Student Achievement

In keeping with our values and aligning with the standards set by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), OCCC shares our disaggregated data regarding Student Achievement to facilitate accountability, transparency and year-over-year continuous improvement.

Student Achievement is presented to the OCCC Board of Education as part of the annual report on Mission Fulfillment. Disaggregated data is publicly available through this OCCC website, and further inquiries can be directed to the Office of Institutional Research.

NWCCU Standard 1.D.2: Consistent with its mission and in the context of and in comparison with regional and national peer institutions, the institution establishes and shares widely a set of indicators for student achievement including, but not limited to, persistence, completion, retention, and postgraduation success. Such indicators of student achievement should be disaggregated by race, ethnicity, age, gender, socioeconomic status, first generation college student, and any other institutionally meaningful categories that may help promote student achievement and close barriers to academic excellence and success (equity gaps).

Student Success and Benchmarking through the Guided Pathways Framework

Note: Data sharing between institutions within the state of Oregon only began in 2022, utilizing an agreed upon shared set of metrics from the Guided Pathways Framework. As such, the comparison of overall and disaggregated data amongst colleges is limited to 2022, though OCCC and the other Oregon Institutions are in the process of a 2nd year of data collection, which will be updated in the chart above as it becomes available.

The shared Metrics include:

Completing Gateway Courses in Math and Writing (Pace)
Reaching Momentum and Milestone Points (Pace)
Staying Enrolled (Retention/Persistence)
Achieving Success (Graduation/Transfer)

These metrics represent leading and lagging indicators in the lifecycle of the student and allow the College to make strategic investments of financial and human resources in order to improve overall student achievement and close equity gaps.

OCCC’s Guided Pathways Student Success Metrics (w/out comparator colleges) from 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 can be found below:

OCCC Guided Pathways Student Success Metrics (Overall) – to be posted

OCCC Guided Pathways Student Success Metrics (Disaggregated) – to be posted

State and National Benchmarking

Following its Fall 2022 Mid-Cycle Evaluation, to better conform with NWCCU standards, OCCC redrew its IPEDS Data Feedback Report comparator colleges to align with the Oregon Small Colleges comparison group shared through OCCA and includes small colleges with similar programs within similar cultural geographies.

Oregon Small College Comparison Group (OCCA)
College	Head-count	State	Rural/ Town	%Female	%PT	%Hispanic	%Pell
Oregon Coast	398	Oregon	Rural	74%	60%	20%	52%
Tillamook Bay	538	Oregon	Rural	58%	80%	22%	52%
Clatsop	714	Oregon	Rural	56%	63%	19%	49%
Columbia Gorge	1,039	Oregon	Town	65%	72%	24%	41%
Blue Mountain	1,227	Oregon	Rural	55%	55%	27%	41%

NWCCU Standard 1.D.3 The institution’s disaggregated indicators of student achievement should be widely published and available on the institution’s website. Such disaggregated indicators should be aligned with meaningful, institutionally identified indicators benchmarked against indicators for peer institutions at the regional and national levels and be used for continuous improvement to inform planning, decision making, and allocation of resources.

The new cohort, retrospectively applied to the start of the 7-year accreditation cycle, includes two similarly sized institutions from rural communities in Montana (Miles Community College and Dawson Community College) with similar demographics. Miles Community College is an aspirational comparator institution with significantly higher retention and graduation rates than the Oregon Small College comparison group.

National College Comparison Group (NWCCU Region)
College	Head-count	State	Rural/ Town	%Female	%PT	%Hispanic	%Pell
Dawson	462	Montana	Rural	51%	55%	6%	39%
Miles	583	Montana	Rural	66%	53%	3%	43%

Analysis of Benchmarking utilizing IPEDS and Guided Pathways Framework

The following reports show the Fall to Fall RETENTION and 150% time to GRADUATION data by cohort along with the College’s analysis of causes and interventions for the following IPEDS FALL COHORTS: 2017 (released Winter 2020), 2018 (released Winter 2021), 2019 (released Winter 2022), 2020 (released Winter 2023) and 2021 (released Winter 2024). By the end of the 7-year accreditation cycle, OCCC will have 7-years of documented analysis and interventions.

Click on the list below to see OCCC’s IPEDS data compared to similar institutions and the discussions and interventions that guided institutional strategic investment below:

• 2020 (Fall 2017 Cohort; IPEDS DFR 2019 for Retention, IPEDS DFR 2021 for 150% Graduation)

• 2021 (Fall 2018 Cohort; IPEDS DFR 2020 for Retention, IPEDS DFR 2022 for 150% Graduation)

• 2022 (Fall 2019 Cohort; IPEDS DFR 2021 for Retention, IPEDS DFR 2023 for 150% Graduation)

• 2023 (Fall 2020 Cohort; IPEDS DFR 2022 for Retention, TBA for 150% Graduation)

• 2024 (Fall 2021 Cohort; IPEDS DFR 2023 for Retention, TBA for 150% Graduation)