ERIC Number: ED489101
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2005-Jun
Pages: 48
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Is Student Success Labeled Institutional Failure? Student Goals and Graduation Rates in the Accountability Debate at Community Colleges. CCRC Working Paper No. 1
Bailey, Thomas; Jenkins, Davis; Leinbach, Timothy
Community College Research Center, Columbia University
Community colleges are open-door institutions serving many students with academic, economic, and personal characteristics that can make college completion a challenge. Their graduation rates are low, but community college students do not always have earning a degree as their goal. While individual students may feel that their experience at a community college is a success, unless it culminates in a credential or transfer to a four-year institution the enrollment is counted as a failure for the college. This report explores different views on whether graduation rates are a fair and valid measure of community college effectiveness. It indicates how these rates can be useful as a relative measure and as a guide for institutional improvement, and suggests other ways of measuring student and institutional success. (Contains 13 figures.)
Descriptors: Graduation Rate, Community Colleges, School Effectiveness, Evaluation Methods, Student Characteristics, Expectation, Goal Orientation, Student Rights
Community College Research Center, Columbia University, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120th Street, Box #174, New York, NY 10027. Tel: 212-678-3091; Fax: 212-678-3699; e-mail: ccrc@columbia.edu.
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Two Year Colleges
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Lumina Foundation for Education, Indianapolis, IN.; Ford Foundation, New York, NY.; Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, New York, NY.
Authoring Institution: Columbia Univ., New York, NY. Community Coll. Research Center.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A