According to federal graduation rates released today by the NCAA, 63 percent of Division I athletes who started college as freshmen in 2000 graduated in six years. That beats the graduation rate for all students at Division I schools by 1 percent and equaled last year's percentage.

White athletes had a 67 percent graduation rate, compared to 64 percent for white students overall. Black athletes also outperformed their student-body counterparts, 53 percent to 46 percent.

"What these data show are that student-athletes are good students," said NCAA spokesman Erik Christianson. "There tends to be a myth that student-athletes do not perform well in the classroom.

"The data simply suggests otherwise."

The NCAA released federal statistics on graduation rates that do not account for transfer students. Earlier this month, it also released data termed "graduation success rates" that counted transfers and resulted in higher overall totals.

The federal statistics released today show that 49 percent of black male athletes graduated in six years, compared to 39 percent of their student-body counterparts. Female black athletes had a 63 percent graduation rate compared to 50 percent overall.

The data show that 74 percent of white female athletes graduated, compared to 66 percent overall.

Hispanic male and female athletes also graduated at higher percentages than overall figures for their ethnic groups. But white male and Asian/Pacific Island male students fell short of the overall percentages for their groups.

The federal numbers counted 18,346 athletes and 645,215 students overall at Division I schools and also included graduation rates for all Division I schools.

Christianson said the NCAA is encouraged by the latest statistics but understands "that there's room for improvement."

He noted that the governing body for college athletics has raised eligibility standards for high school athletes who want to compete in college. It also requires students to earn 20 percent of their degree every year.

Earlier this month, the NCAA released its graduation success rates, which the organization prefers to focus on because they count transfer students. They showed the overall graduation rate for men and women in all sports at 77 percent.

The individual rates for the three poorest-performing groups of athletes — men's basketball, football and baseball — showed slight improvements for the second consecutive year.

This is the third year the NCAA has also released its own data.

On the Net: http://www2.ncaa.org/portal/academics—and—athletes/education—and—res earch/ac