community college

A junior college without residential facilities that is often funded by the government.

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The community college is largely a phenomenon of twentieth-century American higher education. The label applies to an array of institutions that offer six-month vocational diplomas; one- and two-year vocational, technical, and pre-professional certificates; and two-year programs of general and liberal education leading to an associate degree. Two-year colleges may be public, private, proprietary, or special purpose, although public institutions represent the majority of community colleges in the twentieth-first century. States, counties, municipalities, school districts, universities, and religious denominations have all organized community colleges. Some were designed for specific racial and ethnic groups, for women, or for specific purposes such as business, art, or military training. At the close of the twentieth century, two-year colleges enrolled 5,743,000 students, 96 percent of whom attended public community colleges. Nearly 40 percent of all undergraduate students attended community and junior colleges. Between 1900 and 2000 the significance of this sector of higher education grew enormously as its predominantly public character evolved from a much wider variety of origins.

The multiple forces fueling community college development contributed to confusion over the name and mission of these institutions. The terms community college, junior college, technical college, and technical institute encompass a wide array of institutions.

Two-year college refers to all institutions where the highest degree awarded is a two-year degree (i.e., associate of arts, associate of science, associate of general studies, associate of applied arts, associate of applied science). Generally, community colleges are comprehensive institutions that provide: (a) general and liberal education, (b) career and vocational education, and (c) adult and continuing education. 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 a general and liberal education leading to transfer and completion of the baccalaureate degree. Junior colleges often also provide applied science and adult and continuing education programs as well.

Technical college and technical institute 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 offer degrees in applied sciences and in adult and continuing education. Also, there are technical institutes with curricula that extend to the baccalaureate, master's, and doctorate (i.e., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), but these are not community colleges. There are also proprietary (for-profit) two-year colleges that refer to themselves as technical colleges, technical institutes, or community colleges. Adding to the confusion of labeling is the fact that community college has become used generically in higher-education literature to refer to all colleges awarding no higher than a two-year degree.

The United States has been able to adapt and capitalize on its diversity of peoples, regions, and economics, in part due to the pragmatic and adaptive nature of its educational system. At the post-secondary level, the comprehensive community college has made a singular contribution to this adaptiveness and pragmatism. While many countries possess binary divisions of their higher-education system (universities and polytechnic colleges or institutes), these are accessible only to individuals with an acceptable performance on government-sponsored high-school graduation examinations. In contrast, American postsecondary education has remained steadfastly committed to inventing courses of study, educational programs, or even whole institutions dedicated to the needs and expectations of its society, peoples, and cultures.

As a distinctively American invention, the comprehensive community college stands between secondary and higher education, between adult and higher education, and 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. For the most part community colleges offer admission to all who possess a high school education; in addition, many provide assistance to adults in completing their secondary education. They attract students who live in geographic proximity and who seek low-cost postsecondary education.

The History of Community Colleges

The community college evolved from at least seven sources of educational innovation. Two began in the 1880s and 1890s: (1) community boosterism and (2) the rise of the research university. Three came from the educational reforms of the Progressive Era (1900 - 1916): (3) the advent of universal secondary education, (4) the professionalization of teacher education, and (5) the vocational education movement. The final two, (6) open access to higher education, and (7) the rise of adult and continuing education and community services, were primarily post - World War II phenomena. The seeds of all seven of these innovations can be found even in the earliest junior colleges.

Boosterism. The development of community colleges generally mirrored that of American higher education in that it was not guided by national controls or policy. In colonial times, while colleges required a charter from the king of England to operate, many began in the absence of one. Similarly, many towns, groups, and denominations began early junior colleges without legal authority, and enabling legislation often followed, rather than preceded, a college's founding.

Along with the museum, library, opera house, and symphony band shell, municipalities established colleges to provide evidence of their cultural stature relative to neighboring towns and cities. Religious denominations that favored a lay ministry established their own colleges as well. In the nineteenth century the distinction between public and private colleges was not so marked as it is at the beginning of the twenty-first. Communities would band together to found the local college, with the citizens laying the bricks and mortar and raising funds through bake sales. If the community was predominantly Lutheran, then the college might well be affiliated with area Lutheran congregations. If the community had no prevailing religious denomination, then the college might be public. Whether public or private, communities generally had more enthusiasm for founding colleges than providing ongoing support for them, and many of these nineteenth-century colleges failed. With no clear sources of students or finance, economic downturns were particularly difficult to survive. These booster colleges offered programs of varying duration and purpose, but those that survived into the twentieth century became junior colleges.

