WASHINGTON, D.C. – Missouri State University-West Plains has been named one of the top 120 two-year colleges in the United States by the Aspen Institute Community College Excellence Program and is now eligible to compete for prize money from the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence.
The recognition, announced last week by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Dr. Jill Biden, wife of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and a community college professor, is based on high standards for learning, completion rates and training for competitive jobs, according to a news release from the institute.
“This is great news!,” Missouri State-West Plains Chancellor Drew Bennett said. “We know we are doing wonderful things at Missouri State University-West Plains, but it is especially nice to learn than an independent and credible organization considers our campus to be in the top 10 percent of all two-year schools in the United States. As I have repeatedly stated, the secret to our success is our wonderful faculty and staff. It is impossible to beat the quality of education and services provided by this campus in relation to our extremely low cost.”
Missouri State-West Plains was selected out of 1,200 community colleges across the nation and is one of only six recognized in Missouri. Although not a community college, Missouri State-West Plains is a member of the American Association of Community Colleges as an associate degree-granting institution, university officials explained.
Colleges selected among the top 10 percent of the nation’s community colleges were chosen after an analysis of publicly available data on student outcomes. An advisory committee considered three criteria:
• performance (retention, graduation rates including transfers, and degrees and certificates for full-time students);
• improvement of completion performance over time; and
• equity (institutional record for completion outcomes for disadvantaged students)
Missouri State-West Plains is now eligible to submit an application to compete for the prize money, which includes a single winner of approximately $700,000 and two to three runners up. The application must include detailed data on how much students learn, how many complete their programs on time, and how well students do in the job market after graduation in order to demonstrate that Missouri State-West Plains delivers exceptional student results, uses data to drive decisions, and uses that information to continually improve over time.
The 120 colleges recognized last week will be narrowed to eight to 10 finalists in September, and winners of the prize money will be announced in December.
The Aspen Prize was announced at a White House summit on community college education in October 2010 hosted by President Barack Obama and Dr. Biden. At that time, Obama noted how critical two-year colleges are to the millions of youth and adult learners who enroll in America’s 1,200 two-year colleges every year.
The Aspen Institute’s mission is two-fold: To foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society; and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. The Aspen College Excellence Program aims to identify and replicate campus-wide practices that significantly improve college student outcomes. The Aspen Prize is funded by the Joyce Foundation, the Lumina Foundation for Education, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation and the JPMorgan Chase Foundation.
For more information about the Aspen Institute, visit www.aspeninstitute.org. For more information about the Aspen College Excellence Program and the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, visit www.AspenCCPrize.org.
For more information about Missouri State University-West Plains, visit www.wp.missouristate.edu.