2019 Award Recipient

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • National Institute of Standards and Technology • Department of Commerce 

Highlights

• With a mission of providing pathways to success, HCC has 

consistently outperformed its local and national comparators 

for attainment of associate degrees and certificates by 

more than 200%.

• HCC tripled its graduation rates for Black/African American 

and Hispanic/Latino first-time-to-college students within 

two years of entry.

• The graduate placement rate for health sciences students 

is 100% for seven out of eight of HCC’s health sciences 

programs.

• HCC’s full-time-equivalent enrollment growth, which 

impacts state funding of the college, is the best in 

the state over the last 10 years.

 

Howard Community College

Howard Community College (HCC) is an open-access, public 

community college offering associate degrees and certificates, as 

well as workforce development training and continuing education 

classes, that help students attain new skills, and prepare for careers or 

transfer to four-year institutions. With 2,724 employees, the college 

educates about 30,000 students annually through a main campus in 

Columbia, MD, in addition to the Laurel College Center in Laurel, MD,

and the Ecker Business Training Center in Columbia, MD.

Student Learning with Results

• HCC’s growth rate for the attainment of associate degrees and 

certificates has consistently outperformed its local and national 

comparators by more than 200%. Compared to the baseline 

year of fall 2002, HCC’s full-time-equivalent student growth rate 

increased from under 40% in 2003 to 340% in 2018, with state, 

national, and best peer rates close to just 100%.

• The persistence rate—defined as the number of students who 

graduated, transferred, earned at least 30 credits with a cumulative 

grade point average of 2.0 or above, or were still enrolled at HCC 

four years after entry—has increased significantly over the past 

three fiscal years, from just over 75% in FY2016 to over 80% in 

FY2018, surpassing the Maryland community colleges and best 

state rates. 

• HCC partners with over 276 entities to provide clinical practice 

sites to successfully prepare students entering the health sciences 

field for employment. As a result, the graduate placement rate 

for these students is 100% for seven out of eight of HCC’s health 

sciences programs. 

• Supporting its strategic goal of student success, HCC deploys 

numerous methods to listen to and interact with current students. 

For example, the national Community College Survey of Student 

Engagement (CCSSE) indicates that HCC’s overall ratings of 

students’ educational experience as well as student perception 

of college support are better than its large community college 

comparators, as well as the national CCSSE ratings. These ratings 

have continued to improve over the past five years.

• HCC demonstrates its core competency of facilitating student 

success through numerous student support programs, including 

financial aid, counseling, advisory and tutoring services, 280 flexible

format courses, and information technology support services.

Senior Leadership

• Senior leaders create an environment to achieve the college’s 

mission, engage the workforce, and cultivate organizational 

and individual learning by aligning individual workforce plans to 

departmental action plans to core institutional goals and objectives. 
Senior leaders encourage employees to participate in plan-docheck-act improvement projects that are vetted by applying 

intelligent risk taking. Progress on achievement of institutional 

objectives is shared across the organization and with the Board of 

Trustees through the reporting of key performance indicators.

Financial Results

• HCC’s full-time-equivalent enrollment growth, which impacts state

funding of the college, is the best in the state over the last 10 years.

• HCC’s market share of all Howard County undergraduates, whether 

attending the community college full- or part-time, is 23% better 

than any other Maryland, four-year, higher-education institution. 

HCC has a 71% market share of county residents enrolled as 

part-time undergraduates at any Maryland public college or university.

• Based on the college’s service area population, HCC’s market 

penetration is at the National Community College Benchmark Project

80th percentile for credit courses and at the 93rd percentile for 

noncredit courses.

People Process with Results

• HCC has been named a “Great College to Work For” for 11 

consecutive years in an extensive workplace survey by 

ModernThink. HCC is the only community college in Maryland—

and one of only two community colleges in the nation—to have 

achieved this record status.

• HCC’s overall turnover rate—defined as the number of full-time

core workforce employees who leave the college because of 

resignation, retirement, dismissal, or reorganization—was 8.3% 

in FY2018, compared to the Bureau of National Affairs annualized 

national rate of 14%. HCC’s overall turnover rate is also better than 

its best peer, even when segmented by support, faculty, professional/

technical, and administrative staff.

• The college’s effort to increase diversity in the employee applicant 

pool by targeting advertisements and announcements to minorityspecific groups has resulted in a minority draw rate 3% higher 

than the minority population of the area it serves. In fall 2018, 

the percentage of minorities among full-time faculty was 28.4% 

and among administrative/professional staff was 31.9%, both the 

highest figures since records have been kept.

• On the 15 major dimensions measured in the Great Colleges to 

Work For Survey in 2019, HCC’s employee ratings were 7–18% 

better than national two-year college comparators. Dimensions include

compensation/benefits, collaboration, respect/appreciation, faculty/

administration/staff relations, and pride/connection to institution.

• HCC’s learning and development system supports the personal 

development of its workforce through a number of programs and 

policies, including cohort-based leadership programs for faculty 

and staff; a requirement for all employees to obtain 10 hours of 

professional development annually; and tuition waivers.

Strategic Planning and Implementation 

with Results

• HCC fosters a very high degree of stakeholder involvement in 

its strategic planning process. For example, recommendations on 

strategic initiatives are provided by its Commission on the Future, 

which includes county citizens and leaders to help the college 

identify community needs and recommend potential strategic 

initiatives. As part of the college’s Institutional Effectiveness 

Plan, all academic divisions, student services, and administrative 

units complete a set of key performance indicators, linked to core 

work that is aligned with the strategic action plans. 

• Through a process of learning and improving over a six-year 

period, the college reduced its number of strategic objectives by 

more than half and the number of action plans by two-thirds. These 

results helped to strengthen the alignment of contributing work 

group plans to those objectives, resulting in a 100% completion 

rate for strategic objectives for fiscal years 2016 through 2019. 

For example, focused objectives have resulted in an improved 

student graduation-transfer rate performance after four years of 

55% and an increased percentage of developmental completers 

(students who entered HCC in need of at least one developmental 

education course and became college ready) of 45%.

Citizenship with Results

• In support of its strategic objective of carbon footprint reduction, 

HCC was one of the original signers of the American College and 

University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) to minimize 

global warming emissions and provide knowledge and education 

to achieve climate neutrality. HCC outperformed all associate 

degree-granting college signatories, as recorded in the ACUPCC 

Reporting System, with a 0.21 metric ton reduction in emissions, 

saving the college $74,280 over a six-year period, with a projected 

savings of $123,000 over the next two years.

For more information:

Howard Community College

10901 Little Patuxent Parkway

Columbia, MD 21044

www.howardcc.edu

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program

The Baldrige Program educates organizations of all sizes and 

from all sectors in organizational performance management and 

improvement. We also administer the Malcolm Baldrige National

Quality Award. Our key services are to identify and recognize 

role-model organizations, share best management practices, 

and help organizations achieve best-in-class performance levels.

We are the only public-private partnership and Presidential award 

program dedicated to improving U.S. organizations. 

For more information on the Baldrige Program: 

www.nist.gov/baldrige | 301-975-2036 | baldrige@nist.gov

2019 Award Recipient

Howard Community College 

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • National Institute of Standards and Technology • Department of Commerce