The Panic of 1893 - a major economic downturn in the late nineteenth century - led to the first formal thinking about two-year colleges. Reverend J. M. Carroll, president of Baylor University, convened the Baptist colleges in Texas and Louisiana the next year. The assembly recognized that there were insufficient finances and students to support the numerous small Baptist institutions in the two states. Carroll pragmatically proposed that the smaller colleges reduce their curriculum to the first two years of study and rely on Baylor to provide their students with the third and fourth years of the baccalaureate degree. Thus, the two-year college was born. By limiting the curriculum to the first two years, the colleges required fewer teachers, fewer resources, and fewer students to operate.

The Junior College and the Research University

Two years after Carroll proposed the two-year Baptist college as a solution to the financial and enrollment crises in Texas and Louisiana, two northern Baptists gave this invention a name and a place within the broader context of higher education. William Rainey Harper, president of the University of Chicago, believed that the American liberal arts college provided inadequate rigor and quality, thinking their programs akin to the German gymnasium (or high school) rather than true university-grade work. He isolated and strengthened the first two years of undergraduate study in an organizational unit of the university labeled The Junior College. Further, he urged denominational colleges in the area to reduce their curriculum to two years and send their students on to the university, indicating that formal arrangements could be made for the acceptance of their students' work toward the baccalaureate degree. He also advocated that high schools extend their curriculum to include the first two years of college. Two fellow members of Harper's congregation, S. V. Hedgepeth and J. Stanley Brown, were superintendents of local high schools (Goshen, Indiana and Joliet, Illinois respectively). Accepting Harper's offer, they developed junior colleges within their high schools. Joliet Junior College, established in 1901, is generally recognized as the oldest continuously operating community college.

During the latter half of the nineteenth century, American university presidents educated in Germany advocated greater purpose, organization, and eminence for higher education. Leaders like Henry Tappan of the University of Michigan, Alexis Lange of the University of California, David Starr Jordan of Stanford University, William Watts Folwell of the University of Minnesota, and Harper distinguished between university and collegiate grades of work. Collegiate work provided breadth of education in the arts and sciences, and also developed the student's abilities to study and inquire. Junior colleges offered collegiate study, while a university education was devoted to the advancement of knowledge and scientific inquiry. These leaders believed that the general education of undergraduates could be supplied by high schools or small liberal arts colleges and should be limited to the first two years of the baccalaureate program.

National associations were founded and grew around the debate regarding the role of the junior college, the research university, and the liberal arts college, and the organization and sequence of the American baccalaureate degree. The Association of American Universities (AAU), founded in 1900, advanced the agenda of the research institutions. The Association of American Colleges (AAC), founded in 1914, defended the role of the small four-year college and advanced the cause of liberal learning as the primary aim for higher education. The American Association of Junior Colleges (AAJC), begun in 1921, provided a forum for the motley assemblage of emerging institutions, including high schools providing two-year collegiate programs, women's colleges, military institutes, private junior colleges, and technical institutes.

The advancement of the research university and the junior college was abetted by the growth of high schools and compulsory secondary education. In 1907 legislation was passed in California permitting high schools to offer the thirteenth and fourteenth grades - at the time, the state had less than one high school per county. Also that year, President Jordan of Stanford urged the university to abandon teaching the first two years, arguing they were the proper concern of liberal arts colleges; he made no mention then of the upward extension of the high school. Once the 1907 legislation passed and the Los Angeles Polytechnic High School began a two-year post - high school curriculum, Jordan also advocated high schools as providers of collegiate studies. For Jordan, Harper, and other prominent university presidents of the era, the municipal junior college fit their plans for the reform of the university.

Junior colleges and educational reform. The first great growth period of junior colleges - 1910 to 1920 - coincided with the growth of kindergartens and junior high schools. Many school districts constructed junior high schools to relieve the over-crowding in elementary and high schools. Junior highs, like junior colleges, often began as pragmatic solutions. When junior highs opened, the four-year high school became a three-year institution. The restructuring of K - 12 education freed high school facilities for the operation of junior colleges. This school expansion and restructuring, along with the passage of mandatory secondary education, also created a shortage of teachers. Teacher-training programs provided through normal schools and junior colleges alleviated staffing shortages in the elementary and secondary grades. Educational leaders of the Progressive Era came to portray these reforms holistically as a system stemming from kindergarten and continuing through high school to "terminal" vocational and general education, or continuing on to the baccalaureate degree, and perhaps to graduate and professional education conferred by the research universities.

