The Chronicle published an interactive graphic providing an overview of who completes college where. This page features the 2004 cohort, giving them time to take into account the people who finished within 150% at the four-year colleges.
Valencia College, a model for a lot of the ‘best practice’ Reinvention work, leads all community colleges in the country with 1,020 graduates from the 2004 cohort. You can see a detailed overview of any college in the country, including Harold Washington. The HWC data compares our 2010 5.1% graduation rate (for first-time, full-time students graduating within 150% of a full-time two-year career) to other two-year colleges and the top Illinois community colleges. Other information (74% on financial aid, 27% freshman retention) are also highlighted.
One statistic requires more research – we are one of the most efficient colleges in the country when one looks at cost per completion. Our $10,849 per completion places us 121 out of 131 institutions in our peer group (lower dollars are, I believe, better, meaning you are more efficient), but I believe our results are skewed by the inclusion of all completers (including, I suspect, our taxi program). The efficiency of our sister colleges ranges from $33,223 (Wright) to $62,857 (Truman), which makes all the efficiency data suspect, in my view. I’ll ping our stalwart research team to see if they have insight.
Don's Desk 