It is no secret that community colleges struggle to retain students; due to the age and family life of these students, many cannot complete an associate's degree within the two year time frame most colleges encourage. The data related to grade point average, persistence, and graduation all support that 1) students need an associate's degree in order to be successful, and 2) transfer students need at least 3 years to finish a bachelor's degree.
As of 2015, only 54 students transferred to a UNC school from Edgecombe Community College; this number is low when compared to a similarly-sized Nash Community College, which transfers 86. However, those that do transfer boast a 2.76 GPA with an associate's degree and a 2.58 with half the credit hours, both of which are comparable to the 2.70 average of all NCCCS graduates. English class GPAs are 2.69, also comparable to other NCCCS grads, but math is the true struggle for these students; the average GPA is a 1.81, meanwhile transfers with half the credit hours faired even worse at 1.21. Only 68% of ECC students had a GPA of a 2.0 of higher at the end of their first transfer year. However, these students are persistent as the average number of credit hours dropped is 1.6, compared to 4.3 for other NCCCS students.
Graduation from a UNC system school by ECC graduates is low at 22%; ECU had the lowest with 18% of students attending being able to graduate. Native juniors graduate at a rate much higher -- 58%. Those with technical degrees fair just as poorly at 17%. However, this cohort studied (2010 graduates) experienced the LOWEST 2 year graduation rates in five years; graduation rates fell 50%. Persistence to obtain the degree, however, is at its highest at 72% and has been for the past four years.
Even though the students are struggling to graduate, they still continue to enroll in coursework, but simply take longer to complete the degree. This trend makes sense; community college students have families and many work full-time. With these types of barriers, lawmakers should understand that it matters less when they graduate, but that they are able to graduate with an employable set of skills.
Monday, June 13, 2016
Monday, June 6, 2016
Looking Over the Edge(combe): Funding and Faculty
Edgecombe Community College has a unique organizational and funding structure due to its rural location and two locations. Edgecombe receives 16.7 million in net allocations from the state. Curriculum funding totals nearly 8 million, while continuing education is nearly 1 million and basic skills is 800,000. Institutional support makes up 6 million of the total budget. The performance-based allocation is surprisingly only .008 % of the net total. Much of the performance funding comes from the success of its development English program; ECC recieved zero quality funding in developmental math and zero quality funding in first year progression. Additionally, its licensure passing rates account for the greatest portion of performance-based funding.
Faculty salaries at ECC put them at the top of a normal bell curve at a ranking of 28 out of the 58 colleges; average salary of the 75 full-time faculty is $47,264. Salaries had been stagnant since 2009, but 2015 marked the first year faculty received a raise since then. ECC has a 15:1 student to staff ratio when the 118 staff and the 75 faculty are combined. At 63%, a master's degree is the most common education level, with bachelor's following at 20% and associate's and special certifications at 13%.
ECC's handbook has a blank page where an organizational chart should be; this may reflect the various changes in administration over the last few years. Just recently, Rice and O'Keefe (2014) noted the exodus of many community college leaders of the baby-boomer generation due to retirement. It will be imperative for ECC to mold its faculty and staff to fill these important positions sooner rather than later.
with an Internal Leadership Development Plan
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