Headcount, Semester Hours and GPA Tables
2015 Headcount, Semester Hours and GPA (XLSX, 256k)
Background
In Senate Bill No. 183 from the 1989 legislative session, Section 13 set up a program designed to evaluate the performance of individual schools and school districts in the state of Oklahoma. This program not only required multiple types of evaluation by the State Department of Education, but also required that the individual schools and districts be notified of these evaluations, and that the general public also be advised as to the “effectiveness” of individual schools or districts. In response to the directive of SB 183, the State Regents provide the following four reports: (1) High School to College-Going Rates for Oklahoma High School Graduates to Oklahoma Colleges; (2) Headcount, Semester Hours, and GPA Report; (3) Mean ACT Scores by Oklahoma High School Site; and (4) Developmental Education (Remediation) Rates for Oklahoma High School Graduates in Oklahoma Public Higher Education (beginning in 1995).As part of the a cooperative effort with the State Department of Education to provide measures or “indicators” of educational performance, the State Regents for Higher Education has produced the Headcount, Semester Hours and GPA Summary.
Analysis
The headcount, semester hour and grade point average (GPA) summary provides academic year headcount, semester hour and GPA information for freshman-level courses taken by 2015 public high school graduates who entered an Oklahoma public college or university as first-time freshmen in fall 2015. The summary also includes any college courses taken by these students during their high school years. The headcount and semester hour data are distributed by GPA ranges (0.0-1.6, 1.7-1.9, 2.0-2.9, 3.0+) numerically and by percent within each range.
Of the fall 2015 first-time freshmen studied (17,158), 44% (7,584) earned a 3.0 or better GPA in their freshman-level courses, and nearly 75% earned at least a 2.0. Cumulatively, students earned 319,260 hours of freshman-level credits, with 89% earned by students with a 2.0 or higher GPA.
A complete list of headcount, GPA and semester credit hours is available by county, high school site and district and can be accessed by clicking on the link at the top of this page.
Methodology
The data used to construct this summary come from two sources, the Oklahoma State Department of Education (SDE) and the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. Beginning with the 2013 graduates, SDE provides information on individual students from public high schools. These individuals are then tracked into the State Regents’ Unitized Data System (UDS). Prior to the 2013 report, the SDE provided aggregate numbers of graduates from each high school, including private high schools. Since identifying information for individual students was not provided, first-time-entering freshmen for the recent high school graduating class were estimated in the State Regents’ UDS by using ages 17, 18 and 19.Beginning with the 2013 report, headcount, GPA and credit hour production are measured for freshman-level, credit-bearing courses only. This is a change requested by the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability. Additionally, the credit hours reported are for courses that were passed, rather than for all courses attempted. Previously, GPA and credit hours were based on all freshman year activity. Because of these changes, comparisons with prior reports would not be valid.