Task Force on UNC/NCCCS Partnerships

H. Martin Lancaster, President
North Carolina Community College System

April 12, 2004
Caswell Building, Raleigh, North Carolina

Click here for Power Point slides, with full text in notes pages.

Thank you. I appreciate the chance to spend some time with you today to help you become better acquainted with the North Carolina Community College System. Some of this information is familiar to some of you. However, I realize that all of it may be quite unfamiliar to others in the room. I will be happy to take questions as we go along.

The North Carolina Community College system includes 59 institutions, with campuses, satellites and centers serving all 100 counties. That’s 58 comprehensive community colleges plus the North Carolina Center for Applied Textile Technology. Most of this information deals with the 58 comprehensive institutions.

Last year, our community colleges taught almost 770-thousand men and women. That’s makes us the third-largest system in the country. The average age is about 30, but we have teenagers and retirees, too. Most of them work at least part-time. North Carolina's community colleges include more than 10-thousand full-time faculty and staff members, plus thousands of part-time instructors. Virtually every North Carolinian is within a half-hour drive of a community college campus or center.

And thanks to the Internet, two-way video and broadcast telecourses, distance learning brings community colleges right into students’ homes and workplaces. Last year, we had 112-thousand distance learning students all across the state, a 236 percent increase in just four years. By far the biggest increase is in on-line courses, now enrolling more than 83-thousand students, an increase of almost 800 percent in four years. Several programs are available entirely on-line.

Our system’s job is to educate and train adults for productive lives.

North Carolina’s community colleges provide education and training for the workforce including literacy and basic skills; technical training and college transfer. We provide strong support for economic development across the state. Expansion Management Magazine has several times rated us Number 1 in worker training for new and expanding industries. And we provide a wide range of educational, cultural and community services that improve the lives and well-being of all our citizens.

Given the nature of this committee, I think you need to know a little bit more about college transfer in North Carolina’s community colleges. Most NC community colleges began as technical institutes rather than junior colleges, so not all had "college transfer" or "college parallel" until 1990s. In fact, many of our colleges actively avoided transfer programs, and the General Assembly put an enrollment cap on them, reiterating the workforce preparation mission of the system. But many jobs require baccalaureate degrees and above, and as demand for higher education has grown, so have our college transfer programs. Until 1997, college transfer was a patchwork of "bilateral" agreements, much confusion, many lost credits and lots of hard feelings.

In the mid-1990s, the General Assembly ordered our system and the University of North Carolina to straighten out transfer. So the community college system switched from quarters to semesters, re-engineered every for-credit course and worked with the University of North Carolina to develop the Comprehensive Articulation Agreement between the public systems. Our first year under CAA was 1997. Since then, about two dozen of the state’s independent colleges and universities have signed on as well.

Now, community college students who complete their A. A. , A. S. or AFA degrees and take the agreed-upon core courses will be able to transfer with junior status and up to 64 hours of credit. Of course, they must be admitted first. The agreement does not address admission. It also does not cover the A. A. S. or technical degrees. Many bilateral agreements still exist, and some areas of disagreement and confusion remain. For example, many students transfer BEFORE they complete their degrees. You know about the evaluation underway by order of the General Assembly.

The next topic Dr. Fountain has asked me to describe for you is the governance of the North Carolina Community College System and of our individual colleges. The State Board of Community Colleges has 21 members. The Lieutenant Governor and the State Treasurer are ex officio members. The Governor appoints 10 members, four from the state at large and one from each of the six trustee regions. Four are elected at-large by the Senate and four more by the House. The president or vice president of the North Carolina Comprehensive Community College Student Government Association serves as a non-voting ex officio member.

The State Board has three major functions: (1) equitable distribution of funds and fiscal account-ability, (2) establishing and maintaining state priorities, and (3) educational program approval and accountability. The System Office, headed by the System President, provides state-level administration and leadership of the Community College System under the direction of the State Board of Community Colleges. As part of its administrative function, the System Office provides support services for the various program offerings such as nursing, agriculture, and business. The System President's staff assists staff at the colleges by helping to develop and implement curriculums and other programs and by providing technical assistance in a range of areas. The System Office provides other services for the System that would be difficult for an individual institution to initiate, such as statewide data collection.

At the local level, each of the colleges operates under a board of trustees -- a highly independent board with actual governing powers in the local college.

