Despite quietly becoming one of the state’s most successful academic institutions (not to mention one of the area’s larger employers) Chippewa Valley Technical College seems perpetually stuck in UW-Eau Claire’s shadow, bearing the unfortunate stigma shared by all community colleges. Many people still see CVTC as “just a tech school.”

But while this reputation persists, the school has developed a number of nationally recognized programs and churns out legions of soon-to-be-employed students in a surprising variety of fields. And now, CVTC has been ranked among the top 10 community colleges in all of the United States. That’s, like, fifty state’s worth of colleges, so it’s a big deal. Says the press release ...

• Washington Monthly looked at the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE), which is a national assessment that measures community college performance with student engagement, which research has shown to be strongly correlated with higher levels of learning. Hundreds of thousands of students were surveyed.

This isn’t earth shattering news, but it makes me think about all the snide comments I’ve heard about tech schools. I’ve heard plenty of dumb things said about tech schools from plenty of English Lit. and Philosophy majors who are probably still hurling those insults – from their parent’s basement.