FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	Contact Name

Month XX, 2013	Phone

E-mail

[Name of VFA Member]

JOINS FIRST NATIONAL COMPREHENSIVE ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEM FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGES

VFA Will Revolutionize Community College’s Ability to Measure Student Outcomes

Washington, DC – [Name of VFA Member] joins the Voluntary Framework of Accountability (VFA), which is the first-ever national accountability system to measure how two-year colleges perform in serving their more than 13 million students.

In an unprecedented effort, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), together with community college leaders from across the nation, developed the VFA framework and data tool. The VFA measures encompass the full breadth of the community college mission and the diversity of students’ goals and educational experiences.

[Quote from your college’s leadership speaking to the efficacy or reasons why the college joined VFA. e.g. significantly improved ability to assess their performance, identify areas for improvement, demonstrate effectiveness to local, state, federal and accrediting agencies, seek funding or respond to performance funding calls, and implement practices and policies to ultimately improve student outcomes.]

The VFA measures were developed through 18 months of intensive research and testing by community college presidents, institutional researchers and trustees/governing boards that know data and understand our institutions and students. The measures gauge student progress and outcomes including pre-collegiate preparation (such as developmental education and Adult Basic Education), academic progress and momentum points, completion and transfer measures, and workforce outcomes for career and technical education.

The VFA will give community colleges what has long been lacking in reporting outcomes to the public and policymakers: specific metrics that assess how they do in areas that are reflective of our mission including student progress and achievement and career and technical education programs (credit and noncredit).

“Many traditional measures of institutional effectiveness produce an incomplete or inaccurate picture of community college performance,” said AACC President and CEO Walter G. Bumphus. “For example, most national assessments are pegged to full-time students, but the majority of community college students attend part-time. Given the increasing reliance on our colleges to educate the growing numbers of students to keep our nation competitive, it is essential that the public and policymakers understand what we do and how well we do it.”

VFA membership provides access to a fully online data tool with the ability to enter, upload, and visually display data. Additionally, the data tool enables VFA colleges to benchmark their data against the data of similar colleges so that participating members can more fully understand their own efficacy and areas of strengths and challenges. For additional information on the VFA, visit http://vfa.aacc.nche.edu.

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[NAME OF VFA MEMBER: information on your institution.]

The American Association of Community Colleges is a national organization representing the nation’s 1,167 community, junior and technical colleges and their more than 13 million students. Community colleges are higher education’s largest and fastest growing sector, currently enrolling close to half of all U.S. undergraduates. For more information and a listing of community colleges nationwide, see www.aacch.nche.edu. For daily news about community colleges and key issues affecting them, sign up to receive the Community College Times at www.communitycollegetimes.com