Information, Information and More Information...

I found the Academic Senate conference very useful. One of the useful tools that I learned about and I can not stop playing with is the Data Mart. This site is operated by the State Chancellor's office, and has all the information that are hard to find on campus.

What kind of information?

Student Demographics, FTES, FTES by Distance Education, Retention, Success rates,Student Services Programs, and Staffing Reports.

Another report to look for on this site is the ARCC (Accountability Reporting for Community Colleges). I found these reports interesting because they have placed colleges in groups of cohorts based on Demography of students. For example I have heard many of our staff compare Rio Hondo to Mt. Sac. However, Rio Hondo and Mt. Sac. are not in the same group of Cohorts. Here is Rio Hondo's cohort group:
Alameda; Bakersfield; Cerritos; Chabot; Chaffey; Compton; Contra Costa; Desert; East L.A.; Fresno City; Gavilan; Hartnell; Imperial Valley; L.A. City; L.A. Harbor; L.A. Mission; L.A. Trade- Tech; L.A. Valley; Long Beach City; Merced; Oxnard; Porterville; Reedley; Rio Hondo; Riverside; San Bernardino; San Joaquin Delta; Santa Ana; Sequoias; Southwest L.A.; Southwestern; West Hills; West L.A.; and Yuba.

I will post more on this issue later.

Finally, if you want to learn about our school's budget you can find it here. If you want other schools' budgets click here. Talking of money and budgets the budget person from CCA who was explaining how to read these budgets commented that Rio Hondo and Mendicino have the most honest budget in the State. Now this guy was a CTA union analyst invited to teach us how to read these forms and sometimes correctly sees a conspiracy behind every budget. The next time you see Teresa give her a hug for being one of the best budget persons in the State of California.