A newly formed Massachusetts Board of Higher Education task force met for the first time at the Statehouse yesterday in response to recent data that indicates only 16.6 percent of fulltime Massachusetts community college students earn a degree or certificate within three years — a percentage well below the national average.

The data, collected in a 2004 graduation rate survey by the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, shows that graduation rates in Massachusetts’ 15 community colleges have fallen 5.8 percent behind the national average and 2.2 percent behind community colleges in New England.

“The community college system is the backbone of our workforce,” said BHE Chairman Stephen Tocco. “We have no choice but to improve.”

Members on the task force, formed in December 2005, include Jeanne-Marie Boylan of the BHE, Sen. Robert O’Leary (D-Barnstable) and Rep. Kevin Murphy (D-Lowell) among other community college and business representatives.

According to data collected by the task force, the average annual income of a Massachusetts resident with only a high school diploma was $27,800 in 2003 compared to $42,600, the current average annual income of a Massachusetts community college graduate.

Milton James Little, Jr., president and CEO of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, said without successful community colleges, the socioeconomic gap for minorities — which represent 27.1 percent of community college enrollment in Massachusetts according to the IPEDS — would continue to grow.

“We are living in an increasingly less-forgiving world,” Little said. “Community colleges can do better and should do better. They are the last fortress to prevent [a minority] underclass.”

Mary Fifield, president of Bunker Hill Community College, highlighted the importance of community colleges, testifying that only 9 to 10 percent of minorities in Massachusetts attend public four-year colleges.

“Community colleges must remain the gateway to higher education,” said Rep. Kevin Murphy (D-Middlesex). “The biggest obstacle to higher education is financial resources.”

The panel said that, along with socioeconomic factors, students who enroll part-time or work full-time are more likely to drop out of community college. Boylan said the task force plans to conduct further surveys and to create student support groups to address these issues.

The task force, which plans to meet again on April 19, hopes to submit a preliminary report to the BHE in June and a final report in October that will detail a five-year plan to improve retention and completion rates in Massachusetts community colleges.

“What’s important for the task force to do is to measure what’s important,” said panel-member Howard London, dean of arts and sciences at Bridgewater State College and author of Cultures of Success: A Study of Community Colleges with High Transfer Rates.

Gisselle O’Brady, president of the Student Government Association at Roxbury Community College, provided the sole student representation at the meeting.

“As a community college student, a lot of outside assumptions come from the idea that community college is not good enough,” she said. “We are not that typical 18 to 20 year-old crowd.”