Student Achievement

Christopher Newport University is committed to providing educational and cultural opportunities that benefit our students, the commonwealth and the nation.

CNU’s undergraduate and graduate degree programs foster intellectual and professional development, preparing students to lead lives of meaning and purpose. Beyond outstanding academics, the University encourages service and leadership within the community while also providing opportunities to engage in top research and arts programs.

Students and prospective students may find the resources of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) of use in planning for college and careers. SCHEV has created an institutional profile for each Virginia public college and university, and for each independent college or university participating in the Virginia Tuition Assistance Grant Program.

This information has been published in accordance with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges policy. Additional information is available through the Office of Institutional Research, Analysis and Reports.

Undergraduate Student Achievement

To measure the student achievement of undergraduate students at Christopher Newport, the university uses the following key student completion indicators.

The graduation rates of CNU’s freshman cohorts have also continued to grow, thanks to various university-initiated strategies. For the purposes of these studies, graduation rates indicate a percentage of the freshman cohort that graduated from Christopher Newport in six years. Christopher Newport University’s goal is to increase our six-year graduate rate to 80 percent.

The threshold of acceptability, representing the minimum expectation, for Christopher Newport’s six-year graduation rate was determined by taking the average IPEDs six-year graduation rate from thirteen peer institutions. The threshold of acceptability for our six-year graduation rate is 65 percent.

Graduation Rates by Cohort

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Christopher Newport University’s goal is to increase our freshman-to-sophomore retention rate to 90 percent. CNU has implemented several programs designed to increase our freshman retention-rate in an effort to achieve the articulated aspirational goal.

As with the graduation rate criterion, the average retention rate of the university’s 13 peer institutions was used to set the threshold of acceptability. The threshold of acceptability for our freshman-to-sophomore retention rate is 81 percent.

Retention Rates by Cohort

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Beyond retention and graduation data, Christopher Newport tracks the post-graduate outcomes of every senior class. Six months post-graduation, CNU administers the National Association of Career Educators First-Destination Survey which provides an overall profile of students’ plans – from graduate-school acceptance to employment offers (which are often impacted by the national economy).

Christopher Newport’s goal is to maintain the percentage of students that are employed or attending graduate school / continuing education at 93 percent and decrease the number of students still seeking employment or graduate admission.

Christopher Newport’s threshold of acceptability for employment or graduate school / continuing education was developed using the average percentage of students with full-time employment or graduate school / continuing education from institutions in our Carnegie Classification (Masters-Small) from 2015 to 2019. Based on the information provided by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, that threshold would be 85 percent.

Three Year Outcomes Data Overview of Classes 2019 to 2021

Class Response Rate Employment or Grad School / Continuing Education Still Seeking
2021 73.0% 96.3% 3.5%
2020 77.0% 93.3% 5.9%
2019 78.0% 96.4% 3.1%

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Graduate Student Achievement

Christopher Newport provides four Master’s degree programs: Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT), Master of Financial Analysis (MFinA), Master of Science in Environmental Science (MS-ENVS), and Master of Science in Applied Physics and Computer Science (MS-APCS). To measure the student achievement of graduate students at Christopher Newport, the university uses the following key student completion indicators.

Christopher Newport uses the number of conferred degrees as one of its measures for student achievement in graduate studies. The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) monitors the number of degrees offered by Virginia institutions and has set productivity standards for the degrees and disciplines offered across the state. CNU has set these productivity standards as the thresholds of acceptability, representing the minimum expectation, for degree conferral.

  Master of Arts in Teaching Master of Financial Analysis Master of Science in Applied Physics and Computer Science Master of Science in Environmental Science
Aspirational Goal 80 36 12 15
SCHEV Productivity Requirement/Threshold of Acceptability 7 7 5 5
2022 47 13 9 14
2021 49 18 10 8
2020 52 - 10 1
2019 60 - 6 7
2018 77 - 7 12
2017 70 - 9 7

*A new program, the Master of Financial Analysis program had its first graduating cohort in 2021

The Division of Graduate Studies has focused on reducing the time-to-completion for our traditional Master of Science students over the past several years. The interventions implemented have worked to reduce and /or maintain the time-to-degree for the Master of Science degrees, the Bachelor’s to Master’s degrees, as well as the MAT degrees.

The Division of Graduate Studies goal is to maintain a time-to-completion for the master’s degrees of no more than three years. This will serve as the threshold of acceptability, representing the minimum expectation, and our time-to-completion goal. This threshold is consistent with the expected completion for master’s degrees, considering the multitude of variables that affect the navigation of degree requirements.

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The Virginia Department of Education requires all K-12 teachers to pass the VCLA, RVE, and Praxis II exams to obtain a teaching license. Therefore, the Master of Arts in Teaching degree program has embedded these exams to be completed by applicable pre-service K12 teachers to ensure readiness for the required student-teaching internship.

In all tests, the Commonwealth of Virginia established minimum state cut-off scores for passing which are used as Christopher Newport’s thresholds of acceptability, representing the minimum expectation. The Office of Teacher Preparation collects these data for its Council for the Accreditation of Education Preparation (CAEP) accreditation process.

VCLA

Cohort Reading Score Writing Score State cut-off/Threshold of Acceptability Composite Score State cut-off/Threshold of Acceptability
Year n M SD M SD   M SD  
2020 51 269.8 16.6 247.6 10.4 235 517.4 23.2 470
2021 49 273.9 18.1 255.2 17.3 235 529.5 30.6 470
2022 53 250.1 15.6 262.9 17.2 235 513.2 24.7 470

RVE

Cohort N Mean SD Mean of State Test Takers State cut-off/Threshold of Acceptability Mean Points Above State Cut-Off
2020 19 182.0 6.7 174.2 157 25
2021 29 181.0 10.6 174.4 157 24
2022 29 173.0 31.0 171.5 157 16

Praxis II

  Art Biology Chemistry English ESL Math Music Physics Spanish Social Studies
State Cut-Off / Threshold of Acceptability 158 155 155 167 149 160 160 N/A 161 161
Cohort 2020 168.7 168.0 N/A 183.1 183.5 167.7 175.6 N/A 179.0 174.8
Cohort 2021 N/A N/A 160.0 N/A 178.0 171.7 175.9 N/A 174.0 179.6
Cohort 2022 162.0 179.5 N/A 180.1 183.5 177.7 174.0 N/A N/A 172.6
  Elementary: Reading and Language Arts Elementary: Math Elementary: Science Elementary: Social Studies
State Cut-Off / Threshold of Acceptability 157 157 159 155
Cohort 2020 176.0 185.1 174.6 177.9
Cohort 2021 175.7 184.7 175.6 171.3
Cohort 2022 176.8 181.1 173.6 173.6

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