Contemporary community colleges hold the collegiate function central to their mission. In addition to the traditional-age student seeking the first years of a baccalaureate degree, collegiate (also know as transfer) courses enroll (1) career preparation students, such as nursing students seeking knowledge in the basic life sciences; (2) reverse transfer students (who begin at a university and later choose to continue at a community college); and (3) part-time casual students (who enroll for personal rather than degree-completion reasons). Collegiate courses may involve core courses or distribution requirements in general education, articulated technical programs in the sciences and mathematics, dual-credit programs in high schools where talented juniors and seniors can earn college credits, and alternative delivery programs - such as evening and weekend courses, televised courses, and courses delivered over the Internet.

Junior colleges and the normal school movement. Many junior colleges first began as normal schools. The professional preparation of teachers began in three normal schools of Massachusetts (the first in the nation) that were founded on the pedagogical principles of Horace Greeley. During the 1880s normal schools were a form of alternative secondary education for those students (mostly women) who wished to teach as a profession. As the number of high schools grew, pedagogy became a post - high school subject. As states adopted compulsory secondary education laws and teacher certification standards, the demand for qualified teachers grew.

Local high schools developed normal-school programs for their graduates, employing teachers with master's degrees as instructors of pedagogy. For example, the Joplin (Missouri) Central High School added a normal-school program in 1913 to meet the need for qualified teachers in the area. Local citizens interested in collegiate level education urged the school superintendent to inquire of the University of Missouri as to whether general and liberal education courses taken in the postgraduate high school program could be applied to the baccalaureate degree. University president Albert Ross Hill had been one of the university leaders within the AAU calling for the establishment of junior colleges to provide the first two years of college.

In several ways, the last two decades of the twentieth century mirror the first two in terms of public policy issues. In the 1980s and 1990s the quality of elementary and secondary educational programs reemerged in public discourse. As part of their efforts to reform education, lawmakers in various states proposed that community colleges help to prepare qualified teachers and provide teachers with continuing education and professional development. Similar trends occurred in workforce development. The American Association of Community and Junior Colleges (AACJC - formerly the AAJC, and now the American Association of Community Colleges [AACC]), advocated that community colleges work with area high schools to develop new, intensive, technical-education programs. These programs consisted of two years of science and technology preparatory work in the high school, followed by specialized technical training in the community college. The focus on student performance resulting from the educational reforms of the 1980s and 1990s stimulated examination of the transparency of programs among higher education institutions. The American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) promoted the creation of two-year and four-year college partnerships with high schools to strengthen the articulation of curriculum and students between the cultures of secondary and higher education. During the 1910s and 1920s, and again in the 1980s and 1990s, community colleges advanced as an integral part of the rethinking and restructuring of elementary, secondary, and higher education.

The vocational education movement. Many of the first two-year colleges were primarily or exclusively technical institutes. Lewis Institute, established in 1896, and Bradley Polytechnic Institute (now Bradley University), established in 1897, were founded with the guiding influence of William Rainey Harper. Frederick Pratt converted the Pratt Institute, a vocational high school, into a two-year curriculum for adults "age thirty or so" (Ratcliff 1986, p. 16). In 1891 the Detroit Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) consolidated the evening and day classes it offered adults with the professional curricula of the Detroit College of Pharmacy to form the Detroit Institute of Technology. Chartered in 1909, it provided collegiate instruction in mechanical, technical, industrial, professional, and semiprofessional fields, and in the literary and musical arts. The vocational education movement of the late nineteenth century, the emphasis on technical education during the years of the Great Depression and World War II, the career education initiatives of the 1970s and 1980s, and contemporary workforce-development programs of states and the federal government have insured that vocational, technical, pre-professional, and para-professional programs are mainstays of the community college.

Students pursuing vocational and career-education programs include: (1) traditional-age students preparing for their first job, (2) working adults seeking the upgrading and retraining of knowledge and skills, (3) students employed by local business or industry in internship or cooperative-education programs, (4) members of labor organizations, (5) the underemployed and unemployed, and (6) older adults and retirees seeking to develop a skill or technical knowledge for personal reasons. The programs they select may include specialized degree programs (such as accounting or occupational therapy), career-ladder programs (e.g., moving from engineering technology to engineering), contract training provided to workers of a local company, apprenticeship training programs operated in cooperation with trade organizations, two-plus-two programs articulating high-school and college vocational education, and international training programs. Certain states have separate systems of two-year vocational institutions, such as the Wisconsin Area Vocational Technical Institutes, while other states, such as Iowa, converted their vocational-technical institutes to comprehensive community colleges in the 1990s.

