4.1 Student Achievement

The institution evaluates success with respect to student achievement including, as appropriate, consideration of course completion, state licensing examinations, and job placement rates.

  Compliance          ___  Partial Compliance          ___  Non-Compliance

Narrative:

Students successfully achieving course completions, state licenses, and jobs are at the heart of South Louisiana Community College’s (SLCC) mission:

To cultivate a learning environment in which participants develop the qualities and skills necessary to engage actively in the economy, governance, and culture of South Louisiana… (1)

Program Coordinators and Department Chairs along with the Dean of Instruction and Effectiveness evaluate the success of all degree programs through an analysis of student achievement in areas such as completion rates, licensure and certification examinations, student transfer rates, and job placement.  Through the annual planning process each program analyzes data regarding student performance which is used to improve the program.  The Annual Plan Reports (2) become documentation for the analysis of these trends.

Program Coordinators review enrollment trend data, which compares enrollment in the program to enrollment trends in all programs then to all non-degree students and then to all SLCC students.  The enrollment data includes gender, ethnicity, age, and classification distributions.  Graduation trends are also reviewed for a five year period.  Graduation data includes number and percentage of program graduates as compared to percentage of all degree program graduates.  Finally, course data success rates are reviewed for a one year period.  The data for each program are available by (3).

Additionally, the Louisiana Community and Technical College System (LCTCS) Office requested a College ScoreCard (4) for 2009-2010.  This ScoreCard included enrollment data as compared to regional population, staffing data, budget items, financial aid data, completer data, fundraising data, community engagement and workforce development data.  The completer data section included information for the 2009 calendar year regarding passage rates on state licensing exams and job placement rates:

The Granting Resources and Autonomy for Diplomas Act (GRAD Act) (5) was passed during the last Louisiana Legislative session allowing public colleges in Louisiana to enter into agreement with the Louisiana Board of Regents for Higher Education (BoR) to improve its graduation rates, transfer rates, licensure passage rates, and employment rates in order to increase tuition by 5% without the required legislative vote. GRAD Act baseline data is available.  The first year of data implementation is due April 1, 2011, and may be shared with the Visiting Team.

Documentation: