Lone Star honored for graduation, persistence rates

The Lone Star College System was recently recognized as a leader in the national student completion movement by Achieving the Dream.

According to a press release, Achieving the Dream, a nonprofit organization devoted to helping community college students earn a degree, honored the college system as a 2012 Leader College for demonstrating sustained improvement and raising persistence and graduation rates.

"This is a great achievement for Lone Star College System to be recognized as a Leader College, especially since the selection is so closely aligned with our number one goal of student success and completion," Richard Carpenter, LSCS chancellor, said in the release. "This recognition validates the hard work that has been taking place at Lone Star College System and serves as proof that our concentrated efforts to help more students finish their education and reach their goals are paying off."

Lone Star College System's persistence rates increased for all student categories from 2006 to 2011. The persistence rate increased from 64 to 72 percent for black students, 69 to 73 percent for hispanic students and 67 to 69 percent for white students.

"I'm particularly proud of the progress we have made in our student persistence rates, especially improving the persistence rates of our black and hispanic students," Carpenter said in the release.

For more information about Leader Colleges and Achieving the Dream, visit www.achievingthedream.org.

For more information about the Lone Star College System, visit www.lonestar.edu.