News & Events
August 24, 2007
CONTACT:
Dede Gonzales, Office of the President
425.352.8000
dgonzales@cascadia.edu
Cascadia Community College Ranked Second in the Nation for Active and Collaborative Student Learning
Bothell, WA - Cascadia Community College has earned national recognition among community colleges in the U.S. with its appearance near the top of the list in Washington Monthly’s recent ranking of “America’s Best Community Colleges.” In an accompanying article in the August issue of Washington Monthly, Kevin Carey notes that Cascadia places number two in the list of top thirty institutions, and in those measures correlated with student engagement and graduation rates—the extent to which teaching is “active and collaborative”—Cascadia tops the list. Mr. Carey visited Cascadia this spring to interview students, faculty and staff about what makes the school stand out. Mr. Carey used public data from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) to develop the rankings. Kay McClenney, CCSSE’s director, has expressed serious reservations about the value and validity of this and other college rankings. At the same time, she adds, "I know Cascadia Community College, having been on the campus multiple times; and I know it to be a very special place, both for students and for educators."
Cascadia’s President Bill Christopher gives credit for the ranking to the faculty and staff for the high value they place on engaging students in their own learning. “We are pleased that Washington Monthly included Cascadia in its list of top thirty community colleges. At the same time, we recognize that it is extremely difficult to identify a set of measures that can be used to compare the more than 1,100 community colleges across the country, each striving to serve the specific needs of their communities and enrolling students with a wide variety of goals. Still, we are encouraged that Washington Monthly brought attention to the great work that community colleges are doing across the country.”
The ranking comes on the heels of accreditation from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, the regional accrediting agency. The Commission specifically recognized Cascadia’s “distinctive and pervasive culture that values student and faculty engagement, interdisciplinary learning, shared decision-making, and human potential.”
Cascadia Community College, located in Bothell, shares a campus with the University of Washington Bothell. Cascadia is committed to innovative instruction in small classes that emphasize active and collaborative learning by students. More than 2,500 students are enrolled each quarter. For more information, see: www.cascadia.edu.
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