More Arkansans went straight to college from their public high schools in 2013 than the year before, but the state's college-going rate still dips below the national average.

The state's college-going rate was up 1.4 percentage points last year with 16,133 students, or 54.3 percent of spring high school graduates, attending college the subsequent fall semester, according to a report presented at the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board's regular quarterly meeting Friday morning.

The latest national statistics show a college-going rate of 66.2 percent in 2012, with some 2.1 million spring high school graduates enrolled in college in the fall of that year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

The college-going rate measures how many Arkansans enroll as full-time students in a four-year university, two-year college or private institution in the fall after completing public high school or a General Educational Development program. The data provide a barometer for accessibility to and desire for higher education in Arkansas.

The national average for the college-going rate has dropped by 2 percentage points -- from 68.2 percent in the fall of 2011 with 2,099,878 students to 66.2 percent in the fall of 2012 with 2,120,386 students. Meanwhile, the college-going rate in Arkansas has been rising from its lowest point in recent years at 46.9 percent, or 13,453 students, in the fall of 2009.

Part of that increase is due to the adoption of a new methodology for calculating the college-going rate, said Rick Jenkins, associate director of planning and accountability at the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, who presented the report.

This is the fourth year using the new method, which more closely resembles that used by the National Center for Education Statistics, save for three major differences. The Arkansas Higher Education Department does not filter its data by age because most all high school graduates are between the ages of 16 and 24; it includes GED students; and it excludes data from annual graduating classes of private high schools.

In the fall of 2013 , the majority of Arkansas high school graduates who enrolled in college, or 9,741, attended four-year universities, while 5,492 enrolled in two-year colleges and 900 went to private institutions, according to this year's report.

In an interview after the meeting, coordinating board Chairman Kaneaster Hodges said the pace of progress for the college-going rate is too slow.

Hodges said that at this rate, Arkansas won't meet Gov. Mike Beebe's goal of doubling the state's number of degree holders by 2025.

"It's going to require dramatic commitment from the entire higher-education community, the Legislature and the governor," Hodges said.

A phone call to the governor's media office was not returned Friday afternoon.

In addition to needing more funding for scholarships, students also need to learn the financial, intellectual and social significance of seeking higher education, Hodges said.

State Higher Education Department Director Shane Broadway said he's more concerned about the college-completion rate than the college-going rate.

According to a report released in April by the Department of Education, only 39.5 percent of first-time Arkansas college students admitted to the state's public four-year universities in the fall of 2007 had earned a degree six years later. No raw number for these first-time Arkansas college students was available.

Intervening with students at even younger ages could boost the graduation rate, Broadway said.

"We're starting to do more -- working with high school counselors, providing career orientations and getting involved in earlier levels of decision-making to show that there are many options available," he said. "There are many options that allow you to stack degrees or to work in industry."

State Desk on 07/26/2014