Panel advises community colleges on raising graduation rate
Urges student support groups, more faculty
To boost low graduation rates, the state's community colleges should reach out to students with mentoring, support groups, and more full-time faculty, says a state report released yesterday.
The report, written by a task force appointed by the state Board of Higher Education more than a year ago, also urges public high schools to give students college-entrance exams in the 11th grade. Nearly two-thirds of students at the state's 15 community colleges end up taking remedial classes because they were ill-prepared for college.
The recommendations reflect the challenges community colleges face working with students at a greater risk of dropping out of college than their peers in four-year schools. Community college students tend to come from low-income families and often are first-generation college students, who are juggling school along with full-time jobs and sometimes young children.
The state board set up the Task Force on Retention and Completion Rates at Community Colleges because of dismay over the low percentage of first-time, full-time students graduating within three years.
Just 17.4 percent of students at Massachusetts community colleges earned a degree or certificate within three years compared with a national average 21.5 percent , according to the most recent federal data, which were collected in 2005. Three years is considered a national benchmark for finishing on time in a community college.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston also has raised concerns, lambasting community colleges for their graduation rates.
"We can do a better job," said Carole Berotte Joseph, president of Mass Bay Community College. "We really need to provide more support for students to be successful."
Community college and business leaders say community colleges need to produce more graduates because the state's economy requires a more sophisticated and skilled workforce.
The task force of college presidents, trustees, and business leaders recommended a mix of goals and approaches, but did not give a dollar amount for its proposals. The recommendations and goals include:
The Board of Higher Education will appoint task forces to implement some of the changes.
Task force members cautioned that the responsibility for increasing graduation rates does not lie with the colleges alone. Public high schools, they said, also have to better prepare students for college.
"The more you can reduce the need for remedial education, the better chance the student has to go on in a program and get a degree," said task force member John Schneider , interim president and chief executive office of MassInc., an education think tank.
Members also criticized the use of federal graduation-rate data because two-thirds or more community college students attend part time and their success in earning degrees is not factored into the rate. Also, full-time students who transfer to a four-year institution before earning a community college degree are counted negatively in federal data.
Linda Kowalcky, Menino's higher education adviser, said she was pleased to see that the community colleges were focusing on improvement.
A few of the colleges are trying some of the approaches recommended in the report.
North Shore Community College last month began providing academic advisers to 35 students who either speak English as a second language or are having academic difficulty. The students and advisers meet regularly so students can stay on track.
"That's how you raise graduation rates, by giving hope," said Wayne Burton, president of North Shore Community College.
Bunker Hill Community College next year will organize about 200 students into small groups based on their backgrounds. The groups, which could consist of first-generation college students, veterans, or single-mothers, would attend the same classes.
"The students who come to community college are by and large commuters, and they don't feel as connected to the institutions the same way as students who go to a four-year school," said Mary Fifield, president of Bunker Hill.
"In a way, they are disenfranchised from the campus."
