PCC Endorses New Approach to Measuring Student Success
December 21, 2011
Tucson, AZ – Citing the need to better gauge community colleges’ contributions to our nation, Pima Community College has endorsed proposed Department of Education guidelines that would redefine completion rates and other measures of success at the more than 1,100 community colleges in the U.S.
In a letter to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, PCC Chancellor Dr. Roy Flores praised the recommendations of the Department’s Committee on Measures of Student Success, saying they will better convey the achievements of students at two-year institutions, and urged their adoption.
Dr. Flores noted that the proposal to create a combined “graduation and transfer” rate “acknowledges the reality that many students go to community colleges intending to get bachelor’s degrees elsewhere – in PCC’s case, primarily at our next-door neighbor, the University of Arizona, where 57 percent of students who earned an undergraduate degree in 2008-2009 had taken at least one PCC class.”
Dr. Flores wrote that “the nation’s community colleges, policymakers, students and families need more accurate information regarding progression and completion if the U.S. is to reach President Obama’s goal, set in 2010, of adding 5 million community college graduates by 2020.”
Dr. Flores has served on the Steering Committee of the Voluntary Framework of Accountability (VFA), a national system for community colleges to accurately benchmark student progress and completion data. PCC is one of more than 50 community colleges that tested the VFA.
The full text of the letter follows:
The Honorable Arne Duncan
Secretary of Education
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20202
Dear Mr. Secretary:
I am writing to wholeheartedly endorse the draft report of the Department of Education’s Committee on Measures of Student Success (CMSS) issued in November.
At Pima Community College (PCC), where I have been chancellor since 2003, each year over 70,000 diverse students strive to meet a wide variety of educational goals. Decision making at PCC is driven by the wielding of sophisticated, nuanced data, and I am aware that incomplete and skewed data collection can lead to a misleading portrait of an institution’s strengths. This is especially true regarding traditional measures of effectiveness at the U.S.’s more than 1,100 community colleges, where the statistics belie the superb job done at PCC and across the nation.
That concern informed my service on the Steering Committee of the American Association of Community Colleges’ Voluntary Framework of Accountability (VFA). And it is why PCC was one of more than 50 pilot colleges that tested the VFA, which, as you know, is a national system for community colleges to accurately benchmark student progress and completion data.
The CMSS' recommendations are praiseworthy not because they reflect the metrics at the foundation of the VFA, but because, if enacted, they will better convey the successes achieved by students at two-year institutions. Creating a combined “graduation and transfer” rate acknowledges the reality that many students go to community colleges intending to get bachelor’s degrees elsewhere – in PCC’s case, primarily at our next-door neighbor, the University of Arizona, where 57 percent of students who earned an undergraduate degree in 2008-2009 had taken at least one PCC class. Similarly, extending the time frame for measurement of graduation rates and including part-time students in the cohort is a wise recognition that many community college students -- two of every three at PCC -- are balancing school with work and family responsibilities and cannot attend full time.
The nation’s community colleges, policymakers, students and families need more accurate information regarding progression and completion if the U.S. is to reach President Obama’s goal, set in 2010, of adding 5 million community college graduates by 2020. The recommendations made by the Committee are significant improvements that will give a true sense of community college contributions to our nation, and should be adopted by the Department of Education.
Sincerely,
Roy Flores, Ph.D.,
Chancellor, Pima Community College
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CONTACT:
C.J. Karamargin
Vice Chancellor for Public Information and Government Relations
(520) 206-4850