CAREER OUTCOMES
Quality programs grounded in real-world knowledge. Educational plans tailored to your needs. Supportive, caring faculty and staff. It all adds up to career success for you.
At the River, transforming lives is our mission. Through high-quality, practical, and affordable education and training, we give our students what they need to achieve their dreams.
Our dedication to that mission has earned national recognition, including “leader college” status from Achieving the Dream, which also calls us “a national model for innovative use of technology in education.”
We’ve helped our students advance in their current careers, start new careers, and open businesses. We’ve helped students on their way to advanced study at the master’s and doctoral levels. Whatever your goal is, the River is a great place to start your journey.
Read on to learn about just a few of the dreams we’ve helped our students achieve.
We push our students to succeed, but we push ourselves even harder. To monitor our level of student achievement, we track four key performance indicators (KPIs).
Successful Course Completion Rates for Gateway Courses
We track successful course completion rates for gateway courses because succeeding in a gateway course is a good indicator of student achievement. “Gateway courses” are the first courses students take that provide transferable, college-level credit and allow them to progress in their programs of study (Fla. Stat. Section 1008.02). At Indian River State College, these English and math classes are our gateway courses:
- ENC 1101 Freshman Composition Skills I Communication/General Education Core
- MAC 1105 College Algebra Mathematics/ General Education Core
- MGF 1106/ MGF2106 Mathematics for Liberal Arts I Mathematics/ General Education Core
- MGF 1107/ MGF2107 Mathematics for Liberal Arts II Mathematics/ General Education Core
- STA 2023 Statistical Methods I Mathematics/ General Education Core
To establish achievement goals, we examine our students’ success rates over the previous four years. Then, we set a goal based on the previous years’ rate and the average rate of change. Here’s the formula:
Goal = Previous year’s rate + ((Maximum rate – Minimum rate) ÷ (Number of years – 1))
Previous performance, along with achievement goals, are identified in the table below.
Course Success Rates of Gateway Math and Gateway English Courses with Thresholds and Goals for 2023-24
| Course | Success Rate 2020-21 | Success Rate 2021-22 | Success Rate 2022-23 | Success Rate 2023-24 | Threshold 2024-25 | Goal 2024-25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENC 1101 | 67.4% | 66.0% | 59.7% | 68.6% | 65.6% | 71.6% |
| MAC 1105 | 72.1% | 69.0% | 69.3% | 69.3% | 61.4% | 70.3% |
| MGF 1106/2106 | 64.6% | 66.1% | 66.6% | 63.6% | 57.4% | 64.6% |
| MGF 1107/2107 | 77.4% | 74.9% | 71.3% | 74.0% | 62.7% | 76.1% |
| STA 2023 | 71.3% | 67.1% | 71.0% | 73.2% | 64.2% | 75.3% |
Source: Florida Department of Education (FLDOE)
Retention Rates
We pay close attention to retention rates because they are an important indicator of student achievement, one that is related to and promotes timely student completion of their academic programs.
Retention rates are the percentage of first-time, degree-seeking students starting in the fall who either return to school the following fall or complete their programs.
Each year, we aim to improve our retention rate, setting a goal to increase the most recent year’s rate by the annual rate of change of the past four years. Here’s the formula we use:
Goal = Previous year’s rate + ((Maximum rate – Minimum rate) ÷ (Number of years – 1))
Previous performance, along with achievement goals, are identified in the tables below.
Fall-to-Fall Retention Rate of First-Time-in-College, Degree/Certificate-Seeking Students
First-year graduates count as retained
| Cohort | Retention Rate |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 64.5% |
| 2021 | 63.3% |
| 2022 | 54.8% |
| 2023 | 56.8% |
2024 Cohort
| Threshold | 55.0% |
| Goal | 60.3% |
Source: IRSC Data, with Retention Definitions Set Forth by National Student Clearinghouse
Program-Completion Rates
We track six-year program-completion rates as an indicator of our performance. This measure is the percentage of first-time-in-college students who complete their degree or certificate program within six years of starting it. We include both full- and part-time students in this measure.
Six-Year Completion Rates of First-Time-In College, Degree/Certificate-Seeking Students (Completing at Any Institution)
First-year graduates count as retained
| Cohort | Retention Rate |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 51.2% |
| 2016 | 49.0% |
| 2017 | 52.4% |
| 2018 | 48.8% |
2019 Cohort
| Threshold | 45.4% |
| Goal | 50.4% |
Source: National Student Clearinghouse Cohort Tracker
Job Placement and Continuing Education Rates
We track the continuing education and job placement rates of all graduates as an indicator of student achievement.
Our annual goal for these measures is to increase the most recent year’s rate by the annual rate of change of the past four years. Here’s the formula we use:
Goal = Previous year’s rate + ((Maximum rate – Minimum rate) ÷ (Number of years – 1))
Our performance for this metric is shown in the table.
Continuing Education/Job Placement Rates of Graduates, with Threshold and Goal for the 2023-24 Graduates
| 2019-20 Grads | 2020-21 Grads | 2021-22 Grads | 2022-23 Grads | 2023-24 Grads Threshold | 2023-24 Grads Goal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Placement of All* Graduates | 85.1% | 84.6% | 84.8% | 84.6% | 78.8% | 86.3% |
| Continuing Ed. of AA Graduates | 69.2% | 68.3% | 68.8% | 68.3% | 57.3% | 68.5% |
| Job Placement of AS, BS, BAS, PSV and PSAV Graduates | 75.3% | 77.2% | 75.3% | 77.6% | 71.2% | 78.5% |
Source: Florida Education & Training Placement Information Program (FETPIP)
*AA, AS, BS, BAS, PSV and PSAV. Other degree data was not available in all or some of these years.
