Rankings.

 

Perhaps, one of the most basic barometers of America is how one is ranked.

 

This also applies to colleges and universities. For years, a couple of business magazines rated “best buys” in postsecondary education. Then, that was followed by a prominent news magazine’s ratings of senior institutions. COMMUNITY COLLEGE WEEK , at about the same time started ranking junior and community colleges relative to numerous criteria. First, there was the July issue with of graduation ranks and now the December issue based on school size. Not surprisingly, the biggest community college were in  large urban-suburban states.

 

Location. Location. Location.

 

For number crunchers, there are ways to compare schools that have had tremendous growth from small populations. What distorts the issue is that roughly half the people of the United States is in 5 to 10 states. Thus, findings based on size are sullied by these population distortions.

 

Kirkwood Community College has roughly 11,000 students with according to Dallams, an average of 10 or 11 credit hours per person. Librarian Gary Botos and myself compared Kirkwood’s student census to school within hundreds of miles around us, using Peterson’s Guides, the internet, and Dallams. We  discovered that we are the largest school from here to the Canadian border, are bested by a school in Spokane, struggle with some schools in California, and are stopped in our tracks with an Albuquerque technical college. From there are perimeter is limited by schools (going counter clock wise) in Kansas City, St. Louis, and Milwaukee. We have 50,000 continuing education students, ranked

 in the top 5% of all degree conferring institutions, and our ranked by COMMUNITY COLLEGE WEEK in nursing, one year certificates, and associate degrees. We live in a highly competitive area, where all the senior institutions are honored by U. S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT.

 

In other words, Kirkwood is the biggest 2 year school in an area that rivals a sizable portion of Western

Europe, geographically. However, some of the most talented and glamorous people “fly over” us every day. What they don’t know is that we dwell within a region of water and woods. We are more like the Great Lakes than the Plains. We live in the Northeast Hills region of Iowa with close proximity to Wisconsin.  We are the home of Lake McBride, Stone City, Iowa University, the Amana Colonies, historic Dubuque, and tons of attractive  federal, state, and local parks including Ellis with its resort atmosphere of speed boats and stationary  house boats.

 

We draw from the “City of Five Seasons” Cedar Rapids,. There really are stately Cedar trees and there is a rapids near the revitalized down town. At best, our region of 7 or 8 counties is around 200, 000 and in terms of geography, we’re about a third of Israel. On a picture map, just as Texas has oil derricks and cattle, the map would portray us with corn and hogs. However, the reality is that of the billowy art of former resident artist Grant Wood  who best portrayed our land landscape of water and woods. It is common to have deer in one’s yard and in the street. We are surrounded by the Cedar, Iowa, and Mississippi Rivers and multiples of creeks and ponds.

 

However, if you add all the populations of the Plains states, you get something a bit  larger than greater Los Angeles or greater New York City. Kirkwood  is one of the largest in this area, but does not rank in the Top 100 schools by COMMUNITY COLLEGE WEEK.

 

For those who are more familiar than I, there are ways to adjust for population. You really can compare Minneapolis with New York City on such matters as fertility, mortality, and homicide rates. Basically,

you take the registered student enrollment of a community college and divide it by the population of the mandated region of which the school dwells. (We are in Area 10 of Iowa.) Then, you multiply that number by 1000 (normalizing the data.) Thus, you find accurate and comparable enrollments for schools in densely populated areas and in sparse territories.

 

 

 

By now, you have guessed that I am suggesting another  complimentary ranking to the December issue.

One would be based on raw size and the other on an adjusted population.

 

COMMUNITY COLLEGE WEEK, we need an adjusted ranking in the end of the year issue for the 1250

two year schools, and it would be down right decent if the Department of Education would provide you with the data.

 

When it comes to a school in a river city, you got to know the territory.