Western Kentucky’s department of athletics has continued its standards for academic excellence, reaching its highest Graduation Success Rate (GSR) in program history in the latest report released by the NCAA on Wednesday.

WKU posted an overall GSR of 90, besting last year’s previous school record of 88. WKU has achieved a mark of 85 or higher in six of the last seven GSR reports.

“Congratulations to our student-athletes for another record setting GSR score,” WKU Director of Athletics Todd Stewart said in a news release. “Each of the last five years represent the five highest all-time scores for WKU athletics with this year’s score of 90 marking the all-time single-year best. While our athletic programs compete at a championship level and bring national notoriety to our university, they also do it while excelling in the classroom which makes their accomplishments all the more meaningful.”

Five programs achieved perfect GSR scores of 100 – men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s cross country/track & field, soccer and volleyball.

Volleyball extended its streak of perfect GSR scores to 19 years and has posted a perfect score every year the program has been eligible to report. Women’s soccer posted its seventh-straight perfect score and 13th since 2001.

Women’s golf achieved a perfect score for the sixth straight year and has been perfect seven times in program history. Men’s golf posted a perfect score the fourth straight year.

The GSRs released Wednesday are based on the four freshmen classes in Division I entering from 2014 to 2017. The NCAA calculates the rates based upon the number of student-athletes who graduated within six years after initially enrolling, in addition to those who left an institution prior to graduating but would have been academically eligible to compete.

The Division I Board of Directors created the GSR in 2002 in response to Division I college and university presidents who wanted data that more accurately reflected the mobility of college students beyond what the federal graduation rate measures. The federal rate counts as an academic failure any student who leaves a school, no matter whether he or she enrolls at another school. Also, the federal rate does not recognize students who enter school as transfer students.

The GSR formula removes from the rate student-athletes who leave school while academically eligible and includes student-athletes who transfer to a school after initially enrolling elsewhere. This calculation provides a more accurate appraisal of student-athlete success.

The rate also allows for a deeper understanding of graduation success in individual sports than the federal metric, which provides only broad groupings.

The federal graduation rate, however, remains the only measure to compare all NCAA student-athletes with the general student body at those same universities. Using this measure, student-athletes graduate at the same rate as the student body: 69%. Both student-athletes’ federal graduation rate and the student body rate increased 1 percentage point from last year.