Retention, completion comparable to or above national rates

A recent report that evaluated the performance of Wyoming’s community colleges ranked Northwest College at or near the top of the list in several categories.

NWC Institutional Researcher Lisa Smith shared the results of the 2015-16 Performance Indicators Report last week at the monthly meeting of the Board of Trustees. The report tracked progress rates in such areas as student retention, student persistence and completion.

“That is information I’m really proud of,” said NWC President Stefani Hicswa. “Some of it is a really positive reflection of where we are at, but it also tells us areas we need to focus and work on a little more.”

Smith began her presentation with a discussion on retention rates, which are basically the percentage of full-time students who enroll in the fall and either re-enroll or have graduated by the following fall.

“For students starting in fall 2015, NWC tied for the highest full-time retention rate — 62 percent — out of the seven Wyoming community colleges,” Smith said. “For the same cohort, NWC’s part-time retention rate was 33 percent, third highest in the state.”

Looking at retention rates from a broader perspective, since fall 2007, NWC has had higher retention rates than the state average every year, except fall 2010 and 2012. The national full-time retention rate for public, two-year institutions has ranged from 58.4 percent to 60.5 percent (fall 2007 through fall 2014). NWC’s full-time retention rates are comparable to national rates.

“I’m really pleased with the work that we’re doing with our Student Success Initiatives,” Hicswa said. “We’re starting to see the results in these numbers. Certainly, there’s still areas where we need to improve and that we can do better, but we’re making good progress.”

Next, Smith discussed persistence rates — roughly defined as the percentage of full-time students who enrolled at an institution in the fall and graduated or re-enrolled at any institution the following fall.

“For the fall 2015 cohort, NWC had the highest full-time persistence rate (71 percent) and the second highest part-time rate (39 percent) out of the Wyoming community colleges,” Smith said.

In addition, NWC tied for the fourth-highest completion rate for fall 2012, the most recent term for which statewide comparisons are available.

Completion rates generally measure full-time students who enroll at a college in a fall term and complete a degree or certificate within 150 percent of normal time to completion (three years for two-year degrees). The group of full-time students who enrolled at NWC in the fall of 2012 had a completion rate of 30 percent.

“Since the fall 2006 cohort, NWC has had completion rates that were higher than or equal to the state average for every fall cohort, except fall 2010,” Smith said. “National completion rates for the most recent 10 years at public, two-year institutions ranged from 21.1 percent to 23.9 percent. NWC has been well above the national average every year.”

Smith concluded her presentation with comparison rates for college-level English and math courses following the completion of a developmental course for fall 2013.

Of NWC students enrolling in a developmental English course in fall 2013, 50 percent subsequently completed a college-level English course within eight terms (by summer 2016). NWC’s rate of college-level English course completion was the highest in the state.

Math has proven to be more of a challenge, however. According to Smith’s research, of the students who enrolled in a developmental math course in fall 2013, 26 percent completed a college-level math course within eight terms, ranking NWC fifth out of seven community colleges in the state.

“Looking into this measure further shows that the percentage [of students] who passed their fall 2013 developmental math class was the lowest in the state,” Smith explained. “However, of students who passed that course, NWC students were more likely to pass a subsequent, college-level math course than those at five of the other colleges.”

Hicswa said the math department faculty have been working on initiatives to improve those numbers, including math “boot camps,” tutoring and other support mechanisms.

“Math is an area where we need to take a look and see what we can do better,” Hicswa said. “We need to find out what we’re doing in our English classes that students are so successful that we’re not doing in math.”

The trustees met at NWC’s Cody Center for their March 13 meeting and their agenda included a tour of the facility.

“Every year, we like to do an update on what’s going on at the Cody Center campus for the Board of Trustees,” Hicswa said. “Enrollment in Cody has stabilized, so we’re pleased with that, and I’m really pleased with the faculty who are willing to teach over there and what we’re able to offer students.”

Students who enroll at NWC-Cody Center have access to the same general education courses found at the Powell campus, as well as classes for certain degree tracks. Cody Center also hosts business trainings and seminars, adult education classes, English as a Second Language (ESL) classes and high school equivalency prep classes. With NWC’s expanded partnership with the University of Wyoming, students at the Cody Center may soon be able to complete a four-year’s bachelor’s degree without leaving Cody.

“There are classes in every single [general education] category, as well as a couple of other degree programs,” Hicswa said. “There’s art classes, fitness classes, we have a librarian on staff there. We have several good classrooms, a lab and a Center for Training and Development. I think that center has a real opportunity to grow with the economic development in Cody, there are some really good things going on there.”

The next meeting of the Board of Trustees is scheduled for April 10 at 4 p.m. in the NWC Yellowstone Building.