As legislators and education officials grapple with questions of how to get the best returns on taxpayers' investment in public colleges and universities, a new report released Wednesday shows the community colleges have one of the worst "success rates" in the nation.
"The biggest concern that comes out of this [report] is that Connecticut invests at a very high level compared to other states ... one would expect a better return from a higher investment," said Higher Education Commissioner Michael Meotti.
The state pays about $7,000 a year for each full-time student enrolled in one of the 12 two-year community colleges -- but only one out of every 10 full-time students who enroll seeking an associates degree or certificate will earn one in three years. That ranks Connecticut's community college graduation rate 47th in the nation, according to the report by the state Department of Higher Education.
When students who transfer to another institution are added to those who graduate, Connecticut's community colleges still rank well below the national average. Overall, one out of every three full-time, first-time students completes a degree or certificate or transfers to another school in three years.
Mary Anne Cox, assistant chancellor for the 58,000 full- and part-time student community college system, said many factors contribute to the low rate.
"Connecticut has the highest achievement gap in the nation," she said, referring to the wide disparity in test results between minority and non-minority students. Thirty-five percent of the current students at the community colleges are black or Hispanic, compared to 15 percent at the University of Connecticut and 17 percent at Connecticut State University System.
"Too many students that come to us need remedial courses to be successful here," Cox said. "For these at-risk students to enroll, enter the college and persist and succeed in college level study, complete certificate and degree programs, is a daunting challenge for them and for the colleges that serve them."
Four out of every five students who enroll in community colleges need to take a reading, English or math course to learn material they should have picked up in high school so they are prepared for college-level courses.
In an effort to increase the graduation rates, Cox said the colleges have implemented several interventions: including increasing tutoring, career and transfer counseling, mentoring and tracking students progress more closely.
The six-year graduation rates at the University of Connecticut and Connecticut State University System are above and on par with the national rates, respectively. CSUS graduates 46 percent of their students in six years and 19 percent in four years. UConn graduates 74 percent in six year and 57 percent in four years, reports the SDHE.
"We are hoping we will continue to improve the amount of students we graduate. That's a real priority," said Louise Feroe, acting chancellor of CSUS.
Cox said while the 10 percent graduation rate of full-time, first-time students at the community colleges may raise concerns, it is important to take into consideration part-time students and those who graduate in six years.
She says that brings the colleges "success rate" up to almost half the students that enroll. And even for those who did not complete their education, Cox said that 57 percent left college having made academic progress.
"These students either met their unique goal or found life circumstances too challenging to be able to continue to completion," she said.
Meotti acknowledged that the report only counts full-time community college students that enter school for the first time --60 percent of students attend part-time--but said "it still has relevance... If they use the dollars right, then there are still so many opportunities to get the results we desire as a state."
And during a time that state lawmakers are considering drastic cuts and a major reorganization to higher education, he said, the report could be a useful reference for state lawmakers.
"Are we just wasting our money?" asked Meotti. "The key question is, are you using the dollars right? We should be able to answer that."
Faced with the deepest proposed cuts in state history and decades of inadequate funding for our public colleges and universities, it is deeply disturbing that the Commissioner of Higher Education would put politics above policy. The report he is using to undermine Connecticut public colleges is based on extremely suspect criteria. I realize that the Commissioner is engaged in a political effort to shift power away from our colleges and universities to his state agency, but to suggest that our schools, especially our community colleges are failing is not only inaccurate and insulting but shifts the focus from
Read MoreFour out of every five students who enroll in community colleges need to take a reading, English or math course to learn material they should have picked up in high school so they are prepared for college-level courses.
This is the problem. We have the highest paid teachers in the USA and about the worst results . Until this is resolved it is imposssible to improve conditions at the community college level.
At least there is one positive thing from all of this. Can you image the cost if these people went to a four year college or university and
Read MoreI applaud Jon Pelto's call for an examination of the bloat at the higher-administrative levels.
Mary Ann Cox, Assistant Chancellor of the CCC's, doesn't speak to the heart of the issue.
