POPLARVILLE Miss. – A record increase in the number of new students in Mississippi’s community colleges translated this spring into a record number of degrees.
In the fall of 2009, the 15 colleges recorded a 14.3 percent increase in students that pushed enrollment past 80,000 for the first time. Last month, the colleges awarded a record 13,228 degrees, up 1,873, or 14.2 percent from the year before.
The increase comes at an opportune time for community colleges, which soon may see part of their funding based on the number of degrees.
Student graduation “is the strongest accountability that we will be faced with in the future,” Pearl River Community College President William Lewis, whose college just graduated a record 879 graduates, told The Hattiesburg American.
Nationwide, community college graduation rates are notoriously low. Though state board officials said they don’t have system wide data tracking graduation rates, U.S. Department of Education data show the graduation rates for most Mississippi community colleges between 20 and 30 percent.
But relying on graduation rates alone is tricky when determining the effectiveness of community colleges, officials said.
The move to emphasize community college graduation started with President Obama’s call in 2009 for an additional 5 million community college graduates by 2020. Gov. Haley Barbour wants funding based on productivity goals and accomplishments rather than enrollment. The Legislature has agreed to study that idea.
