A recent report on graduation rates at Connecticut’s community colleges is generating debate.
According to the annual report released by the Board of Governors for Higher Education last month, only 13 percent of the full-time, degree-seeking students who started the two-year colleges in 2002 graduated within three years, just below the national average of 14 percent.
Last fall, a record 46,489 students enrolled in Connecticut’s 12 community colleges, an increase of more than 13 percent from 2000. These students make up roughly half of all undergraduates in the state, said Mary Anne Cox, director of communication for the Board of Governors.
“A college degree has become a necessary qualification for many, many jobs, especially in areas such as technology and nursing,” Cox said. “And concern about preparedness of the work force has led to a greater interest in graduation rates.”
Too Much Attention
Several community college officials downplay the significance of low graduation rates, arguing that these statistics only account for a small percentage of their students.
Ingrid McGowen, director of institutional research for Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury, said the numbers ignore part-time students, who make up 60 percent of the student body.
An equally important measure, McGowen noted, is the school’s retention rate. In 2005, 56 percent of the NVCC student body were continuing students. The school set up a committee last year to work on raising the retention rate, she said.
“Of course we want our students to graduate,” McGowan said. “It’s a statistic that’s reported nationally; it’s what legislators look at. But a community college student does not follow the traditional paradigm of a university student.”
Barbara Douglas, president of Northwest Connecticut Community College in Winsted, said numerous students come to the school unprepared and spend their first year or two in remedial courses that do not count toward a degree.
Douglas also said that in addition to the 13 percent of full-time, degree-seeking students who graduated in 2005, an additional 20 percent transferred to other schools, while another 16 percent stayed for the another year, raising what she called NCCC’s “success rate” to 49 percent.