Some top administrators at the CC's ignore pragmatic aspects of degree completion at the CC's and/or they are too busy fluffing up their personal CV's with projects unrelated to student success or degree completion.
No one is minding the store at some of the highest levels, in some cases.
Current case in point:
Norwalk Community College (the richest CC in CT by far, HUGE foundation money) has recently put
In case Norwalk CC quickly pulls the new catalog (link in my my post above) with the GAP UConn errors (and I hope they DO pull it!), I am pasting in below the incorrect texts as currently appears in the NCC catalog (pp 28-29 pdf NCC website):
NCC Transfer Opportunities with University
of Connecticut
An important element of the College’s mission is to provide the
first two years of a baccalaureate program to meet the needs of those
students who wish to transfer to another college or university and
complete the requirements for a bachelor’s degree. To further this
goal,
Does Rep. Willis still want to stick her head in the sand and ignore the obvious that the community college system in our state is severely broken? What college did she graduate from?
Community colleges are not broken - the measure of success is. Unlike most students at a four-year school, many community college students do not have an INITIAL goal of earning a degree. Additionally, older students often have 'life' heppen to them - job pressures, financial difficulties, family problems - which extend the time it takes to attain their educational goals. The "graduation rate" measure - while it has some value - does not truly capture whether or not a student is successful. At its most absurd, consider this - only those students who are first-time, full-time students are placed in
Read MoreThere's a time for "truthiness," to quote Steven Colbert, but is it Friday or Wednesday?
On Friday, March 11th, 2011, Department of Higher Education Commissioner Michael Meotti stated in a public forum sponsored by the Connecticut Association of Human Services at the Legislative Office Building, with legislators and the public in attendance, that "graduation rates are not an appropriate measure for community colleges."
The following Wednesday, March 16th, 2011, Commissioner Meotti focused his attention on community college graduation rates calling them "relevant" as cited in the CT Mirror of 3-17-11.
What has changed between Friday and Wednesday? Other than Commissioner
Read MoreShame on the CT Mirror and shame on Commissioner Meotti!
To devote the first two-thirds of the article to appalling data and THEN mention that the data is not actually representative as it is based on full-time, first-time students when 60% of the CCC students are part-time is dissembling!
Meotti should step out of his office in Hartford and take a ride to some of the CCCs, especially the urban colleges. Students come in reading and writing at the 4th grade level and calculating at the 2nd-3rd grade level. If you threaten the CCCs with 'GRADUATE
Read MoreOne might wonder if students who read, write and calculate at the elementary school level should be admitted to a community college as degree-seeking students. Is degree-seeking status at a community college really the right avenue for these individuals?
While several comments rightly point out that graduation rates are flawed, the article does discuss transfer rates and indicates Connecticut is still below average when taking these into account. The question "are we using our dollars right?" still seems relevant to me.
DeepThought - those are important questions. Essentially the issue is 'ability to benefit.' Perhaps students who need extensive remediation should first seek services of Adult Education. Or perhaps CT should look to some of the models in FL and CA; if a student is deeply deficient in basic skills the HS that handed the diploma is responsible for remediating (and the student is responsible for putting in the effort that was lacking in HS).
I agree that the question, "are we using our dollars right?" is relevant, but not following the framework established in the article.
The achievement
Read MoreThe 18 year old students at the lower end of the academic skills spectrum need something to do and somewhere to go. The community colleges are basically the very last safety net for young high school graduates who are academically under-prepared but also incapable of landing a job --- even at WalMart or McDonalds. (Even young people with excellent academic skills cannot find full time jobs in this horrible economy.)
There is just no other better place for these young people to be than in the community colleges.
And part of the community college mission is to
Part of the problem with transfer from the CC's to UConn or the CSU's is that the CC Student is not well advised by the staff at the CC's about the requirements of CSU or UConn. A significant step would be an effort to integrate the advisement processes between the three systems for those students who plan to go from one to the other.
