How to measure student success comes under review

A long-held wish of many community colleges is on the verge of becoming reality: the US Education Department has announced its plans to change how student success is measured in higher education, taking into account students who transfer, part-time students and students who are not attending college for the first time, writes Libby A Nelson for Inside Higher Ed.

While the recommendations are still several steps away from becoming reality – the department’s action plan talked about “taking steps” and “examining the feasibility” of broadening the measures of success – they are a victory for community colleges and their advocates, who have complained for years that the federal data reporting system doesn’t reflect the reality on their campuses. Community colleges, which have been under political pressure to increase their graduation rates, have long argued that current federal measures, which track only first-time, full-time students, exclude significant numbers of their students.
Full report on the Inside Higher Ed site