Community College Journal - December 2010/January 2011

AACC ONLINE

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Measuring
Student Success
s pressure mounts to improve college completion rates, the push
for an effective barometer of student success also has intensified.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan in June 2009 formed the Committee
on Measures of Student Success, a group of 15 educators and other stakeholders,
to explore the possibility of integrating success metrics at the nation’s more
than 1,173 community and technical colleges.

Community College Times Editor Matthew Dembicki recently caught up with several members of the committee after a meeting in Washington, D.C., where he asked them about the importance of their mission.

Tom Bailey, the committee chair and director of
Columbia University’s Teachers College Community

College Research Center, says a national system is the
only means by which to effectively gauge our progress.
“If we don’t have good measures of student success,
then we don’t know how well we are doing,” he says.
For more interviews with national committee members,
visit AACC’s You Tube channel at www.youtube.com/
user/communitycolleges. visit AACC’s You Tube channel at www.youtube.com/ user/communitycolleges.

Also Available on You Tube
This Month:

• G. Edward Hughes, president of Kentucky’s Gateway Community and Technical College, discusses the relationship between workforce training and the Completion Agenda.

• Participants at the 2010 National Council on Black American Affairs Midlevel Institute share their experiences and talk about the value of peer networking.

A Call to Action: Want to get involved in the Completion Agenda? Don’t miss our new Call to Action landing page at www.aacc.nche.edu/ About/Pages/ calltoaction.aspx. This latest resource features the original agreement between the six national community college organizations that signed the Call to Action to improve college completion rates, provides a commitment template that other colleges can adapt, highlights participating colleges and their completion efforts, and offers links to news stories and other reports about improving student success.