That said there is another issue that needs work: The snob factor on the part of CSU and UConn Faculty about the teaching and the product produced by the CC's. Courses that coud
Read MoreYes, it's true that the merger will not be completely smooth and will not ensure instant great results.
But if the various state institutions are required to make articulation more student-friendly and do-able, then we will be on the right path.
And by the way, "Mandarin" faculty even exist at the community college level, where some professors create unnecessary roadblocks to student progress and/or degree completion because the professors have the political power within those institutions to require all students to take now outdated or unnecessary courses ---- courses which those professors happen to teach. And sometimes these faculty
Read MoreElaine,
You are dead wrong. The article used figures every community college in the nation is required to report. Yes, it is just a portion of the total number of students that attend the community colleges, but the article and Meotti both pointed that out. Should they not do a comparison just because not everyone is included?
The figures compared apples to apples in all 50 states, and Connecticut's community colleges came in close to last. How about dealing with that? It's the only data to compare the community colleges. Or would you just prefer they aren't held responsible? Or
Read MoreNorwalk CC got the message, and partially corrected their GAP UConn information in the new catalog. But they've still got it only half-right; GAP UConn to the business school requires a 3.3 gpa, not a 3. gpa.
Here's the accurate information from the horse's mouth:
http://transfer.uconn.edu/pdfs/GA_Program_Agreement.pdf
Why is it so hard for Norwalk CC's administrators to convey accurate information to their students? Don't they understand that this inaccurate information hurts student progress (graduating from the cc's and/or transferring to 4 year schools)?
Again, let's hope Norwalk CC is reading this and corrects their catalog one more time.
This is
Read MoreAn Advocate got it exactly right about the cowardice of Academic Adminstrators. But what would you expect? To get promoted to that role one has to have been a long time member of the teaching faculty!!
How can you ask anything of your friends?
As long as Trustees, the Legislature and the Higher Education management structure of the State allows this to continue the things mentioned by An Advocate will continue, unabated.
Mansfield 1: It's not quite accurate that college administrators are ALWAYS former long-term faculty members. The sad fact is that many college administrators were BRIEFLY full-time faculty, and they found that they disliked it because they couldn't connect to the students (i.e., they were bad teachers). Instead of leaving the profession, they shifted over to administrative work (just look at the ongoing teaching load of most administrators --- one course every four years or so -----).
This would be an excellent research project for someone: the background of administrators in cc's and state colleges ---- and
As a student that graduated from the Liberal Arts Honors Option Summa Cum Laude, and has transferred to Columbia University and am currently on the Deans List, I was disheartened by the implications of this article. I arrived at NCC without the academic preparation necessary to be admitted to ANY university and would disagree with the statement that "a better return from a higher investment" is not being achieved. If it were not for the developmental departments and the wonderful academic advisors and staff at community colleges there would be many students that would not be able to
Read More"If the state does not change its demographic trajectory, it faces a bleak future."
A Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis report, "Recovery Stirring, But Will Connecticut be Too Old to Compete?"
Get the latest headlines right to your mobile
Visit m.ctmirror.org on your mobile device
FOLLOW US ON: 
CT Mirror is now well into its 3rd year. Since our launch on Jan. 25, 2010, we've published more than 4,000 stories and had 3.5 million web visits.
From the start, our goal has been to offer readers information on Connecticut policies and politics - and the personalities behind both - to help residents make the best decisions possible about their lives and those of their families.
PROUD SPONSOR
CT JOBLESS RATE
January 2011: 9.3%
February 2011: 9.2%
March 2011: 9.1%
April 2011: 9.0%
May 2011: 8.9%
June 2011: 8.9%
July 2011: 8.9%
August 2011: 8.8%
September 2011: 8.6%
October 2011: 8.5%
November 2011: 8.3%
December 2011: 8.1%
January 2012: 8.0%
February 2012: 7.8%
March 2012: 7.7%
April 2012: 7.7%
PROUD SPONSOR
Printer-friendly version
Send to a friend