{"id":7083,"date":"2012-05-04T11:19:39","date_gmt":"2012-05-04T15:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=7083"},"modified":"2012-05-04T07:21:23","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T11:21:23","slug":"florida-community-colleges-compete-for-cash-and-national-prestige","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/05\/04\/florida-community-colleges-compete-for-cash-and-national-prestige\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Community Colleges Compete For Cash And National Prestige"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_7084\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 291px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/05\/04\/florida-community-colleges-compete-for-cash-and-national-prestige\/valencia\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7084\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7084\" title=\"Valencia\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2012\/05\/Valencia.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"291\" height=\"199\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">valenciacc-news.com<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"> <\/p><\/div>\n<p>It\u2019s sort of like making it to the Hollywood round on \u201cAmerican Idol.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fourteen Florida institutions made it through the first round of competition and will go on to compete for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.org\/policy-work\/aspen-prize\">Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Given by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.org\/\">the Aspen Institute<\/a>, the prize goes to institutions that show outstanding academic and workforce outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>Florida has more colleges competing for a share of the million dollar prize than any other state. <!--more-->\u201cThis competition looks at completion numbers, improvements over time and equity outcomes,\u201d said Florida College System Chancellor Randy Hanna. \u201cOur colleges excel in all these measures, and it\u2019s an honor that they are being recognized for these important indicators of success.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The semifinalists were chosen from a national pool of over 1,000 public two-year colleges after a year-long assessment. Information on student outcomes was analyzed for:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Performance<\/strong> &#8211; retention, graduation rates, and degrees and certificates per 100 \u201cfull time equivalent\u201d students.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Improvement<\/strong> \u2013 steady improvement in each performance metric over time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Equity<\/strong> &#8211; completion outcomes for minority and low-income students.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Community colleges offer the most promising path to education and employment for literally millions of Americans,\u201d said Josh Wyner, Aspen Institute College Excellence Program Executive Director. \u201cThis competition spotlights excellence and helps raise the bar for all community colleges to improve student achievement and better prepare the next generation for the job market.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Florida\u2019s contingent is part of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.org\/policy-work\/aspen-prize\/2013eligibleinstitutions\">120 community colleges vying<\/a> for the prestigious award. These colleges made the cut:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Brevard Community College<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Broward College<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Chipola College<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 College of Central Florida<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Indian River State College<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lake-Sumter Community College<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Miami Dade College<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Northwest Florida State College<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Palm Beach State College<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pasco-Hernando Community College<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Saint Johns River State College<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Santa Fe College<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 South Florida Community College<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tallahassee Community College<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ten finalists will be named in September. Prize winners will be announced in March 2013.<\/p>\n<p>Florida holds bragging rights for the first Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. It went to <a href=\"http:\/\/valenciacollege.edu\/\">Valencia College in Orlando<\/a> in December 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s sort of like making it to the Hollywood round on \u201cAmerican Idol.\u201d Fourteen Florida institutions made it through the first round of competition and will go on to compete for the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. Given by the Aspen Institute, the prize goes to institutions that show outstanding academic and workforce outcomes. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[393,25,394],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7083"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7114,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7083\/revisions\/7114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}