Open access to higher education. In the United States many colleges and universities were established before a system of secondary education was developed. Harvard, America's first college, was founded much earlier than college preparatory programs. Land-grant colleges and universities were established many years prior to the provision of secondary education in rural areas - in their first years, more than half of their students enrolled in precollegiate studies. Women's colleges, colleges and institutes for American Indians, and historically black colleges and universities were established before there were secondary educational programs to prepare these groups for collegiate level studies. This curious American phenomenon required higher education to judge the merits of the students admitted, rather than relying on secondary diplomas and exit exams, as was the case in many countries at the time. Inadvertently, this placed higher education in the position of articulating academic standards for college preparatory and secondary education.

The flood of immigrants coming to the United States between 1900 and 1920 also fueled the growth of community colleges. The educational needs and backgrounds of junior college students diversified as enrollments grew. The suffrage movement and women's educational expectations augmented enrollment as well. In 1920 less than 4 percent of the American population (238,000 students) went to college. By the end of the 1920s, 12 percent of high school graduates were attending college.

A new wave of immigration began in the 1980s, a wave that continued into the twenty-first century. Once again the United States is expanding and extending higher education to new segments of the population. Some come with little or no formal education or language skills, others come with extensive education but few language skills, while a third group consist of those with English language skills but little formal education. English-as-a-second-language instruction represents as much as one-third of all humanities instruction at community colleges.

Community colleges, as open admissions institutions, hold a unique position in this juxtaposition of secondary and postsecondary education. For not only did higher education assume the role of setting college preparatory standards, but also of providing precollegiate instruction for those able but insufficiently educated to succeed in the rigors of a regular collegiate program. Community colleges increasingly have been called upon to provide remedial and developmental programs and services to those students without adequate levels of academic preparation to succeed in college. Several states and higher education systems, including Colorado, Florida, and California, have prescribed or sought to place developmental and remedial courses in the community colleges.

Community colleges play a significant role in meeting immediate and short-cycle needs of the immigrant, the disabled, and the unemployed with a wide range of courses and programs. Community colleges expanded the scope of higher-education offerings by adding to the curriculum practical and pragmatic courses of study that meet the educational needs of an advanced, complex, and technological society. The federal government has encouraged this expansion through incentives to colleges that serve such groups as displaced homemakers, students with disabilities, those needing adult basic education, and the unemployed seeking job retraining. Programs targeted for these students have broadened the curriculum, subsidized enrollment growth, and provided access to college for those who otherwise could not afford it, thereby widening the demographic profile of students served. The demand for higher education has risen as the value of a high school education has declined in the marketplace of jobs and careers.

Adult and continuing education and community services. Programs and services for adults, for the continuing education of workers in the skilled trades, technical occupations, and the allied professions, and courses and programs of general interest and value to personal and corporate development in the local community have always been a distinguishing feature of community and junior colleges. Early junior and technical colleges (e.g., Pratt Institute, St. Joseph Junior College, Oklahoma Institute of Technology) also provided adult education and community services programs. After World War II, and particularly during the presidency of Edmund Gleazer at the AACJC, this function grew in prominence. Gleazer's vision was that community colleges would render educational services to the entire local community, not just to traditional college-age groups.

Providing credit and noncredit courses and nonacademic educational services (e.g., films, lecture series, fine art exhibits, musical performances) to the area served became a priority for community colleges in the 1970s and 1980s. Nevertheless, adult and continuing education and community services have been regarded in two ways. One holds them ancillary to general and liberal education and vocational and technical education in the community college. The second views community services not so much as a separate function of the college, but as an intrinsic quality that distinguishes community colleges from the rest of higher education. From this perspective, the role of service to the surrounding community has become fundamental to the definition of the public community college mission.

The Community College Mission

Contemporary discussions regarding the mission, role, and function of the community college rely 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 post-high school, but not higher education. 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. Examining the adult education and community services function leads one to conclude that the institutions' roots are to be found there. In short, a comprehensive community college incorporates an eclectic set of educational philosophies and purposes into its mission.

