HCTC ranks 18th in Best Community Colleges in the nation

Hazard Community and Technical College ranks in the top 50 of Community Colleges in the 2010 Washington Monthly College Rankings.

HCTC ranked 18 in the list which was developed following an evaluation of active and collaborative learning, student effort, academic challenge, student-faculty interaction, support for learning, and graduation rates. The Washington Monthly, a national publication based in Washington, DC, noted the ranking of America s best community colleges is based on two sources of information: the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) and graduation rates published by the U.S. Department of Education.

The CCSSE survey is managed by a nonprofit organization. The survey is given to a representative sample of students at community colleges that voluntarily choose to participate. The survey is comprised of 104 questions on a range of topics. CCSSE combines the results of those questions into aggregate benchmark scores in five categories. The benchmark scores are standardized to range from 0 to 100 with an average score of 50. Each college s ranking also is based on graduation rates submitted by college to the U.S. Department of Education.

Dr. Kris Williams, HCTC Interim President/CEO, noted, Our great faculty, staff, and administration are very dedicated to helping students succeed. HCTC is the college of first choice because we have dedicated employees working together to help our students. HCTC also has wonderful alumni, friends and partners at the community, state and federal levels who support us in our goals.

This has been a good year for HCTC. Before this honor, the national Chronicle of Higher Education survey named HCTC as one of 97 Great Colleges to Work For. On the state level, HCTC was named as one of the Best Places to Work in Kentucky 2010 by a project of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, Kentucky SHRM Council and Best Companies Group.

Two other KCTCS schools were named to the Washington Monthly College Rankings list Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College (ranked 32) and Maysville Community and Technical College (ranked 47).

As Washington Monthly stated, When it comes to quality of instruction, the best community colleges outperform not only their two-year peers, but many elite four-year research universities as well. Research universities too often subordinate teaching to research. At the best community colleges, teaching comes first.