A message from President Joe Sopcich:
Last year, we spent a lot of time talking about our Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which are data sets that we use to measure how well our students – and the college – are doing. We published them in our annual report to the community, our League for Innovation reaffirmation document, on the web and on the digital signs in the hallways. I’ve used them in countless presentations to groups in the community.
One year later, we haven’t forgotten them by any means. In fact, we’ve updated them, based on benchmarking information and our annual survey results. I’m happy to report that we’re making progress in some areas and trying hard to improve in others! You can see for yourself by checking the KPI web pages.
As a reminder, JCCC’s key performance indicators
· Measure student success.
· Are nationally accepted indicators.
· Can be used as benchmarks to assess our performance against the performance of peer institutions (community colleges similar to JCCC).
· Provide institutional focus and accountability.
Here’s what we’re seeing:
· Both our full-time and part-time student graduation and transfer rates (for first-time, degree-seeking students) are up! The percentage for full-time students increased from 39% to 42% over the last year, while the percentage for part-time students increased from 32% to 36%. We haven’t yet reached our goal, which is to be at the 75th percentile of community colleges’ performance nationwide, but we are certainly closing that gap.
· Fall-to-fall persistence rates dropped ever so slightly, comparing fall 2011 to fall 2012 and fall 2012 to fall 2013 – from 46% to 45%. We can take a look at the 20th day census figures in September to see if that changes from fall 2013 to fall 2014.
· The GPA of students who transfer to KU was up – moving from 2.98 to 2.99.
· Four of the five student satisfaction indicators showed significant progress. (These are based on student responses to the annual Noel-Levitz survey measuring student responses regarding instructional effectiveness, registration effectiveness, concern for the individual, academic advising and counseling, and safety and security.)
o Student satisfaction with instructional effectiveness moved from 5.51 in 2012 to 5.54 in 2014.
o Student satisfaction with registration effectiveness increased from 5.51 in 2012 to 5.61 in 2014.
o Student satisfaction regarding the college’s concern for the individual increased from 5.33 in 2012 to 5.35 in 2014.
o Student satisfaction with safety and security increased from 5.12 in 2012 to 5.18 in 2014.
o Academic advising and counseling decreased from 5.23 in 2012 to 5.19 in 2014.
I applaud you for your efforts this past year to move the needle on our KPIs. As the saying goes, if nothing changes, nothing changes. Well, as the numbers show, many things here have changed for the better, and those changes are reflected in our KPIs. That was the result of your hard work and your willingness to try new ideas, new processes and new procedures and do things a little differently to help our students. Indicators that were flat or declined are opportunities for future growth. Obviously, we can make a difference when we work together as ONE!
I know some of these changes haven’t been easy or comfortable, but we as faculty and staff have made them anyway, and they’re paying off in better results for our students. Ultimately, it’s not about us, it’s about our students. I thank you for your efforts to put students first, but far more importantly, our students thank you. Let’s keep pushing the envelope and be persistent in moving the needles in a positive direction. We can do this, because we’ve proven that we can!
Joe
Photo courtesy of JCCC.