The contemporary and prevalent normative view of the American community college is as a local, public institution understood by its commitment and connection to the community it serves. While exceptions and variations abound, the evolution of this view from that of junior college, booster college, normal school, technical institute, or private preparatory college was galvanized largely by the 1947 President's Commission on Higher Education (the Truman Commission), which suggested "the name 'community college' to be applied to the institution designed to serve chiefly local community educational needs. It may have various forms of organization and may have curricula of various lengths. Its dominant feature is its intimate relations to the life of the community its serves" (President's Commission, p. 3). Also significant in its development was the advocacy of the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education (1970) for the establishment of community colleges within commuting distance of every adult. These commissions, together with the Higher Education Act of 1964 (and the Educational Amendments of 1972 to the act that promoted statewide planning and provision of higher education throughout the nation), enabled community colleges to be rapidly established to meet the swelling demand for higher education among the World War II generation - and among their sons and daughters.

The mission of the community college, like that of other institutions, has evolved in relation to social context. In many cases, the community, junior, or technical college was but one phase in the development of a particular institution. This was especially true of those with origins connected to educating teachers. Brigham Young University, Millersville University, Wayne State University, and Midwestern State University all began as two-year colleges with teacher education programs. As the profession matured, these institutions expanded their programs horizontally, to other fields of study, and vertically, becoming baccalaureate-granting institutions. Liberal arts colleges, comprehensive colleges, and doctorate granting universities, such as Mills College, Bradley University, and the Susquehanna University, also evolved from private junior colleges and technical institutes.

This tendency of two-year colleges to become baccalaureate-granting institutions did not erase from their host communities the need for a community college. California State University-Fresno, the University of Texas at El Paso, and the University of Southern Colorado all began as two-year colleges. When these institutions became baccalaureate-granting institutions, they adopted more selective admissions and broadened their curriculum - both vertically and horizontally. They also left an educational vacuum due to the lack of open admissions, adult education and community services, and two-year vocational and technical programs. A growing social need for an urban regional university did not alleviate local need for a community college, and public demand in these cities led to the establishment of new community colleges: Wayne County Community College, El Paso Community College, and Pueblo Community College. In 2002 the Gates Foundation provided support for seventy small high schools to develop associate degree programs, setting in motion changes similar to those in the 1920s and 1930s that brought about many new two-year colleges. As society changes, so will its institutions of higher learning.

Conclusions

The distinctive contribution of community colleges to American higher education is their adaptive, transmutable mission. They represent education's local, front-line interface with society. To fulfill this transmutable mission, comprehensive community colleges provide (1) general and liberal education,(2) vocational and technical education, (3) adult, continuing, and community education, (4) developmental, remedial, and college-preparatory education, and (5) counseling, placement, and student development services.

In individual institutions, one or more of these five functions may have grown to predominate in response to local needs and expectations. When the small Baptist colleges faced financial exigency in 1894, they restricted their curriculum to two years and sent their students on to Baylor University. In the 1960s and 1970s, when the focus of public educational policy was on accessibility and affordable higher education, community colleges developed outreach programs, personal development and adult education programs grew, and the community dimension of the institution was promoted. In the 1980s and 1990s, when taxpayers sought to curb public spending and to promote economic growth and competitiveness, community colleges dropped personal development courses, and instead defined the needs of adults in terms of employment and economic development. Thus, the demand for the specific functions, programs, and services of community colleges ebb and swell with the social and economic conditions of the municipality, the region, and the nation - and they often may do so more rapidly than at their four-year college and university counterparts.

The community college, in all its various manifestations, is a truly unique component of American higher education. It provides a flexible and adaptive form of higher education tailored to local needs. It helps a complex industrialized society have a full range of education and training - from bookkeepers to accountants to those with an associate degree in business administration - depending on the demands and needs of society and the workplace. Community colleges train the legal aid and legal assistant with general and specialized knowledge to support and complement the work of the lawyer. Community colleges educate numerous allied health professionals who work in support of physicians and surgeons. Career and transfer programs are open largely to all, because the community college also provides the development and remedial coursework necessary for individuals with the capacities, but not the formal education prerequisite, for entry into postsecondary education. These adaptive, flexible, and accessible characteristics are what give community, junior, and technical colleges their unique and singularly important role in American society.

Bibliography

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— JAMES L. RATCLIFF

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a nonresidential junior college offering a curriculum fitted to the needs of the community

The neutrality and factual accuracy of this article are disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page.

A community college is a type of educational institution. The term has different meanings in different countries.

In Canada and the United States, a community college, sometimes called a county college, junior college, technical college, or a city college, is an educational institution providing higher education and lower-level tertiary education, granting certificates, diplomas, and Associates' degrees. The name derives from the fact that community colleges primarily attract and accept students from the local community, and are often supported by the local community through property taxes.

