Solano College Has 50 Percent Transfer Rate, Report Says

Solano College Has 50 Percent Transfer Rate, Report Says
By MELISSA MURPHY/The Reporter, Vacaville
Article Launched: 04/05/2008

Solano Community College ranks higher than other community colleges in the state in terms of the number of students transferring to four-year college institutions.

Almost 100,000 community college students statewide are taking advantage of the state's educational system and choosing to continue their education at four-year institutions, according to a recent state report.

At SCC, about 50 percent of the students either transferred to a four-year college, earned their Associate of Arts or Science degree, earned a certificate or achieved transfer-dedicated or transfer- prepared status from 2001 to 2007, down from 53 percent between 2000 and 2006.

Relative to SCC's 50 percent tansfer rate, a series of articles by the Contra Costa Times says that estimates have one in four students community college students statewide reaching four-year institutions.

SCC enrolls about 12,000 students each semester.

"In most cases starting out at a community college is extremely beneficial," said Ella Tolliver, a counselor and professor at SCC. "We've done quite well to see that the students have the resources they need to succeed."

The California State University system continues as the most frequent transfer destination for community college students with the enrollment of 54,391 such students, according to the Accountability Reporting for the Community Colleges.

Some of the benefits of attending a community college first, according to Tolliver include, saving money, a "second chance" for students that struggled in high school and a chance to get ahead for the highly skilled academic students.

"We prepare them and assist them," Tolliver said. "Even transferring to private institutions. We do our best to meet the needs of every student and to make the transfer process a seamless transition."

Some students, however, come through the community college system unprepared for college-level work.

Seeing a decline in basic skills throughout the community college system, the state approved the Basic Skills initiative which was designed out of the need to provide basic skills, and by extension English as a Second Language education to students under-prepared for college-level work, including those unable to pass the California High School Exit Exam.

The state budgeted about $30 million to help community colleges with tutoring and other individual programs to help the students achieve their academic goals.

The students that do attend SCC are bucking the state trend in Basic Skills Improvement. From 2004-05 to 2006-07 SCC students improved almost 59 percent in their Basic Skills, all of the 109 community colleges in the state improved just 50 percent on their Basic Skills.

However, for SCC this was slightly down from 2003-04 to 2005-06 when its students had a 60 percent improvement rate.

SCC enrolls about 12,000 students each semester.

That could be contributed to the number of students that choose to attend SCC that haven't finished high school, officials said.

Ross Beck, SCC spokesman, said statewide about one-third of high school students don't graduate and start at the community college system lacking basic skills.

"It's a combination of both students, prepared and unprepared," said Tolliver and Beck.

SCC has also beat the trend in English language improvement.

SCC students improved 66 percent from 2004-05 to 2006-07, but statewide the improvement was only 45 percent for those same years. The 66 percent improvement at SCC was even an increase from 2003-04 to 2005-06 when it had 61 percent improvement.

For more information about SCC visit www.solano.edu.