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December 13, 2011 3:44 PM
And the Best Community College Is…
Recently the Aspen Institute gave out its first price for community college excellence. The winner, apparently, is Valencia College, a community college in Orlando, Florida.
According to an article by Dave Weber in the Orlando Sentinel:
The Aspen… on Monday named Valencia as the winner of its Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. Valencia was singled out from among 1,200 colleges and received a $600,000 cash prize.
Colleges were evaluated based on students gaining knowledge and skills, completing degree or certificate programs and obtaining jobs with good wages after graduation. Assuring that minority students have an equal shot at enrolling in and completing college also was a factor.
Valencia, which costs $99.06 per credit hour for Florida residents, has about 70,000 students. Within three years about 40 percent graduate or transfer to four-year schools.
Valencia has six colleges in Central Florida.
Aspen, which plans to give out the prize annually, selected the institution from 120 other promising community colleges. [Image via]
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Anonymous on December 13, 2011 10:15 PM:
cost effectiveness should be heavily considered when we determine quality of schools (and also doctors!)
Malcom Gladwell has wrote about an interesting alternative list of the best universities in America based on cost effectiveness and not on academic reputations, making the university of chicago higher than the harvard and including state universities on the lists.
and both parties should love this concept. its a free market solution that encourages more accesses to quality educations.