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

CARROLL COMMUNITY COLLEGE
MISSION
Carroll Community College is an innovative center of learning that focuses on the intellectual
and personal development needs of the learner; promotes effective teaching; responds to and
embraces an increasingly diverse and changing world; establishes a sense of community for
students and those who support the student; uses institutional resources effectively; and values
and promotes lifelong learning.
INSTITUTIONAL ASSESSMENT
Carroll Community College is committed to ongoing assessment and evaluation of its programs
and services, and to public documentation of institutional effectiveness to provide accountability
to stakeholders. In spring 1999, the college’s Planning Advisory Council developed a set of
Institutional Effectiveness Assessment Measures covering all areas of the college’s mission. The
measures were approved by the president in July 1999. Twenty of the 72 measures were
identified as core indicators, which were first presented to the Board of Trustees in January 2000.
The measures were revised in 2003, and again in June 2008. The current set of Institutional
Effectiveness Assessment Measures contains 50 indicators, 19 of which are included among the
32 benchmarked indicators in this Performance Accountability Report submitted to the
Commission each year. The college’s Board of Trustees now receives two formal campus-wide
accountability data reports annually: the college’s Institutional Effectiveness Assessment Report
in December, and this state-mandated Performance Accountability Report each June.
Issues Raised by MHEC Review of the College’s 2008 Report
Commission staff asked the college to respond to trends in two indicators after a review of the
college’s 2008 submission: Minority student enrollment compared to service area population
(indicator 14), and Enrollment in noncredit basic skills and literacy courses (indicator 30a).
Carroll Community College serves a predominantly white service area. Carroll County
population estimates from the Maryland Department of Planning for July 2008, the most recent
available (published May 15, 2009), identified 168,786 residents in the County of whom 157,652
were white—93.4 percent. Thus the nonwhite population accounted for 6.6 percent of the
County’s population. Non-Hispanic whites totaled 154,802 or 91.7 percent. Thus the minority
population was estimated to account for 8.3 percent. In fall 2008, minority students accounted
for 5.9 percent of Carroll’s credit enrollment. In FY2008, minority students accounted for 10.6
percent of the college’s noncredit enrollment in Continuing Education and Training courses.
Thus the share of noncredit students from minority racial-ethnic groups exceeded the share in the
general population, while the share of credit students from these groups remained below the
County proportion. Since 2005, the trend in percent minority students among credit students has
been steadily downward: 7.3—6.7—6.3—5.9.
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