TC continues to have among highest Texas graduation rates
TEXARKANA, Texas — The Texarkana College Board of Trustees reviewed the statewide accountability report released this month by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board that showed TC as continuing to rank in the top percentile for student graduation rates among Texas community colleges.
The 2021 data report shows TC students ranking fourth among three-year completers, first among 4-year completers and 21st among institutions whose students took six-years to complete their degree or certificate.
The THECB results indicate 43.2% of TC’s full-time, first time college students graduate within three years of beginning, compared to the state three-year completion rate of 25.2%. For fouryear completers, 54.5% of students complete, compared to the state average of 33.2%.
“The things that we’ve put in place and all these moving pieces focused on completion — get you here as quickly as we can and get you out — are paying off,” Vice President of Instruction Dr. Donna McDaniel said.
McDaniel’s reports also showed data for average semester credit hours to degree, average time to degree in years, average semester credit hours attempted and more. TC ranked better than state average in all categories.
“Everyone who works at Texarkana College has been a part of getting us to where we are,” Dr. McDaniel said.
TC President Jason Smith said TC’s advising model and mandatory learning frameworks courses for first-time in college students help establish a campus culture of completion.
“We attribute student success to the mindset of our faculty and staff that a college experience is much more than earning a grade point average,” Smith said. “At TC, we believe that building a framework for students to learn how to overcome barriers that often lead to high drop-out rates has been one of our strongest assets.”
In other news from the meeting, the board approved the administration’s recommendation to not increase tuition and fee rates for the 2021-2022 year.
TC currently sits right at the state average for tuition and mandatory fees for public community colleges. Tuition rates per semester hour cost anywhere from $60 to $76, depending on if the student is in-district or not. General fees are $31.
“With the pandemic and trying to be sensitive to everything that’s going on for our students, we would like to recommend that those are kept exactly the same for this upcoming year,” Vice President of Finance Kim Jones said.