Cerritos College’s numbers are better than average according to Dr. Kristi Blackburn, Dean of Institutional Effectiveness, Research and Planning — who gave a presentation on Student Success Scorecards of 2016, at the Wednesday, August 16 Board of Trustees Meeting

These are the statistics she presented that show that Cerritos College is slightly above average:

• First generation students at 54.7% (compared to the state average at 42.4%)
• College prepared students at 69.95 (compared to the state at 70.6%)
• Unprepared students at 39.4% (compared to the state average at 40.8%)
• College Prepared persistence at 82.9% (compared to the state average at 78%)
• College prepared population at 79.1% (compared to the state average at 75.1%)
• English at 52.1% (compared to the state average at 46.9%)
• ESL at 39.3% (compared to state average at 30.5%)

The college only scored lower in one category Math at 28.7%, when the state average is 34.2%.

In regard to the definitions of the listed terms of measurement; a “college prepared” student is defined as a student with a minimum of 6 units earned, who attempted any Math or English in the first three years and achieved any of the following outcomes within 6 years of entry:

• Earned AA/AS or credit certificate (Chancellor’s office approved)
• Transfer to a four year institution
• “Transfer prepared” (60 UC/CSU transferable units with GPA greater than or equal to 2.0)

“Persistence” is defined as having a minimum of six units earned, attempting any Math or English in the first 3 years and enroll in the first three consecutive primary semester terms (or four quarter terms) anywhere in the CCC system.

Later in the presentation, Blackburn stated that Cerritos Colleg’s peer grouping changed again with the 2016 iteration of the Scorecard.

The slide, titled COMPLETION (OVERALL) COMPARISON WITH OUR “PEERS” she said that historically, the college has been peer grouped with Long Beach City College, East Los Angeles and Los Angeles Trade Tech — but the state changed its methodology for peer groups with last year’s scorecard.

Peer Group this year established through The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) using Cluster analysis and the following hierarchical factors:

• API score of high schools in service area
• Most recent score as this is no longer being collected; Bachelor
• attainment of Bachelor degree by those of age 25+
• Students attending the college that are 25+ years, negatively associated with SPAR

Bachelor+ was used as proxy for estimating a student’s Socioeconomic status (SES).

The presentation with a question period where Trustee Marissa Perez followed a line of questioning