Community College Students are often a busy smart group of students. They choose to attend community college to save money, to do their first two years of prerequisite work, and, then, they can switch over to a prestigious four-year college to complete their major core requirements. Therefore, they are not, as posited by Cohen and Brawer, students of inferior academic ability (2008). In fact, some may be students of a superior academic ability, but whose financial resources or limitations cause them to have to manage those resources in a way that is conservative, and assures there is money to attend a more prestigious, and presumably more expensive, four-year first or second tier university or college. Also, Cohen and Brawer convey the impression that a two-year community college is perhaps inferior in academic programs and instruction, when that is not the case.
Cohen and Brawer are also failing to recognize the high level of professional instruction offered by many community colleges. One, in particular, Edison State College, in Florida, is a two-year college that has an outstanding curriculum, and highly qualified staff. The college cooperates with a number of four-year colleges, affording students the opportunity to complete baccalaureate degrees in some majors while taking classes at Edison State. Many of the colleges are impressive, like the University of Florida, Florida State University, Nova Southeastern University, and others. These partner colleges and universities are all accredited, and have rules of performance and grade averages that students must meet and maintain in order to be accepted into those institutions. This, too, would suggest that Cohen and Brawer are flawed in their assessment of students who choose to attend two-year colleges.
Works Cited
Cohen, Arthur M., Brawer, Florence B., and Lombardi, John R. (Foreward by) (2008),
The American Community College, 5th Edition, Jossey-Bass, Inc., Publishers, NY, NY.
Edison State Community College, Baccalaureate Partners (2009), found online at http://www.edison.edu/universitycenter/offering.php, retrieved 8 January 2009.
Community college students are now able to use computer software, CD-ROMS, E-mail, and the Internet to enhance their foreign language skills. Over the past few years, it has become common for colleges and universities to update their technology to offer the best learning experience for the students and also to assist the teachers. Computers can increase productivity for school staff, helping them to organize administrative data and also to
(Rosow, 1994, p. 797) From this review there is a clear sense that success with regard to community college students is determined by their ability to successfully complete the first term of study, as well as by their ability to receive financial aide that adequately covers costs. Additionally, offering culturally diverse social interactions through both official and unofficial means also assists the minority student in achieving success through peer relations
(North Carolina Community College, system 2004, critical success factors) However, it must be mentioned that North Carolina is for the main part a public sector state, and it has a strong and a very well respected group of private Four-year colleges, and Community Colleges. While the four-year colleges in the state serve about 39% of all the undergraduates, the public Community Colleges serve about 43% of all students of the
The strength of a multi-level analysis is its ability to analyze how higher levels of variables mediate the relationship between lower levels of variables. Thus, Hypothesis II is as follows: the more 'supportive' a community college is toward vocational education (along the lines described above for Hypothesis I), the smaller the race, gender, and SES gap in wages and use of training on the job." 8. Is the specific research
Community Colleges in America In 1983 and 1984, a dozen major reports on the United States' schools were published. All stressed the need for "excellence" in education. These reports are the subject of: Excellence in Education: Perspectives on Policy and Practice. The reports pertaining to higher education were published by The BusinessHigher Education Forum, and saw higher education as "unable to train skilled managers and technicians that they believed industry needed."
According to Flowers (2002), the first vector concerning "developing competence" can assume three individual forms: (a) intellectual, (b) physical, and - interpersonal. The second vector, "managing emotions," is the stage at which college students first begin to become aware of their emotions and attempt to regulate their emotions to produce maximum behavioral outcomes; the third vector, "moving through autonomy toward interdependence," involves students seeking to become more self-directed, and self-sufficient,
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now