Term Paper on "Community College in a World in Need"

Term Paper 6 pages (1961 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Community College

In a world in need of strong leaders with determination and drive, it is important to acknowledge the need for a firm foundation. When I speak of a firm foundation, in fact this is one's education. So often individuals are thrown into a learning situation for which they do not have the proper tools or training. In fact, that is why I agree with the idea that students should attend a community college or two-year trade school before entering a four-year program. This in turn will offer one the opportunity to sharpen their skills, personal interactions, as well as decide what their goals are for the future. With out this time many students find themselves at a loss, dropping out of school and often turning to a community college in order to get the necessary coping skills, tools etc. needed to be successful in a four-year program. However, with every good opportunity there are often drawbacks.

Community colleges offer an avenue of education not otherwise feasible for many working middle class individuals and current high school students. A study done by Knox, Lindsay, and Kolb further supports this fact, by reporting that community colleges have opened higher educational opportunities to many working-class and minority students, although they do feel that the community college offers a less expansive curriculum and have also stated that in their opinion community college is a "poor stepping stone," concerning education. they do report that community colleges offer opportunities to take entry-level courses despite the "narrowly focused education." (17)

Whether for academic or financial reasons (or a combination of the two), low-income students are more likely than their academic peers to choose institutions that offer programs of two years or less. Low-income students are somewhat more likely than their middle- and upper-income peers to attend public community and vocational colleges (50% versus 42%) and are far more likely to attend two-year and less-than-two-year for-profit institutions (21% versus 4%). Conversely, low-income students were less likely than middle- and upper-income students to attend public and private not-for-profit four-year institutions. More than half of middle- and upper-income freshmen began at four-year institutions, compared with 29% of low-income freshmen. (King 9)

The United States has been able to adapt to and capitalize on the diversity of peoples, regions, and economics in part due to the practical and adaptive nature of its educational system. A feature has been the multiple avenues of public access to education at all levels. At the postsecondary level, the comprehensive community college has made a singular contribution to this adaptiveness and practicality. (Baker, Dudziak, and Tyler 3) Community college is one of these necessary avenues. Community college continues to offer much needed flexibility to the current and past educational system. An education at the 2-year level gives a student the opportunity to experience education on a pace that the student themselves can set, as well as an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the ways that higher education works i.e. how to schedule classes, how to study properly, as well as how to use a library effectively. These are all necessary tools for a successful four-year college experience.

As a distinctively American invention, the comprehensive community college stands between secondary and higher education, between adult and higher education, between industrial training and formal technical education. Community colleges have provided educational programs and services to people who otherwise would not have enrolled in a college or university (Cohen and Brawer). Access to community colleges has not been bounded by the norms of admissions examinations or high school grades. Community colleges have stood for open admissions, geographic proximity, and relative financial affordability to the potential students of the community and region served. Within the structure of American higher education, the community college's contribution has been increased accessibility and pragmatic curricular diversity geared to local and regional needs. This further supports the structure that stands behind the premises of community college standing as a support to a 4-year institution, as well as other levels of education. Therefore it is should be obvious that community college is a necessary stepping-stone in one's education.

The community college evolved from seven streams of educational innovation. Two come from the last half of the nineteenth century: (1) local community and (2) the rise of the research university. The next three trace to the educational reforms of the Progressive Era: (3) the restructuring and expansion of the public educational system, (4) the professionalization of teacher education and (5) the vocational education movement. The final two streams, (6) the rise of adult, continuing, and community education and (7) open public access to higher education, can be found even in the earliest junior colleges. However, these last two streams became prominent after World War II. (Baker, Dudziak, and Tyler)

Another example of how community colleges are a positive and necessary component to the educational system is through offering students without a high school diploma or older adults, and pre-graduate applicants the opportunity to earn lower-division credits. High school students can take classes that fulfill core requirements, such as language, math, history and basic sciences that are usually fulfilled during the first two years of college. Community college fees are usually low. However, even if the tuition cost per unit seems high, remember all those extra living expenses you do not have to pay while you are still at home. (Patrick 76) This further affirms that there are more reasons that show the significance of considering community college as a primary alternative not only to a 4-year education but also in conjunction with other levels of learning for which community college appears to be effective.

Each community college today has its foundation in several of the streams. That evolutionary mix contributes to confusion over institutional mission and nomenclature. Many things are meant by the terms "community college," "junior college," "technical college," and "technical institute." The lack of definition of these terms is attributable in part to the wide variation in mission, governance, finance, and structure of two-year colleges in the United States. Community colleges are those institutions that provide general and liberal education, career and vocational education, and adult and continuing education

Adding to the confusion is that the term "community college" is now used generically to refer to all colleges awarding no higher than a two-year degree. Yet, many two-year colleges do not offer the comprehensive curriculum just outlined and therefore are not truly community colleges in this comprehensive use of the term. "Junior college" refers to an institution whose primary mission is to provide general and liberal education leading to transfer and completion of the baccalaureate degree. Junior colleges often provide applied science and adult and continuing education programs as well. "Technical college" and "technical institute" here refer only to those institutions awarding no higher than a two-year degree or diploma in a vocational, technical, or career field. Technical colleges often also offer degrees in applied sciences and in adult and continuing education..(Knox, Lindsay, and Kolb)

Higher education in the United States frequently is described in terms of the five Carnegie classifications of institutions: research universities, doctoral-granting universities, comprehensive institutions, liberal arts colleges, and two-year colleges. Yet, nearly one-half of all higher education institutions are two-year colleges. The very existence of such a variety of two-year institutions (community, junior, and technical colleges) attests to the difficulty of providing a generic definition of the institution or casting meaningful generalizations about its role in society. The very mix and blend of the seven streams of educational reform in the history of each two-year college ensures that an exception can be found to most, if not all, generalizations about two-year colleges as a whole.

Contemporary discussion regarding the mission, role, and function of the community college relies on historical notions of the evolution of the institution. If one chooses to emphasize the vocational education stream, one may reach the conclusion that community colleges are leaving higher education (Clowes and Levin). If one examines the success of students who otherwise would not have attended college, then one may conclude that community colleges track students into certain social strata or advance their station in society (Brint and Karabel). Examining the adult education and community services function leads one to conclude that the institutions' roots are to be found in providing educational programming and services to the local communities. This has been proven and reaffirmed throughout this discussion, that in fact the need is being met by Community colleges.

In addition, to appreciate the nature of community colleges' interconnectedness with other innovations in secondary and higher education, we need a full history of the institution, one that recognizes its early role in the preparation of teachers and its relationship to the restructuring of secondary education. As suggested elsewhere, community college development was not a socially or educationally isolated phenomenon. Original junior colleges came into being at the same time as, and were enabled by, the advent of kindergartens, middle schools, junior high schools, and compulsory secondary education (Ratcliff).… READ MORE

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