Using Student and Institutional Characteristics to Predict Graduation Rates at Community Colleges: New Developments in Performance Measures and Institutional Effectiveness

Abstract

Prediction models using graduation rate as the performance indicator were obtained for community colleges in California, Florida, and Michigan. The results of this study indicated that institutional graduation rate could be predicted effectively from an aggregate of student and institutional characteristics. A performance measure was computed, the Institutional Performance Ratio (IPR), for each institution to form a metric. This metric was used to measure one institution's performance against another in terms of graduation rate. Based on the IPR value, an institution could determine whether its performance exceeded, met, or was below expectation.