Lenoir Community College Receives Superior Grade
Michael Abernethy, Staff Writer
© The Free Press

Lenoir Community College received a superior rating from the North Carolina Community College System in its annual report grading colleges throughout the state.

LCC is one of 36 community colleges in the 58-school system to receive the rating. LCC improved its status from last year’s report, which is based on data gathered in the 2004-2005 school year.

The superior rating means that LCC is eligible to receive additional funding at the end of the fiscal year if there are budget reversions.

Every college is graded on six performance funding measures and must meet five of the six to receive the superior rating.

Five of the funding measures are mandatory and system-wide, including progress of basic skills students, passing rates on licensure and certified exams, goal completions for completers, employment rate of graduates and performance of college transfer students.

LCC did not meet the standard for performance of college transfer students, but received a Significant Improvement rating over the last year’s score.

LCC President Brantley Briley said meeting that requirement is particularly difficult.

“(Our) students are not doing quite as well as the students who start in one of schools in the 16-school university system,” Briley said. “That’s a moving target. It’s not only how well our students are performing, but also based on the performance of students at the 16 universities.”

The sixth measure is chosen by individual colleges. LCC chose student satisfaction as its sixth performance funding measure.

The report also serves as the college’s report card, said Shirley Dove, LCC vice president of instructional programs.

“This year, we put a lot of programs in place,” Dove said about the college’s improved score. “Before, we were in a sort of transition period between instructors. Now we have a stable faculty and staff who are continually working to bring in the cutting edge things that will bring us to the top.”