HCC Ranked in top 50 community colleges in the nation by the Washington Monthly

Halifax Community College is ranked in the top 50 community colleges in the 2010 Washington Monthly College Rankings. More specifically, HCC ranks number 25 on the list. More than 650 community colleges nationwide were ranked in order to identify the 50 best community colleges of 2010.

The Washington Monthly College Rankings are based on how colleges meet obligations in research, service and social mobility. Rankings compared colleges in different categories including active and collaborative learning, student effort, academic challenge, student-faculty interaction, support for learning, and four-year graduation rates. No single category was considered to be more important than any other. Final rankings reflect excellence across all measures, and all categories were weighted equally when calculating the final score.

HCC scored 54 in the active & collaborative learning category, 60.6 in the student effort category, 57.2 in academic challenge, 58.4 in student-faculty interaction, 60.4 in support for learning and had a 31 percent four-year graduation rate.

“Last week, I received an e-mail from a colleague congratulating me on HCC being ranked in the top 50 community colleges in the nation,” said HCC President, Dr. Ervin V. Griffin Sr.  “I investigated a little further and noted that rankings were based on the results of our participation in the Community College Survey of Student Engagement last year and our graduation rates. In the final analysis, HCC did very well on the survey of student engagement because of the dedicated work of our faculty, staff, trustees and administration in promoting student success. I am also very pleased that HCC faculty and staff are being recognized for their noteworthy role in student engagement and student success by the Washington Monthly magazine.” 

The first-ever list of America’s best community colleges was created by the Washington Monthly in 2007 when editors combined results of the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) with graduation rates published by the U.S. Department of Education. Graduation rates do not include students who enroll part-time or who transfer to another school without earning a degree. It also does not give colleges credit for students who take longer than four years to graduate.

The CCSSE has been administered to 60 percent of all community colleges in the country since 2003 and results are published at www.ccsse.org. The latest CCSSE was administered to more than 400,000 students from 663 institutions in 48 states, three Canadian provinces and the Marshall Islands. Although CCSSE created the benchmark measures for comparison among institutions, it does not endorse the use of data for rankings.

To view the complete rankings issue, visit www.WashingtonMonthly.com/college_guide/.