Each board is composed of a minimum of twelve citizens from the service area in which the college is located. The president or chairman of the executive board of the student body serves as an ex officio member. Local board members are appointed for staggered four-year terms. Four members each are elected by the local school board and the board of commissioners of the administrative area of the institution. Four members are appointed by the Governor.

The board of trustees sets local policy. The local board elects and the State Board approves selection of each college's president. The president operates the college within state policies and policies adopted by the local trustees. Let me make this very clear; local community college presidents answer to their local boards of trustees. Neither the State Board nor the System President has supervisory authority over a local president. All personnel employed at the colleges are employees of the local colleges and not of the State of North Carolina, although they participate in the retirement system and some other benefits.

Autonomy is important, because North Carolina’s community college system is designed as a strong partnership.Local Community College Presidents answer to their local boards of trustees. Counties within the service areas are responsible for providing and funding facilities for the colleges. This local support and local control is essential for the community colleges to offer flexible responses to very different needs in very different communities

Business and industry leaders are crucial, as employers who need our students, strong advocates for what we do and suppliers of adjunct faculty with cutting-edge skills. Business leaders also have a vital role in serving on advisory committees for the development of new instructional programs.

It’s important that you understand that the education and training programs of North Carolina’s community colleges are established in response to local and regional labor market needs, and that those vary greatly from region to region -- even county to county. Colleges are required to demonstrate that their service areas need training in specific areas , that jobs are available for people who are trained, and that the course of training meets the standards of the industry it serves.

State funds appropriated by the General Assembly are by far the largest source of funds for the community colleges. They are concentrated in instruction, administration and other operating costs, although increasingly the state has taken on a role in construction and facility maintenance and in infrastructure vital to distance learning.

The State Board and the System Office have the responsibility of accounting to the people…to the legislature…for the performance of community colleges. There is a painful irony to the threat of new budget cuts in a system that is in fact doing what we are supposed to do…. Exactly as our lawmakers have demanded. The General Assembly requires us to follow a rigorous accountability process, based on 12 specific measures of student success and progress and employer satisfaction. The law also provides financial incentives for community colleges who earn "superior" rankings based on the measures they meet and exceed. Three years ago, five of 58 comprehensive community colleges earned "superior" rankings. The next year, the number jumped to 26. The most recent report shows that 31 community colleges are doing superior jobs for their students and their communities.mThe bad news is -- the state’s budget situation means that the financial incentives have not been available for those superior institutions. The good news -- in spite of extremely difficult budget situations and overwhelming enrollment growth, North Carolina’s community colleges are finding ways to help out students get jobs, keep their employers happy and pass their exams. North Carolina’s community colleges DESERVE and NEED more resources to make sure we can get the job done into the future.

Here are the specifics.

Our colleges had perfect scores in three measures vital to our mission in workforce and economic development --

All 58 met or exceeded standards for:

Employment Status of Graduates;
Employer Satisfaction with Graduates and
Client Satisfaction with Customized Training.

Every college also hit the mark in student satisfaction, a very important measure of excellent teaching and solid student support.

The system is also doing very well opening the doors of opportunity to students who need extra work to prepare for colleges. Most of the colleges meet or exceed standards and Our statewide averages are well above the standards in progress of basic skills students; passing rates of students in developmental courses and, very importantly, the success of developmental students as they move into college-level courses. Developmental courses are remediation -- reading, writing and math courses for students who have been out of school a long time or who have gaps in their preparation. This is a very important and very time-consuming part of our open door mission. You probably expect that adult students need some brushing up before they go to college. However, among our students fresh out of high school -- students who are supposed to have the preparation to succeed in college -- 50 to 60 percent have to take at least one developmental course. In some areas, such as Charlotte, community colleges also do developmental and remediation instruction for university students.

Community colleges are also performing well in keeping and graduating our curriculum students -- that is, students studying for degrees, certificates and diplomas; in moving students toward their personal goals; and in managing instructional programs.

Community colleges are tantalizingly close to meeting one of the standards of most interest to this committee…performance of college transfer students once they get to the University of North Carolina. We want them to do at least as well as students who start out at the university. Overall, we are just below the mark of 82.9 percent with a C average or better.

