Dr. Scott Alsobrooks, Guest Columnist
The Picayune Item
POPLARVILLE —
Another national study finds that Pearl River Community College is among the best both locally and nationally.
The publication “College Measures” touts itself as a “partnership between the American Institutes for Research and Matrix Knowledge Group, focused on using data to drive improvement in higher education outcomes in the United States.” It is important that stakeholders in the education system have data. This data provides students and parents with the information needed to make good decisions when choosing where to spend their education dollars.
In the United States, far too few students that enter college seeking a degree actually persist to graduation. Nationally this translates to approximately $9 billion in state and federal money spent on students that drop out. The national picture indicates that 39.4 percent of students that enter a public college graduate, or transfer on to a university. At Pearl River Community College that figure is 67.7 percent. While I boastfully speak of Pearl River as my employer and alumnus, it would be inappropriate not to mention the Mississippi Community College system as a whole. There are other colleges in our state that receive stellar marks in this study as well. Miss. has the oldest, most well established system of community colleges in the nation.
It is important that taxpayers and stakeholders in Pearl River Community College’s district know that their dollars are being put to good use. Many national studies find your local community college among the best both regionally and nationally. Pearl River provides quite a bang for the buck.
The data from this article can be found at http://collegemeasures.org/2-year_colleges/home/.
