Daily Lobo. The Journal chose to print the first, less specific letter.

The 2009 book Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America's Public Universities presents a key finding: minorities and Hispanics graduate at higher rates in more selective institutions. Co-author William Bowen was president of Princeton for 16 years, and Princeton currently has a 96% overall graduation rate and a 95% Hispanic graduation rate.

This implies Dr. Ortega's assertion that UNM is graduating Hispanics at twice the national rate is not only incorrect but potentially damaging, because Hispanic parents, students and teachers might select UNM instead of other options, having been misled to believe Hispanics are more likely to graduate at UNM.

New Mexicans deserve accurate, current data about UNM's performance.

On 10/2/09 Wynn Goering was interviewed by KSFR, transcription) about graduation rates, but he did not use this opportunity to correct the misleading "UNM's Hispanic graduation rates are nearly twice the national average" assertion.

The UNM Fact Book lists UNM's Peer Institutions.

Here's UNM's ranking for overall graduation rates:

and Hispanic graduation rates:

Prepared by Vicki Johnson, New Mexico resident, who was born in New Mexico, attended Albuquerque Public Schools and graduated from UNM with a BS in Computer and Information Science. Later she obtained an MS from Stanford in Computer Engineering and an MBA in finance from NYU. Last updated 10/19/2009. vlj@interconnect.com