Legislation signed into law in 1988 mandated that Maryland public colleges and universities submit a Performance Accountability Report to the Maryland Higher Education Commission each year. In 1996, the state adopted a set of performance indicators for community colleges, with benchmarks or target values established by each college. The benchmarks are goals to be attained at the end of a five-year cycle. The indicators and the benchmarks are reviewed and revised every five years.

This year’s report is the fourth in the current five-year cycle. In 2011, Dr. Pappalardo recommended benchmarks for each of the 35 indicators, which were approved by the Board of Trustees as required by law. Current trends in the values of each indicator are presented in spreadsheet form. The report also includes narrative sections, following guidelines issued by the Commission. The report is available on the Planning Advisory Council C3 portal site.

To assist in interpreting the performance indicators, the report includes selected descriptive information about the college. A fourth of the college’s credit students are first generation students, meaning neither parent attended college. The percentage of students receiving Pell Grants increased from 12 percent in FY2010 to 20 percent in FY2013. The number of students enrolled in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) increased from 175 in FY2010 to 260 in FY2013. The percentage of students testing into transitional courses declined from 83.4 percent in fall 2010 to 75.7 percent in fall 2014.

Challenges revealed by the report included the percentage of students completing transitional coursework within four years at 57.5 percent; the college has never reached its goal of 60 percent. The college’s market share of first-time, full-time students at 46.4 percent, short of the goal of 50 percent. The college has not reached its goals for minority staffing, with the percentage of minorities among full-time faculty at 3.9 percent and the percentage of minorities among full-time professional staff at 7.6 percent, compared to goals of reflecting the county population at nearly 10 percent.

Highlights in the report included annual enrollments in online credit courses at 3,494, compared to the benchmark of 2,800. The college’s market share of Carroll County part-time undergraduates was 71.5 percent, compared to the goal of 70 percent. The percentage of career program graduates working full-time in fields related to their program was 95 percent, exceeding the goal of 85 percent. The percentage of Carroll transfers with grade point averages of 2.0 or above at their transfer institutions was 87.8 percent, above the 85 percent benchmark value.

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