The Aspen Institute announced this week the 120 community colleges in the running for its first $1 million prize to reward outstanding academic and workforce outcomes at two-year institutions.
Of the 1,200 community colleges in the nation, these institutions constitute the top 10 percent, according to the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program. The rankings are based on publicly available data on student outcomes, which focus on graduation rates, retention rates, and the total number of degrees/certificates awarded relative to total enrollment. Using these measures, equal weight was given to overall performance, improvement, and performance by minority students, said an Institute representative in an email.
Wytheville Community College -- a Virginia community college -- is among the 120 institutions eligible to compete for the prize. For a full list of the colleges, click here.
Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden and Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, attended the Aspen Institute’s announcement event on Monday. President Obama announced the inception of the prize during the White House Summit on Community Colleges in October.
The prize will set "a high bar that will hopefully challenge all community colleges to graduate even more students with the skills, certificates and degrees America’s 21st century economy requires,” said former Michigan Governor John Engler in a statement.
Eight to 10 finalists will be named in September and the winner, as well as two to three runners-up, will be announced in December. The winner will receive approximately $700,000, while the runners-up will share the remainder of the $1 million.
The Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence is funded by the Joyce Foundation, the Lumina Foundation for Education, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, and the JPMorgan Chase Foundation.
