Student Goals

Performance Indicator

The number and percentage of students who attend Connecticut Community Colleges and why.

Performance Improvement Goal

For the system, 90% of the graduates each year will report that their goals for attending a Community College were met.

Data Analysis

In Fall 2007, 48,834 credit students enrolled in Connecticut Community Colleges. From this group, 16,940 new and transfer students were surveyed about their current educational goals, and 4,411 responded (26%). These were students for whom this was their first college experience or transfer students to the community colleges. Survey results indicate that upon initial entry to a community college 58.3% are enrolled to obtain an Associate Degree or Certificate and 41.7% are enrolled for other reasons.

Facilitating student success in the achievement of all attainable goals, even when that goal includes something other than earning a credential, is an appropriate performance objective; 93.4% of survey respondents from the graduating class of 2006 reported that their goals were met. Clearly, Community Colleges play an important role in the lives of students by helping them to meet their educational, career, and personal development goals.

Challenges facing Community Colleges in this regard include:

1. providing full access to education through open admissions;
2. serving a diverse mix of students with dramatically varying goals, from earning a degree to receiving on-the-job training;
3. serving students who have significant time commitments - to their families, their jobs, and their communities - in addition to their studies;
4. serving the students who benefited the least from their previous public school education and therefore are most likely to have academic challenges;
5. serving disproportionately high numbers of low-income and first-generation college students; and
6. addressing all of these challenges while dealing with severe resource constraints. Overcoming these hurdles - providing quality education and the necessary support to help all students meet their educational goals - is the primary focus of the Connecticut Community Colleges.

Source: CCC Annual Survey