Randolph Community College was one of 11 community colleges in North Carolina that met "Exceptional Institutional Performance" standards in the annual accountability measures for North Carolina's 58 community colleges, according to a report released yesterday. In addition to meeting or exceeding all eight system standards, these 11 schools met additional performance goals. Those goals were achieving the college performance rates of students who began in, rather than transferred into, the UNC System and attaining at least a 70 percent passing rate for students who sit for a licensure or certification exam for the first time. The accountability measures are based on 2007-08 academic year data.
"I am so proud of our RCC team. Meeting and surpassing these standards says that RCC provides the very highest quality of education and service to our students, as well as to our local businesses and industries," said RCC President Robert S. Shackleford Jr. "The North Carolina legislature and community college system give us these measures that require us to demonstrate how well we are serving our students and community, and we are one of the very few community colleges in the state that made straight As. I am very proud of our faculty and staff who give their dedicated best each day to each student and to our community."
Randolph Community College's performance on the eight standards were as follows:
• Progress of basic skills students: state benchmark-75%; RCC-79%
• License/Certification Pass Rates: state benchmark-80%; RCC-86%
(for exceptional performance, no exam can be lower than a 70%)
• Performance of College Transfer Students: state benchmark-83%; RCC-93%
(for exceptional performance, need to meet or exceed the performance of UNC system sophomores and juniors-87%)
• Passing rates in Developmental Courses: state benchmark-75%; RCC-93%
• Success Rate of Developmental Students in Subsequent College Level Courses: state benchmark-80%; RCC-87%
• Student Satisfaction of Completers and Non-Completers: state benchmark-90%; RCC-98%
• Curriculum Student Retention, Graduation & Transfer: state benchmark-65%; RCC-71%
• Business/Industry Satisfaction with Services Provided: State Benchmark-90%; RCC-97%.
The 2009 Critical Success Factors report released Wednesday by the North Carolina Community College System shows that as a system, the community colleges produced students well prepared to:
• Pass 23 different licensure and certification exams as first-time test takers (Forty-five colleges met the system standard of an 80 percent passing rate with 9,007 out of 10,490 students succeeding on their first try.)
• Be successful as college transfer students at four-year institutions (Forty-four colleges met or exceeded the system's standard of 83 percent of students in four-year institutions having a 2.0 or better after two semesters. Thirty colleges met or exceeded the 87 percent success rate of students who began in, rather than transferred into, the UNC System.)
• Move successfully from developmental to college-level courses (Fifty-seven colleges combined for a system average of 88 percent of students who were doing well in college-level courses after having started at the developmental level.)
"These accountability measures show that North Carolina Community Colleges are providing a great foundation for our students whether they are headed to the workplace or into baccalaureate institutions," said Dr. R. Scott Ralls, president of the NCCCS.
For more than 20 years, the NCCCS has annually compiled an assessment of its 58 colleges based on a variety of indicators related to service, student success and performance during the previous academic year. Over time, the assessment has evolved into eight core accountability standards. Any college not achieving any of the eight standards is required to submit an action plan for improving performance to the State Board of Community Colleges.
"Attaining these standards is a matter of pride and achievement among our colleges, our faculty and our staff," Ralls said. "When the budget allows, we are able to provide performance based funding to the colleges based on the number of measures they meet or if they rise to the exceptional level. However, this year our colleges understand that there won't be any additional dollars, only the satisfaction of achieving their mission of preparing students for their next step whether it’s college or work."
