National ranking follows college being named an AACC Award of Excellence triple-finalist
BAYTOWN, TX — Lee College is one of the country’s Top 50 Best Value Community Colleges of 2016, according to a list compiled and recently released by Value Colleges, an independent online guide that examines value and affordability in undergraduate and graduate college education.
Lee College ranked 14th of 614 U.S. community colleges considered for the Value Colleges list. The Top 50 institutions were selected based on graduation and transfer rates, mid-level salary for graduates and actual tuition. In addition, Lee College was noted for its status as a Leader College in Achieving the Dream, a national initiative to improve student success at community colleges; its selection by the Aspen Institute as one of the nation’s top 150 community colleges eligible for the prestigious Prize for Excellence; its status as one of the top community colleges issuing associate degrees to Hispanic students; and its high-quality science and professional programs. The college’s proximity to the thriving job market along the Houston Ship Channel was also mentioned.
Value Colleges initially used data on 1,717 U.S. community colleges to find public, open-admission schools with graduation rates of 45 percent or higher, costs of less than $10,000 per year and enrollment of more than 1,000 students. The data was taken from the College Measures database.
The Value Colleges ranking comes after Lee College received national recognition in April as a 2016 American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) Award of Excellence finalist in three categories: Exemplary Board/CEO, Faculty Innovation and Outstanding College/Corporate Partnership. Nearly 1,200 community colleges are members of the AACC.
The Exemplary Board/CEO award recognized the collaboration and working relationship between Pres. Dr. Dennis Brown and the Board of Regents for promoting effectiveness in governance. Treva Brown-Askey, chairwoman of Developmental Education, was a finalist in the Faculty Innovation category for demonstrating leadership in the development and implementation of a campus program that had a positive impact on the learning experience for students. The Outstanding College/Corporate Partnership category recognized the collaboration between Lee College and ExxonMobil for demonstrating success in advancing the mission of the institution, economic prosperity of the community and learning excellence.