This was according to the Planning, Program Review and Outcomes Assessment Committee, or PROAC, which conducted the analysis of course completion data with the Early Intervention Program for Spring 2009.
In her First Annual Institutional Effectiveness Performance Report, NMC President Carmen Fernandez said the assessment showed that 57 percent of those who did not complete their courses was attributed to poor attendance and tardiness, 22 percent for poor academic performance and poor attendance, and 16 percent for poor academic performance.
“This analysis will continue with outer programs with less than 70 percent completion rates to better understand the causes of low completion rates in order to then develop plans to increase completion rates,” she said.
According to Fernandez, increasing the completion rates in courses with less than 70 percent completion rates is one of the goals of NMC in promoting student learning and success.
She said NMC’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness helped determine the completion rate for all courses.
In addition to compiling updated course complete data from Spring 2008 through Spring 2009, Fernandez said the office provided such data to all programs at every term.
She said NMC used the Early Intervention Program in identifying and reporting possible reasons for the less than 70 percent completion rate.
She described as blatantly incorrect a Saipan Tribune news report that came out on Sept. 28.
“The Saipan Tribune’s claim that less than 70 percent of students at Northern Marianas College completed their courses in the Spring 2009 term was a complete misrepresentation of data reported in one section of the college’s 2009 Institutional Effectiveness Performance Report,” she said.
“The Institutional Effectiveness Report specifies many areas where the college exceeds national, higher educational benchmarks. It’s unfortunate that the [Saipan Tribune] article pinpointed a particular item, took it out of context, and conveyed completely false data.”
She said Section 1.1.3 focused only on students referred to the counseling department’s Early Intervention Program, which helps students struggling with certain courses complete those courses.
It did not, in any way, state that only less than 70 percent of students completed their courses in Spring 2009, Fernandez said.
For Spring 2009, the college’s overall completion rate was more than 70 percent, with 76.65 percent completing college-level courses, she added.
Some programs have a much higher completion rate like the college’s School of Education with a 90 percent completion rate in the Spring 2009 semester, she said.
The survey data presented in the report was drawn from forms that instructors completed in the Spring 2009 term for students referred to the Early Intervention Program.
According to Fernandez, “It is important to note that a student referred to the Early Intervention Program may be in danger of not completing a course, but that does not happen in each and every case.”
She added, “Many faculty and staff members are working extremely hard to ensure that students succeed at the college. The [Saipan Tribune] article does all their commendable efforts a great disservice.”
