2009 Performance Accountability Report Vol. 2 - Maryland Higher ...

minority residents from 79% in 2005 to 82% in 2008 (PAR 14). This places the college in the
unique position of being ahead of its peer colleges within the state as far as numbers of minority
students within its credit student body. The predominance of minority students at PGCC,
however, tends to place the college at a disadvantage when it comes to student academic
performance assessment since research on academic success finds that minority students, except
for those of Asian descent, tend to be less prepared for college than their white counterparts since
research on academic success finds that minority students tend to be less prepared for college
than their white counterparts. On the other hand, as already mentioned, the college is seeing
some progress in closing the white/minority performance gap which bodes well for the future.
The statistics here for gauging minority student academic success are based on analysis of the
revised Degree Progress databases (PAR 17, 18). These indicate that academic success levels for
the college’s three minority populations (primarily African Americans, Hispanics and Asians),
considered as a group, have been slowly improving in recent years. The four-year graduationtransfer
and successful-persistent rates for Cohort 2001 all minority students were 38.0% and
74.9%, respectively, and parallel figures for 2004 minority students had reached 43.9% and
80.0%. The trend lines represent a 16% gain in the graduation-transfer rate and a 7% gain in the
successful-persistent rate. The Degree Progress data also indicates significant variation in the
progress rates among individual minority groups. The consistent pattern indicates higher rates for
Asian students (for example, 2004 Asian subcohort 62% graduating or transferring) compared
with those for African American and Hispanic subcohorts (both 42%). Also, the performance
gap between minority and white students has persisted. The Cohort 2004 data puts the white
student graduation-transfer rate at 73% while the collective minority rate was 44%. The parallel
statistics for the 2004 successful-persistent rate also showed a gap though a smaller one – 92%
and 80%, respectively.
Staff and Faculty Diversity
The percentage of minorities within the ranks of full-time faculty at Prince George's Community
College grew steadily from 28% in 2002 to 38% in 2006, but thereafter stabilized. In 2008, the
minority component of the college’s faculty was 37%. We expect the positive trend to resume in
2009 and to advance us toward our 2011 target of 40% minority full-time faculty. In 2005 we
surpassed our 2011 goal of a 51% majority administrator and staff workforce, and since then the
percent has continued to increase, reaching 62% in fall 2008.
Responses to Questions Raised by MHEC
The number of unduplicated credit students enrolled has decreased for four consecutive years,
from 19,077 in FY 2004 to17,693 in FY 2007. The college’s FY 2010 benchmark for this
indicator is 25,000.
In 2008, the college’s unduplicated fiscal year credit enrollment slide ended with an increase of
147 from 17,693 in 2007 to 17,840 in 2008 (PAR Indicator 1 in the Data Report). Future reports
will document that this improving trend is genuine. For example, the 2009 fiscal year
unduplicated credit student headcount was 17,993, up .9% from FY 2008, and the FY 2010
should be even better given that fall 2009 credit headcount jumped 13% compared with the fall
200