Northern Essex Community College Profile

Northern Essex Community College is a two-year, two-campus community college serving over 15,000 students in northeastern Massachusetts.  In recent years, the student body has become increasingly racially and ethnically diverse, and enrollment of students of color now exceeds 25 percent.  NECC recently obtained Hispanic Serving Institution (HIS) status for its Lawrence branch campus, and is the only HIS in New England.

NECC is committed to helping students set and achieve their goals, and offers programs to help students transfer to a four-year college, enter the workforce, or upgrade current job skills. NECC’s strong integrative Developmental Education Program links foundation courses together to help students successfully complete required classes. NECC offers additional support to disadvantaged students to help them succeed.  NECC works closely with the local community and businesses to ensure that the college offers programs that are valuable to the larger community.

Achieving the Dream Goals

Northern Essex Community College’s goal is to effectively use data to identify the most successful strategies that help students succeed.  During the first year of the initiative, the college plans to:

• Deepen institutional accountability using qualitative and quantitative data
• Establish a uniform assessment methodology for retention programs
• Use data to identify best practices and replicate those that are most important for student success
• Improve institutional research infrastructure in order to meet the expectations of accreditation

NECC’s rigorous use of data will help to create a map for institutional improvement in student success.  The college is committed to leveraging the necessary resources to make effective change happen.