A major business group is sponsoring giant billboards on Texas freeways, drawing attention to what they see as abysmal graduation rates at community colleges. A new sign displayed on North Central Expressway in Dallas says:
8% OF DCCCD STUDENTS GRADUATE IN 3 YRS. IS THAT FAIR TO THE STUDENTS? TX ASSN OF BUSINESS.
The figure refers to the Dallas County Community College District—one of the largest two-year schools in the nation. Here is the Web site of the Texas Association of Business, the sponsoring organization.
A billboard put up by the same group was also placed in Austin recently. You can see it here, as part of an article on the signs in the Texas Tribune by Reeve Hamilton. From this site you can also connect to a podcast in response by ACC President Richard Rhodes. Here is the transcript.
The data cited by TAB is based exclusively on "first time, full time students." That's a problem, to put it mildly. For one thing, many students simply want to transfer and don't have any interest in graduating from a two-year school, or perhaps wish to take a course or two to beef up their skills. For another, full-timers tend to be a small percentage of the community college population.
From Dr. Rhodes:
I use myself as an example when we talk about that group of students. When I graduated from high school, I started as a first-time, full-time student at a community college in Alamogordo, New Mexico. I attended that institution for one full year, and I took about 36 college credit hours during that year. Then I transferred to a university and ultimately then received a bachelor’s degree. So if you take a look at those two institutions – the community college that I started at, and that gave me my best start; when I think back about my greatest teachers who inspired me to higher learning, it happened at the community college, that very first year. So I look at that and say if we look at graduation rates, those two institutions, Alamogordo (the community college) and New Mexico State University where I received my bachelor’s degree, at the community college I started as first time, full time and did not graduate; so therefore I’m in the denominator but I’m not in the numerator. So I actually count against them in their graduation rate computation. At New Mexico State University, since I was a transfer student, I don’t count at all. I’m not in the numerator; I’m not in the denominator because I was not a first time, full time student at that institution.
Dr. Rhodes points out that, at his school, only about 5.5 percent of the student body matches this first time, full time description.
Community college leaders nationwide are searching for a metric that reflects reality better, as reported in this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription).
From the Tribune article:
"People really have to understand the metrics and the data behind the metrics," Rhodes said in his podcast. "There's a much larger story when we think about community college students and what their intent is and why they come here."
[TAB President] Hammond is unsympathetic to assertions that the activity on community college campuses can't be measured; he calls it "complete BS."
Hammond said the Texas Association of Business hopes that by raising awareness through this campaign, graduation rates could rise as much as 60 percent. He said his group hasn't decided whether to erect similar messages in other parts of the state.
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