Right now, 68 percent of students at Washington’s public four-year colleges graduate, and 36 percent of students at public two-year colleges do.
Finishing a degree or certificate is a key sign of student success. To help more Washingtonians earn credentials:
- We need more people to not only enroll in college, but also make it to graduation and beyond.
- We must offer more support, especially to students of color, adult learners, undocumented students, and others facing challenges.
- Colleges need more resources to maintain and create supportive learning environments.
Racial Gaps in Completion Rates
There are big differences in graduation rates between racial groups in Washington. The Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) is working to close these gaps by focusing on supporting students of color—especially Black, Indigenous, and Latino students—who have faced barriers in education.
How We're Improving Completion Rates
WSAC is committed to helping all students finish their programs. Here’s how:
- We’re rethinking what success looks like for students. What resources do they need to succeed? What are the different college and career pathways they may follow? Whether apprenticeships, non-credit pathways, or traditional college degrees, we’re exploring what students need to succeed.
- We’re partnering with colleges and universities to test new ways to help students stay in school and graduate. This includes strategies to increase persistence, retention, and completion to close equity gaps.
- We’re supporting efforts that make it easier for students to move between schools and programs. This includes evaluating Washington’s transfer ecosystem and helping students receive credit for prior learning such as what they’ve learned through work, the military, or job training.
There are many pathways—from short-term job training to doctoral degrees—and each path takes a different amount of time. WSAC supports all of these pathways so that students can reach their personal and career goals.
Centering equity calls for the Council to consider and understand what different students need. We know race plays a key role, but we also consider other factors like identity (e.g., age, gender) and experience (e.g., adult learners, location, English proficiency, immigration status). Our goal is to make sure all students have access to opportunities and can complete a credential.
Current Completion Projects Focused on Practice and Learning
- Institutional Transformation
- Complete College America (CCA) Accelerator: A five-year project helping six Eastern Washington colleges use proven strategies to improve student success.
- Exploring Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs): Learning how colleges can better support Latino students.
- Credit Mobility
- Universal Transfer Explorer: A tool to help students see how their credits transfer between colleges.
- Scaling Credit for Prior Learning: Partnering through SHEEO and Student Ready Strategies’ Constellation of Support: A Capacity Building Approach to Institutional Change. This partnership works with eight colleges to help students get academic credit for prior learning.
- Skills-Based Hiring: Supporting workgroups and partners to connect noncredit job training to degree programs.
- Non-Degree Credentials Learning Community: Working with the National Governor’s Association’s (NGA) Data and Non-Degree Credentials Learning Community. This workgroup uses data to measure the value of short-term job training programs.
- Credentials of Value and Return on Investment
- Education Strategy Group’s EdValue Collaborative: Working with state partners to define which credentials are most valuable for adult learners and make a statewide plan to support them.