Institutional Effectiveness Measures
Institutional effectiveness is the ability of an institution to match its performance to the purposes established in its mission, vision, and goal statements. One way that Prairie State College measures effectiveness is longitudinally using student success indicators based on IPEDS criteria. These Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) include the following student success measures:

For retention rate, transfer-out rate, and graduation rate, the median of the comparison group is used.

Comparison Group Colleges
Comparison group colleges were selected based on their similarity to Prairie State College in terms of size (enrollment) and racial/ethnic composition.

  • Augusta Technical College (Augusta, GA)
  • Baltimore City Community College (Baltimore, MD)
  • Cedar Valley College (Lancaster, TX)
  • Central Georgia Technical College (Macon, GA)
  • Darton State College (Albany, GA)
  • Durham Technical Community College (Durham, NC)
  • East Mississippi Community College (Scooba, MS)
  • El Camino College-Compton Center (Compton, CA)
  • Florence-Darlington Technical College (Florence, SC)
  • Holmes Community College (Goodman, MS)
  • Savannah Technical College (Savannah, GA)
  • Southside Virginia Community College (Alberta, VA)

Understanding Lagging Data
IPEDS reporting lags by a year (ie, during IPEDS 23-24 reporting year, data on 22-23 is collected). In addition to this lag, metrics like retention rate, transfer-out rate, and graduation rate take two to four years to report since it takes time for student cohorts to progress, transfer, or complete.

College data linked on this page is updated annually in the early spring upon reception of the college’s annual IPEDS Data Feedback Report (DFR), which contains the previous year’s data and comparison group information. The term definitions on the charts are from IPEDS.

The most current year of data is from the 2023 DFR, received by the institution in Spring 2024. The next update to this page is expected in Spring 2025.