Measuring student success
Measuring Student Success: One Completion at a Time Sheila Quirk-Bailey, PhD, Chief of Staff and Executive Director of Planning and Institutional Effectiveness, William Rainey Harper College Kenneth L. Ender, PhD, President, William Rainey Harper College, Palatine, IL
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oday we face a crisis across the educational landscape: the proportion of adults with postsecondary credentials is not keeping pace with that of other industrial nations and the United States is facing an alarming education deficit that threatens our global competitiveness and economic future.” This introduction from the College Board’s The College Completion Agenda: State Policy Guide (2010, p. 3) demonstrates the national importance of policy to increase college completion. According to the Center for Education and the Workforce, “the United States has been under producing college-going workers since 1980. Supply has failed to keep pace with growing demand, and as a result, income inequality has grown precipitously” (Carnevale & Rose, 2011, p. 3). Over the next decade, U.S. jobs requiring some level of postsecondary education is expected to grow to 63 percent. By 2018, it is expected that the United States will need 22 million new college degrees and over 4.7 million additional workers with postsecondary certificates but will fall short of these needs by over 3 million (Carnevale, Smith, & Strohl, 2010). These issues are largely the result of a national completion problem that is decreasing our nation’s global competitiveness and economic viability. As Complete College America (2011) points out, “unless we move with urgency, today’s young people will be the first generation in American history to be less educated than their predecessors” (p. 2).
There were many timely and impactful topics addressed at “A National Colloquium: Reimagining Community Colleges” hosted by the City University of New York, yet probably none more timely than accountability. This paper addresses the evolving issue of community college accountability from broad national initiatives to one college’s implementation of a specific measurement tool. The issue of accountability is not a newcomer to the community college stage. Lannon (2001) noted that “Accountability in higher education and, more specifically in community colleges, is definitely here to stay. Institutions can expect to see a growing trend of accountability initiatives both at the federal and statewide levels” (p. 69). Community colleges enroll more than 40% of U.S. undergraduates. Community colleges’ open admissions policies and comparatively low tuition have resulted in postsecondary education for students who previously might not have attended college. Enrollment at Community Colleges has dramatically increased over the past 50 years. Unfortunately, college completion rates have not kept pace with enrollment rates and achievement gaps can be found among students based on race/ethnicity and family income (Jenkins, 2011). In order to address these achievement gaps, calls for more transparency and increased levels of completion and accountability abound from multiple national initiatives.
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