Aspen Prize Community College Benchmarking Tool by Graphicacy

Every two years, the Aspen Institute's College Excellence Program collects student outcomes data to assess community colleges nationally and inform the process through which the finalists and winner of the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence are selected. The Aspen Prize Benchmarking tool utilizes data sets from the Prize process that allow for comparison. The tool can be used by community colleges to measure progress on student outcomes data compared to all institutions across the nation; the 150 institutions eligible to apply for the Aspen Prize; and custom peer groups.

Users can review a set of overview graphics to see how their institution compares across important characteristics like location, size, and demographics of their student body relative to all others. Then they can choose filters to create a group of peer schools they want to compare themselves against. Filter categories range from locality and size to percentage of student minority populations. Finally, customized charts and graphics show users how their institution stacks up against the peer comparison group and the national averages.