Access

In-District Penetration Rate

Indicator Rationale: Core to a community colleges mission is serving those who reside within their college district boundaries. One way to measure this is to determine the percent of people who are registered in any course offered by college, which is often referred to as market penetration. This measure helps colleges understand who they are serving and whether they are reaching their desired demographic population. This measure is also inclusive, as it represents the depth and breadth of all institutional offerings.

Indicator Definition: COCC’s penetration rate is defined by any individual, 15 or older, who is enrolled in any COCC credit or noncredit course. It includes Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties. It does not currently include Wasco County as there are limitations to the data that does not allow the College to disaggregate specific town data in line with county, although staff are looking to alternate sources for this information.

Target Rationale: During the past five years, COCC served an average of 5.9% of the tri-county residents, noting that this represents a steady decline for the past decade or more. As soon as further detail is available, staff will disaggregate the data based on demographic or geographic factors and identify potential areas for growth.

Peer Institutions: District penetration rate is not available through IPEDS, nor is it available at a statewide level. Therefore, peer institution data is not readily available.

 

In-District Tuition and Fees

Indicator Rationale: Primary components of any community college’s purpose are to serve its local service area and maintain affordability. Maintaining an affordable in-district tuition rate, while maintaining quality programs and services, ensures that COCC can best serve students throughout our district and support them in reaching their goals. Moreover, affordability also supports COCC’s commitment to expanding access for in-district residents.

Indicator Definition: This indicator is measured based on data from the Oregon Business Officers that shares the tuition and fees for all Oregon community colleges. Only fees that are universally applied to all students are included.

Peer Institutions: Oregon Community Colleges

 

Underrepresented Students

Indicator Rationale: The Higher Education Coordinating Commission identified four student populations as priority populations as part of its new Oregon community college funding model: Low-income, students of color, career and technical education students and adult learners (defined as 25 and older). National research indicates that these populations are traditionally underserved in higher education. While COCC is currently providing specialized support for many of these populations, a review of these programs aligns with the College’s goals of being a student-ready institution as well as increasing access.

Indicator Definition: Students who were enrolled in reimbursable courses from the prioritized populations: Pell or Oregon Opportunity Grant recipients, students of color, career and technical educations students and adult learners (25+).

Target Rationale: The State of Oregon prioritized a focus on these populations. Recognizing that students may have one or more of these characteristics, we coalesced all indicators into one higher-level indicator.

• Students of Color: 15%. This is consistent with prior year and we have plans this summer to review other data sources that might influence/change this number.
• Adults/25+: 47%. This is a 1% increase over last year as we have seen steady growth in this population and earlier in the year enrollment numbers indicated 40+ year olds were up higher than other age groups.
• Pell Students: 40%. This is a 2% increase over last year. This has been on the decline for the prior three AY’s, but we did see a significant increase in fall. Based on what we pulled for the TRIO grant, though, we do not recommend a significant increase at this time.
• CTE Headcount: 37%. Keep as is as no new programs or class expansions is happening in 2024-25. However, we will likely increase in 2025-26 due to 1) foundational work happening in CBIPD this year (which will likely result in an increase in the number of noncredit training opportunities); 2) Madras campus and new CTE programs; and 3) we will be conducting a needs analysis in 2024-25 to determine how workforce needs align with our programs and where gaps may exist.

Peer Institutions: The Higher Education Coordinating Commission has not yet begun to collect this data, so setting a target against our peers is not yet attainable. However, we anticipate this data available in summer or fall 2025 and will update this indicator’s target accordingly.

 

Online Courses and Programs

Indicator Rationale: Online courses provide access to higher education for students throughout COCC’s service district, some of whom may not be able to travel to COCC campuses, have work or family obligations that prevent them from taking in-person classes, or prefer online learning. Meeting the differentiated needs of students includes offering online instruction and further advances the Colleges’ access goal.

Indicator Definition: The indicator measures the headcount and FTE of students enrolled in online courses and the number credit courses and sections of each course. Currently, several disciplines offer most or all of their classes online, but at this time, COCC is not considering these as fully online programs because some of the required support courses may or may not be offered online. This action project’s work will help move the College towards its goal of developing fully online programs. However, that is not yet an indicator as foundational work is needed.

Target Rationale: Targets are based on the aggregation of sub-indicators as compared to the 2022-23 benchmark year. Numeric targets are set up in ranges that represent a settling or growth pattern over time (not counting pandemic years) even though a single year may swing upward or downward within the parameters listed in the table below. Since this indicator is focused on growth of our own online offerings, data from our comparator institutions is not currently a factor in this work.

Peer Institutions: The Higher Education Coordinating Commission does not collect this data, nor does IPEDS. Therefore, comparator institution data is not available.