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An A+ for CCCC
COMMUNITY COLLEGE EXCELS IN ANNUAL REPORT
By JONATHAN OWENS
and KATHERINE McDONALD
The Sanford Herald
SANFORD — Central Carolina Community College President Matt Garrett always knew his campus was among the cream of the crop in the state. Now he has the proof to back it up.
By gaining a perfect score in the North Carolina Community College System’s just-released “2007 Critical Success Factors Report,” the college, with campuses in Lee, Harnett and Chatham counties, was named as one of the top seven community colleges in the state.
“We really are one of the very best colleges in North Carolina and it is great when the data help to prove that,” said Garrett. “I am very proud. People at CCCC have worked extremely hard over the years to achieve this.”
The performance measures were first adopted by the NCCCS in 1999. According to the report, the “Critical Success Factors Report” has evolved into “the major accountability document for the North Carolina Community College System.”
The college met or exceeded 12 performance measures established by the NCCCS. Out of 58 colleges in the state, only CCCC, Durham Technical, Forsyth Technical, Isothermal, Piedmont, VanceGranville and Wilkes community colleges received such a high rating.
Using data primarily from the 2005-06 school year, NCCCS judged the colleges based on 12 standards of excellence — dealing with everything from enrollment growth, basic skills assessments, employment after college and transfer rates to four-year universities — that show how well the colleges are carrying out their missions of meeting the educational needs of their students, communities, business and industry. CCCC met and, in almost all cases, exceeded state standards of performance on each criteria.
CCCC scored higher than any other college in the report on basic skills progress, a facet of the college made up primarily of adult high school and GED students.
Garrett was most pleased with the college’s performance of graduates on state licensing exams and university transfers, which he called the top indicators of the health of a community college.
“The hardest two measures to achieve is to judge how well our university transfer students do after they transfer and how well our graduates perform on statewide licensing exams,” he said. “Our students did exceptionally well in both categories.”
For the third year in a row, the college also achieved a “Superior” rating, along with 37 other community colleges, for meeting the six performance funding measures used by the General Assembly in determining community college funding based on performance.
“To achieve ‘Superior’ status is a real accomplishment by itself,” said Dr. John Slade, CCCC vice president of instruction. “To earn it on the way to meeting or exceeding all 12 performance measures is grand. It’s an honor to stand out in this way, and our goal is to earn this distinction as many times as we can.”
Garrett said that the college must continue to work hard to stay on top of the state.
“Now our task is to go back to work tomorrow and continue to do the best we can each day to serve students,” he said, “so that we can keep CCCC at the top.”
Katherine Mc Donald is Central Carolina Community College’s news & feature writer.
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