Barclay Barrios | Why the Four-Year Graduation Rate Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story

Barclay Barrios

For Barclay Barrios, the four-year graduation rate has become a shorthand for success that rarely tells the full story. While it’s simple to measure and easy to promote, it ignores the complexities of students’ lives. Many learners take different paths through higher education—not because they lack discipline or ambition, but because they are balancing responsibilities that demand time, energy, and care. That reality should be reflected in how we define achievement.

Barrios urges institutions to recognize that delayed graduation does not mean diminished commitment. It often signals the opposite. Working students, student-parents, caregivers, and returning adults are navigating more than course loads; they’re navigating systems that weren’t designed with them in mind. These students deserve structures that support—not penalize—their persistence.

That means building more flexible pathways through higher education. From course offerings that accommodate varied schedules to advising and financial aid processes that expect interruption and reentry, colleges must meet students where they are. The idea that success looks the same for everyone undermines the values of inclusion and access.

Barrios reminds us that metrics shape culture. When we prioritize speed, we sideline those whose lives move differently. When we prioritize support, we build institutions that honor difference instead of demanding uniformity.

In the end, the question isn’t whether students can finish in four years. The question is whether we’ve created conditions where they’re allowed to finish at all—and whether the paths we’ve built are ones they can actually walk.