Want to know if your local community college is among the best in the country?
Click here for the latest performance data for the 120 community colleges that The Aspen Institute named as finalists for its prize for excellence. While top colleges were named in April, this week the Institute released details of the data used to determine the list.
The Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, which was launched in the fall of 2010, looks at how institutions are faring based on retention, learning outcomes, graduation rates, improvement of completion over time, and student success for disadvantaged students.
Colleges on the list can submit applications to compete for one of the top honors given by Aspen later this year. The eligible schools were chosen among more than 1,000 public two-year institutions in the U.S.
Last December, Florida’s Valencia College was the inaugural year’s winner and received $600,000. Runners up, which were given $100,000 each, included Lake Area Technical Institute in Watertown, S.D.; Miami Dade Community College in Florida.; Walla Walla Community College in Washington state; and West Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah.
The Aspen Institute is a nonpartisan, educational and policy-studies organization based in Washington.