As the Mississippi Department of Education attempts to put its K-12 schools on equal footing with the rest of the nation through accountability standards, another education group has its eye on doing the same for college degrees.
The Mississippi Graduation Rate Task Force recently announced state universities and community colleges would need to award an additional 147,144 associate”s and bachelor”s degrees by 2025 to keep up with national averages. And members say changes must be made in the ways colleges and universities interact to reach that goal.
During its Dec. 2 meeting in Jackson, the task force, made up of legislators and education administrators, began brainstorming ways to spur an increase in degrees awarded. They”ll outline recommendations to be presented to the state Legislature in January when the task force meets again Wednesday.
First on the list is the way credits are transferred among universities and community colleges.
“That”s the most visible one,” said Rep. Cecil Brown, D-Hinds, who sits on the task force and chairs the House Education Committee. “Kids sometimes find when they try to transfer that some credits won”t transfer. They get discouraged. It takes longer and more money (to earn a degree). We”re trying to make it as seamless as possible.”
Representatives for Mississippi State University, Mississippi University for Women and East Mississippi Community College all report their schools adhere to the current articulation policy, which sets guidelines for transfer credits. They say instances of class credits being rejected are rare.
MSU Provost Peter Rabideau says some classes, such as remedial or technical courses, may have no equivalency in MSU”s system, but the majority of academic courses transfer with no problem.
Dr. Steve Vacik, vice president of instruction at EMCC, couldn”t think of any general educational courses which don”t transfer.
“With our articulation agreement, pretty much all classes transfer except those specifically designed not to,” he said.
Dr. Bill Mayfield, dean of the school of professional studies at MUW, is overseeing the 2+2 program, which allows transfer students to take online classes while working toward a bachelor”s degree without being forced to leave work to conform to class hours.
Simplifying transfer credits
The task force hopes to get four-year universities and community colleges on board in creating a system to easily identify transferable and non-transferable credits among given schools, Brown said. Both the Mississippi Board of Trustees for State Institutions of Higher Learning and the State Board for Community and Junior Colleges have expressed their willingness to work together, as have secondary schools in many districts which offer classes qualifying students for college credit.
“I think we”re going to see some progress, but it”s going to be slow,” said Brown.
The IHL board has agreed to review the issue at its February meeting. Brown hopes to see universities and community colleges work out a voluntary system, but if not, he said, the task force will recommend legislative action.
“We”re hoping to keep it out of the legislative arena. If they don”t (reach an agreement), it will be a legislative issue,” said Brown.
Mission: Increase graduation rates
Transfer credits will be further discussed at the task force”s next meeting along with new ideas aimed at making degrees more available to Mississippi students.
All the topics are being vetted to reach the primary goal of raising the graduation rate.
“We need to concentrate to up that percentage (of college graduates). The goal is a more educated and qualified workforce to attract businesses to Mississippi,” said task force member Sen. Doug Davis, R-DeSoto, chairman of the universities and colleges committee.
Davis praised Mississippi”s progress in providing a business-friendly environment for the last six to seven years, particularly in the Northeast corner of the state. But he says companies place a large emphasis on an area”s employee pool.
“Roughly 20 percent of the adult population in Mississippi has a college degree. That”s entirely too low,” said Davis.
According to the most recent available figures, 49 percent of students at universities graduate with a bachelor”s degree within six years, and 20 percent of community college students earn an associate”s degree within three years. The national graduation rate, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, for universities is 58 percent while the national average for community colleges is 22 percent.
Doing the math
The formulas used to calculate graduation rates will also be discussed when the task force convenes Dec. 2. The current formula doesn”t account for students who transfer from a community college or another university.
“The graduation rate is a little deceiving,” said Leah Rupp Smith, director of communications for IHL. “That”s one of the things the task force is looking at — how to better track students, especially those moving from community colleges to universities.”
Dr. Debra West, deputy executive director of the SBCJC, says the indicators are even poorer for community colleges.
First, the rate reports those students who graduate within 150 percent of the normal program time for full-time students — three years for a two-year degree and six years for a four-year degree. Many of the older-than-average, or nontraditional students enrolled at community colleges aren”t academically prepared to complete a two-year program within three years, West said.
Also, many more community college students are faced with socioeconomic issues which may compel them to take lighter courseloads, thus taking longer to complete a program. And many students at community colleges enroll for vocational or technical education and never intend to achieve a degree.
East Mississippi Community College graduates 24 percent of students within three years. The national average for community and junior colleges is 20 percent.
Proactive measures
MSU President Dr. Mark Keenum places the graduation rate for Mississippi State University in Starkville at 61.4 percent, the highest among the state”s eight public universities according to a 2003 six-year cohort. (The committee has compared universities based on students enrolling in 2001, which gives MSU a 58.2 percent rate.)
“Mississippi State has a 61 percent graduation rate, the highest of any university in our state, and we want to continue building on that foundation,” Keenum said in a statement. “While we are proud of our success in producing college graduates, we are committed to working harder to further increase the percentage of graduates from MSU.”
Bill Kibler, vice president for student affairs, said special attention is being paid to freshmen and sophomore students, who are most susceptible to dropping out.
“We”ve been on a quest the last several years to improve the on-campus residence experience,” said Kibler.
In addition to improving campus facilities and opportunities for out-of-class involvement, Kibler also said MSU relies on strong academic advising to keep students on course.
Mississippi University for Women in Columbus has a graduation rate of 36.1, according to the IHL, placing it in the bottom tier. Only Mississippi Valley State University — 36 percent — has a lower graduation rate.
MUW has a student retention task force comprised of eight faculty members focusing on keeping students at the school until graduation.
A report submitted by the task force in 2008 touted MUW”s academic advising, peer tutoring and developmental programs as factors in aiding student retention.
It suggested taking steps to identify at-risk students and offer intervention for students on academic probation, programs Dr. Hal Jenkins, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs, said have already been implemented.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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