The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board conducted its quarterly meeting on Thursday, October 27. This post concerns only one agenda item, with other topics to follow.
Susan Brown, assistant commissioner for planning and accountability, gave a report on the preliminary fall 2011 enrollments. Significantly, she noted that "something is working," regarding the persistence rates of college students. (Note: The Coordinating Board no longer uses "retention" to describe the goal of keeping students enrolled, since the term is used negatively in K-12 education—where "retaining" means a whole other deal.)
Precise figures are not available at this point, and Ms. Brown emphasized that the data are tentative. However, she said the phenomenon was "pretty extraordinary" and should produce higher graduation rates—at all levels. Commissioner of Higher Education Raymund Paredes added that it is indeed "remarkable" and complimented the institutions for their improvement.
Although the numbers have not been certified, enrollments at Texas institutions of higher education increased by 4.3 percent over fall 2010 levels. Preliminary enrollment in Texas is now 1.5 million students. Totals at public community colleges continue to display the greatest increases compared to other higher education sectors—6.4% over 2010, according to Board reports.
Continuing a trend that began several years ago, community and technical colleges account for most enrollment growth in higher education. Among public community colleges, the Lone Star College District experienced the largest increase in enrollments—11,854. Not surprisingly, most growth has taken place in metropolitan areas.
Dr. Paredes reported that the goals of the Closing the Gaps initiative remain on target. Nearly 62,500 more students enrolled in colleges and universities in Texas this fall than did in 2010, according to the preliminary enrollment data. This jump was not as large as that of the two previous years, but is nonetheless impressive, testimony indicated.
The Closing the Gaps initiative calls for 630,000 more students at Texas institutions of higher education over 2000 levels by 2015. Factoring in fall 2011 preliminary data, Texas needs to add 53,000 more students over the next 4 years to meet the 2015 goal.
Challenges remain with getting some ethnic minorities through the pipeline, particularly Hispanics, whose rate of population growth in Texas still outpaces their participation in higher education, and African-Americans, who remain less likely than whites to enroll and succeed in Texas colleges and universities. Still, African-Americans experienced the greatest percentage increase over 2010
enrollments—9.9 percent, according to the Board.
Interestingly, the "other" category in terms of ethnicity is growing rapidly, as students respond to surveys reflecting a multi-ethnic composition. Dr. Paredes said this could be a good thing, with race perhaps playing less of a role in academic success.
Comments