Community colleges serve a distinct function in the gamut of higher education. When college classes are offered at the high school level, advantaged students tend to benefit more than disadvantaged students, further entrenching an achievement gap that plagues education (Venezia & Jaeger, 2013). As many as half of all students enter their post-secondary education programs—whether at community or four-year colleges—“without the basic skills necessary to succeed,” (Thomas, 2014, p. 43). The solution to this problem is not the current model of offering of optional college credit courses or dual enrollment in high school but to expand opportunities for all students to reach their goals. As Thomas (2014) points out, community colleges have been increasingly called upon to serve as remedial education institutions rather than functioning in the more democratic, egalitarian social spaces they could become. Instead of relegating remedial work onto the backs of community colleges, thereby thwarting opportunities for two-year schools to become bastions of educational equality, high schools need to step up their games in providing unprepared students with the assistance they need to cultivate competencies for higher education. Community colleges have evolved into “comprehensive academies serving the educational, economic, and social needs...
1). To retain a positive future for community colleges, it becomes critical to reform education at the high school level and even earlier. Currently about 60 percent of students enrolled in community colleges require at least one remedial course to succeed, and only 24 percent of enrolled students graduate from community college (Shaw, 2014). The enrollment and graduation rates in four year university programs is more promising, with about 42 percent graduation rates and 20 percent requiring remedial coursework (Shaw, 2014). Given the role of dual enrollment (college classes offered at the high school level) in psychologically motivating students to perform well in four-year programs, it is important to develop more opportunities for college credit in high school. Remedial coursework, when necessary, needs to be offered as early as possible.References
Reis, R. (n.d.). Future of community colleges. Stanford University. Retrieved online: https://tomprof.stanford.edu/posting/1549
Shaw, D. (2014). Rethinking remediation for college students. New England Reading Association Journal 50(1): 38-43.
Thomas, N. (2014). The sea change in academics. In Exploring the Future of Community Colleges. Retrieved online: https://ferris.edu/HTMLS/administration/academicaffairs/extendedinternational/ccleadership/alliance/documents/ImagineMore_Exploring-the-Future-of-Community-Colleges_2014.pdf
Venezia, A. & Jaeger, L. (2013). Transitions from high school to college. The Future of Children 23(1): 117-136.
Although community colleges have yet to be central to the debates over strengthening elementary and secondary education, some educational leaders have seen a role for them in strengthening American secondary education." (Baker, Dudziak, and Tyler 9) Baker et al. further report that Dale Parnell, former president of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), has advocated that community colleges work with area high schools to develop new, intensive technical education programs.
Also, many are unprepared to complete tasks unique to community college such as teaching diverse students. Those faculty members in rural areas not only have to deal with those challenges, but also sometimes have difficulty adjusting to living and working in a rural area. Among those having difficulty, workload and students' abilities were cited as common disappointments in the work; however, most community college instructors have a high level
(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
Higher Education and Ethics Higher Education is a realm of academic life that requires ethical parameters -- a framework by which all members and stakeholders of institutions within this sector voluntarily utilize so as to achieve a common goal. That goal enable leaders in Higher Education to assess the right way forward and the core principles or values that should govern decision-making and various activities within the institutions. Ethical guidelines can
Congress did more than just reauthorize the Act, though. It also required that state agencies be established that would be able to handle some of the work that accrediting agencies were once expected to do on their own (Crow, 2009). By doing that, it was assumed accreditation would be easy to attain for deserving schools, and the value of being accredited would be seen once again (Crow, 2009). It became
(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
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