4-13-07 Assessing Community College Performance

Volume 20 For Publication Date: April 13, 2007 No. 8

Assessing Community College Performance

At the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association during the week of April 9, 2007, several scholars voiced their criticism over the federal Student Right to Know Act of 1990 and its impact on community colleges.

Their concern was that the reporting does not provide a realistic portrait of the effectiveness of community colleges. The criticisms were laid out in studies on student goals conducted by researchers Bailey, Jenkins, & Leinbach (BJL). The brief, “The Value of Student Right-to-Know Data in Assessing Community College Performance,” was a statistical analysis of 1,080 students who started their higher education career at a community college in 1996. Another research analysis, conducted by Laura Horn, a researcher with MPR Associates, did a federally funded study of 22,000 students enrolled in community colleges in the 2003-04 academic year. Her research presented a dichotomy of community college students that distinguished between those who had “job-skilled” oriented goals, who were older, vs. those with a strong commitment to earning a degree, who tended to be younger.

Researchers suggest that if the graduation data were broken down in different ways, like disaggregating the graduation figures according to age or students’ goals when they enter college, it would be more helpful to students, the colleges, and policymakers. According to Davis Jenkins, a senior research associate at the Community College Research Center, “Raw graduation rates are poor measures of community-college performance.”

The Right to Know Act does not paint community colleges in a fair light. The colleges do not receive credit for students who transfer to, and graduate from, other institutions, even though one of the main missions of community colleges is transfer to a four-year institution. In addition, the act measures graduation rates three years after enrollment, while most community college students take longer than three years to earn a degree. However, under Jenkins’ research, when looking at the same students in six years 49% of students who enrolled with the goal of transferring actually did so, and 55% either transferred or were still enrolled.

While researchers criticized the federal reporting act, they also asserted that community colleges’ graduate rates would not necessarily look much better under a revised reporting system. They asserted that community colleges need to be more aggressive in educating students on the process and options they have when they arrive at a community college. Speakers went on to articulate that state and federal governments need to be cautious in using graduation rates to punish or reward community colleges.

Thomas Bailey, director of the Community College Research Center, asserted that, “historically, outcome-based reforms haven’t worked very well when states have tried them. But if we someday have four or five different, accurate measures, who knows what might happen?” Additional information on this issue can be found at the American Educational Research Association website at http://www.aera.net/.

—Jamillah Moore, Ed.D.