February 23, 2011 Planning Committee Meeting

NATIONAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE BENCHMARKING PROJECT 2010

IVCC has participated in the National Community College Benchmarking Project (NCCBP), which compares approximately 150 measures of participating colleges.  A total of 268 colleges participated this year including approximately 20 from Illinois.  The administration finds the report to be very helpful to use and IVCC does use some of the measures for its Key Performance Indicators.  Student Persistence and Satisfaction were highlighted.  IVCC’s fall-to-spring persistence rate, although almost constant at 68 percent, remains slightly below the cohort median.  The fall-to-fall persistence rate has varied between 45 percent and 55 percent and is less consistent when compared to the cohort colleges, but this rate may be impacted by the certificates completed in one-year or less in duration.  The NCCBP used three measures of student success (1) retention rate, (2) enrollee success rate, and 3) completer success rate.  Of the three only the enrollee success rate is not subject to manipulation due to college withdraw/failure policies.  Compared to other colleges, IVCC has more withdraws and less failures.  In recent years the enrollee success rates at IVCC have been improving.  An increase in student success for distance learning reflected the development of student on-line orientation in 2008.  Retention and success in development course areas has proven challenging.  Students who do complete the courses tend to be successful.  Dr. Huffman noted that development courses should be taught differently.  The students lack skills and self-esteem.  If the students do not do well in these, it relates to the persistence issue.  Universities cannot provide developmental offerings. At Illinois State University (ISU) if a student tests below the average, the student meets five days a week instead of three days a week for a course.  Dr. Pearce is exploring this process by students taking development courses along with the 1001 courses which is more systematic instead of leaving it up to the students. 

It was noted by members of the committee that continuous improvement for IVCC is better than other colleges.  It was also noted that persistence is headcount and the fact that fall-to-fall is lower is expected, but why do students not return in spring. 

INTEGRATED POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION DATA SYSTEM DATA FEEDBACK REPORT 2010

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data system (IPEDS) Data Feedback Report is provided by the National Center for Educational Statistics.  The report is intended to provide institutions a context for examining the data they submitted to IPEDS and the goal is to produce a report that is useful to institutional executives and that may help improve the quality and comparability of IPEDS data.  Comparisons are made between the college and the median of its selected peer group.  IVCC’s unduplicated headcount is less than the comparison, but the FTE is comparable and the actual number of full-time students exceeds the comparison median.  IVCC tuition and fees were lower than the comparison group median, although the net price of attendance for the same time span is higher.  The administration looked into this further and reviewed other reports which did not indicate the net price was higher.  The administration will continue to look at reporting discrepancies to assure that IVCC is consistent in reporting.  The percentage of grants and aid was lower than the comparison group median due, in part, to the lower tuition and fees base.  Dr. Huffman noted that the MAP grant might be cut and the College should encourage more students to apply for PELL.  The graduation rate cohort as a percent of all undergraduates students has been decreasing in recent years with the addition of more high school students taking IVCC courses.  Although, IVCC shows significantly fewer executive/administrative staff as compared to the median, the College shows significantly more “other” professionals.  It is suspected that there are differences in how several of the middle management positions are categorized among the different comparison colleges.  The administration believes other reports for core revenues and expenses give better data than those reported in the IPEDS report.

NATIONAL STUDENT CLEARINGHOUSE STUDENT TRANSFER PATTERNS

The National Student Clearinghouse, through their Student Tracker, provides a method of tracking any student’s college attendance and degree attainment.  Over 70 percent of IVCC’s recent transfer degree graduates have continued with their education.  Over 80 percent of these students have continued their education within three years of their IVCC graduation.  Other information includes the colleges in which the students have chosen to continue their education.  Dr. Driscoll asked why the students are transferring to other community colleges.  The administration looked at the student who applied for a cooperative agreement with other community colleges and looked at what programs IVCC may want to offer.  They were all expensive programs – radiology, culinary arts, and physical therapy, but the College may still want to offer the programs.  The administration is looking at developing the radiology curriculum and partnering with hospitals to avoid purchasing the equipment.

NOEL LEVITZ STUDENT SATISFACTION INVENTORY – 2010 FALL RESULTS

The Noel Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory was administered in the fall to approximately 1000 IVCC students on the main campus, the Ottawa Center, and two extension sites.  The survey measures how satisfied and important select qualities of the College are to the student body.  Dr. Scroggs commended Bob Mattson, Drew McConville and Jeannette Frahm for their efforts in administering the survey.  Of the 40 items that were compared to a national sample,