Report: College completion rates improve in Kentucky
A report from the National Student Clearninghouse Research Center released annually looks at how successful students in Kentucky's colleges complete a degree within six years
LEXINGTON, Ky (WTVQ)- Kentucky higher education officials say the state is at the ‘head of the pack’ nationally for its improvements in six-year college completion rates.
A report from the National Student Clearninghouse Research Center released annually looks at how successful students in Kentucky’s colleges complete a degree within six years.
Education leaders say they’re excited with the results, which show show the state is currently tied for second best in the nation. The report shows the six-year college completion rate in Kentucky increased by 1.1 percentage points. In fact, the state is one of five to record gains of one percentage point or more.
Dr Aaron Thompson with the Kentucky Council of Post Secondary Education says the improvements are despite challenges colleges have faced, including the COVID pandemic.
“That really is a dedication to the work of our campuses, to people in my office, to the work of the legislature and governor’s office to offer funding to us as a strategic investment,” says Thompson.
The report also looks at community colleges individually across the nation. Kentucky was one of four states that grew completion rates at community colleges, increasing by 3 percentage points. That’s the second highest gain in the nation.
Bluegrass Community and Technical College Provost Dr. Greg Feeney says numbers like this show colleges are living out their mission.
“That means we will meet students wherever they are at,” says Feeney.
Feeney says there are things BCTC does to make sure students graduate with a degree, including having tutors for certain classes, using spotlight instruction, and using what they call “flags.”
“That is where an instructor or advisor, if they’re working with a student and they see that they’re struggling in a particular category, and that can be emotional or academically related, it can be something in their personal life. They can what we call “raise the flag” in this data base that we have and then there’s a team that responds to those flags and reaches out to those students to help them through whatever that is,” says Feeney.
Dr. Thompson says there’s still a lot of work to do in the state’s college system, including improving other areas.
“College enrollment is down simply because we don’t have enough students graduating from high school going to college. We’re at 47.9 percent. We’ve got work on getting those numbers up. We have to get more adult learners engaged with us,” says Thompson.
Thompson says improving completion rates in our college systems- ultimately helps build a better economy.
