The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office has unveiled its Student Success Scorecard, a new online performance measurement system and accountability tool which tracks student success and performance at all 112 California community colleges.

The tool is not intended to provide a ranking of the state’s community colleges, but rather a longitudinal look at how students are progressing past momentum points on their way to transferring or receiving a degree/certificate.

However, several encouraging COC student statistics have already emerged as a result of the Student Success Scorecard.

Those results indicated that first time COC students who graduated high school as”college prepared” and were eligible to enroll in degree applicable math and English courses, posted a combined completion rate (defined as earning an associate degree, certificate or achieving “transfer prepared” status) of more than 79 percent — 8 percent higher than the statewide average of 71 percent.

Similarly, COC students who fell into this category also saw higher completion rates than students fromfive surrounding community colleges. In addition, the roughly 49 percent completion rate for COC “unprepared” student groups was 8 percent higher than the statewide average of 41 percent.

Other key student statistics provided by the scorecard indicated that the three largest student ethnic groups at COC — white (41 percent), Latino (39 percent) and African American (7 percent) — all compared favorably to similar ethnic group at neighboring campuses.

African American students at COC also achieved a combined completion rate roughly 20 percent higher than the statewide average, with white and Latino student groups each posting a rateroughly 6 percent about the statewide average.

“This information will be vital in our continuing effort to better serve our students and community,” said Dr. Michael Wilding, assistant superintendent-vice president of student services at the college. “While these data are positive, the college has many efforts intended to further increase the success of students in completing their educational goals. Our continued success is largely due to our dedicated faculty and staff who continually strive to be among the best in California.”

Designed to help students achieve their educational goals more quickly, the Student Success Scorecard is part of a larger initiative by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors to increase the number of students who earn certificates and degrees, and/or transfer to four-year institutions.

The unveiling of the Student Success Scorecard places California Community Colleges among the most transparent and accountable systems of public higher education in the nation, and will play a pivotal role in demonstrating the correlation between college preparation and future student success, while helping the state’s educational leaders find new ways to improve student success.

“The scorecard results make it clear how important preparation for college is to student success,” said California Community College Chancellor Brice W. Harris in a statement. “If students come to college well prepared they complete certificates and degrees or transfer at rates exceeding 70 percent.

“And for the first time,” added Harris, “colleges will have clear data regarding student success by race, ethnicity, gender and age to help them focus on closing performance gaps.”

The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Student Success Scorecard can be accessed at http://scorecard.cccco.edu/scorecard.aspx, as well as the College of the Canyons homepage, www.canyons.edu.