However, you need to understand that the overall average has two parts: It includes our students who GRADUATE with Associates in Arts, Science and Fine Arts, transferring as juniors with 64 hours of credit….our graduates actually do slightly better than their "native" UNC counterparts, with 84 percent earning a C average or better. It also includes students who transfer after they complete core courses but before they complete their associates degrees. They have a tougher time keeping up, with 79 percent hitting the mark.

The obvious implication for college transfer students is that they are better off staying with us until they complete their degrees. Before the articulation agreement, this was NOT true. Today, it is.

One note: we have MANY transfers into private institutions. We do not yet have comprehensive data on their subsequent success.

We also have room to improve in our passing rates for licensure and certification exams. Again, it’s important to understand h0w the system and the individual colleges are measured. Our standard calls for an aggregate passing rate on all exams…and there were 22 in the last measured year …of 80 percent, with no single passing rate of less than 70 percent. The system exceeded the overall standard, and met the individual standards for all but two of the exams, one by just one percentage point in EMT training and one in Real Estate Sales.

We are working to bring that performance up.

We are proud, however, that community colleges continue to demonstrate excellent results in exams in one of the most important occupations in North Carolina…..…nursing. According to the NC Division of Facility Services, by 2008, NC will need 31,000 more aide/direct care workers in health care. Community colleges A. D. N. programs produce 60-65% of new RNs in NC each year, virtually all new PNs and CNAs and large percentages of other health technicians

When we switched to semesters in 1997, our nursing programs had to adjust to equal amounts of instruction in fewer classroom and clinical hours. We’re past that adjustment period now and are pleased to announce that this past year, our passing rates on the registered nursing exam were at 92 percent, above the national average and North Carolina’s average for all RN programs, including hospital diplomas and BSNs.

We have similar success in practical nursing programs, with a 96 percent passing rate, well above the national rate. Since we prepare virtually all of North Carolina’s practical nurses, the state rate IS our rate.

…And our program supervisors particularly want you to know that we have improved the quality of instruction and the performance of our graduates while INCREASING the number of nursing students. We must continue to do so, because the nursing shortage is one of our state’s most critical workforce concerns.

A second critical workforce need that community colleges are working hard to address is for classroom teachers in elementary and secondary schools.

The University has just completed a comprehensive and impressive study of teacher preparation. I know you received a copy of it at your meeting in March, and I applaud the good work of the task force.

Statistics tell us that our fast-growing state needs as many as 8,000 new teachers every year, maybe more. All of our four-year programs together produce between three and four thousand in their traditional programs. Turnover rates and retention are tremendous problems, especially in rural and low-wealth areas. Community colleges can and do widen the pipeline for talented, motivated people to become classroom teachers, especially mature adults who will become the "home-grown" teachers committed to the communities where they already live, work and rear their own children.

You have heard the University’s report on cooperative programs before, so I will not go into detail today. I will reiterate, however, that I consider these efforts among the most important tasks of my time as President of this system. The "two-plus-two" programs that use distance learning and traveling instructors to "import" University education degrees to community college campuses are doing terrific work all across the state. Coastal Carolina Community College and UNC-Wilmington pioneered the concept; Appalachian State University took it to another level with10 community colleges in the Appalachian Learning Alliance; East Carolina has just received a million dollars from Wachovia to bolster its Partnership East; and other partnerships are beginning in public and private institutions across the state. The GlaxoSmithKline Foundation has awarded our system a million dollars for these efforts as well., matched by state dollars.

Community colleges can and should do more to assist with lateral entry programs, too. These are the programs that prepare adults who already have baccalaureate degrees in other fields to become certified teachers.

At the urgent request of public school system in Mecklenburg County and Moore County, Central Piedmont Community College and Sandhills Community College have set up carefully planned lateral entry sequences and enrolled hundreds of students. Unfortunately, there have been some bumps in the road to their success, due to questions raised by the Department of Public Instruction. It is most important that these obstacles be removed, as soon as possible, for the state to have a chance to meet an urgent and growing workforce need.

Community colleges also assist working teachers with technology training and recertification. Our colleges all over the state have offered those services for years and continue to expand them successfully.

One thing they will not do, however, at least during my presidency, is add their OWN four-year degrees in education. Some states are in fact looking at such degrees as an immediate solution to pressing shortages. North Carolina is well-served by excellent public and private universities; what we need is top to bottom commitment to improving and extending partnerships that identify talented people, prepare them to teach, and support them in the classroom to they will stay there.

Thank you for your attention. Questions?

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