Study: Oregon one of worst states for community college
Oregon ranked second to last for community college systems in a recent study by finance company WalletHub.
The personal-finance website conducted an analysis of 2016’s Best & Worst Community Colleges and identified the states with the best and worst community college systems.
Oregon came in 46th out of 47 states, followed only by Pennsylvania. Delaware, Rhode Island and Vermont did not have enough community colleges to be included in the study. South Dakota, Alaska, North Dakota, Florida and Montana took the top five spots.
Jill Gonzalez, an analyst from WalletHub, said the study calculated a weighted average of the scores obtained by the community colleges in each state and the number of students enrolled in each school.
"For Oregon we looked at 17 community colleges and only three of them ranked above average," she said. "The rest of the colleges we analyzed ranked quite low, thus impacting the state's overall ranking."
The study looked at three key categories — cost and financing for the schools; education outcomes; and career outcomes. The analysts looked at 12 key metrics within those categories, including availability of grants, faculty salary, first-year retention rates, graduation rates, and student-faculty ratio.
"We were surprised to see just how significantly costs varied," she said.
The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles, Gonzalez said as an example, has the highest tuition and fees at almost $30,000 per year, which is 27 times higher than the community college with the lowest tuition and fees, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in New Mexico, at $1,095.
"The best community colleges ... enable students and future students to get the most bang for their buck, with high (return on investment) when it comes to starting salaries and low student loan default rates," she said. "The worst colleges should try to improve their graduation rates and the number of credentials awarded."
Officials from the Center for Community College Student Engagement said in 2015 they do not support these methods for studies, saying, "(The center) opposes using its data to rank colleges. Each community college's performance should be considered in terms of its mission, institutional focus, and student characteristics."
Chemeketa Community College in Oregon ranked at 759 out of 821 schools.
"We were surprised," said Greg Harris, a spokesperson for Chemeketa, when asked about the results. "Of course we are proud of our students and the work we do, but we know the completion and graduation rates are not where we want them."
Oregon, Minnesota, and Tennessee were praised in the study for "blazing the trail" of the college-for-all circuit. Chemeketa Community College, specifically, has kept tuition the same for four years in a row.
To address issues with completion, Harris said, Chemeketa is teaching college readiness courses and providing more tutors and guidance counselors. He said they are exploring other models from national research centers this year.
"We are going to try to do more," he said. "The results are not satisfactory."
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