In the UK, community college is a name given to a secondary school, usually offering extended services of some sort, for example by having achieved a status as a technology college or by providing adult education courses. Community colleges in the UK grant General Certificates of Secondary Education and if the college incorporates a Sixth Form, A-levels or sometimes other vocational qualifications (eg GNVQs).

Terminology

Community colleges were at one time (before the 1970s and '80s) more commonly referred to as junior colleges, and that term is still used at some institutions. However, the term "junior college" has evolved to describe private two-year institutions, whereas the term "community college" has evolved to describe publicly-funded two-year institutions. Based on this evolution in terminology, the main governance body of community colleges changed its name in 1992 to the "American Association of Community Colleges" from the "American Association of Junior Colleges".

United States

In New Jersey, slightly more than half of the state's nineteen community colleges are called county colleges, not merely in name but also in descriptive speech. This is because there is one community college, often with satellite branches, dedicated to each county of the state. The term is also used by some community colleges in Texas (where community colleges are funded by county residents via property taxes assessed by a special "community college district") and Illinois.

In several California cities (including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego), New York City, and Chicago, community colleges are often called "city colleges," since they are municipally-funded and designed to serve the needs of the residents of the city in which they are situated. The City University of New York is arguably the best known example of a municipally-funded community college system, although the system includes both junior and senior (4-year) colleges, in addition to graduate programs. The Los Angeles Community College District is the largest community college system in the United States. The Maricopa Community College District in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area, is the largest community college district in the United States in terms of enrollment.

In California, a large number of community colleges do not have the word "community" in their name, nor did they ever have the word "junior." This is because Calvin Flint, who supervised the founding of three such colleges during his career, famously opposed the term "junior" or any kind of qualifier as unnecessarily pejorative. His colleges "would not be junior to anyone."^[1] Flint served as the first Superintendent and President of Monterey Peninsula College as well as both Foothill and De Anza Colleges. Flint Center at De Anza College is named in his honor.

Canada

In Canada, community colleges are usually simply referred to as "colleges". ^{[citation needed]}

History

Many events have contributed to the development and continued growth of community colleges. The social and economic climate of the early twentieth century led to vocal activists for a two year educational alternative to four year higher education institutions. Several different groups advocated for community colleges in the early twentieth century, including students and parents, educators, businesses, state universities, and government officials. Events like urbanization, industrialization, and economic development caused changes in society. One of education’s responses to a country in transition was the junior college.

Several different movements supported the creation of community colleges, including local community support of public and private two year institutions, the expansion of the public education system, increased professional standards for teachers, the vocational education movement, and an expanding demand for adult and community education. Numerous colleges and universities advocated for the development of junior colleges. Leadership felt small, private liberal arts colleges and high schools could provide the first two years of college while larger universities could focus resources on research and junior and senior level students.

Many of the early community colleges were an extension of high schools, like the first established in Joliet, Illinois in 1901. This was a two year system compared to one year high school extension. These initial community colleges generally were very small, usually less than 200 students and focused on a liberal arts education with the goal of transferring students to four year institutions. They were more reflective of high school needs and lacked a definite identity. Many of the early community colleges were normal schools and prepared teachers. Primary emphasis was placed on traditional middle class values and developing responsible citizens.

During the 1920s and 1930s there was a shift in the purpose of community colleges to developing a workforce, which was influenced by wide unemployment during the Great Depression. Developing "semiprofessionals" became dominant national language to describe junior college students and was used until after WWII. A two-year, terminal education, was seen as more socially efficient for students who could advance past high school but not attain bachelor's degrees. This national vocational movement was seen to give junior colleges a target population, but numerous students wanted more than a semiprofessional education; many maintained a desire to transfer. Throughout this time period, there was a move for more public two-year institutions along with a trend to separate from high schools and affiliate with higher education. With the change in affiliation came a new status which encouraged junior colleges to develop additional credibility through the creation of professional criteria and use of scientific methods.

After WWII, skilled jobs were needed and the G.I. Bill afforded more educational opportunity to veterans which resulted in increased enrollments. Another factor that led to growth was the rise of adult and community education. After WWII, community colleges were seen as a good place to house continuing education programs. The 1947 Truman Commission was a very important national document for community colleges. It suggested a network of public community colleges that would provide education to a diverse group of students at little or no cost along with serving community needs through a comprehensive mission.

This national network exploded in the 1960s with 457 community colleges and the enrollment of baby boomers. A series of grants through the Kellogg Junior College Leadership Programs helped train many community college leaders during this decade. Growth continued during the 1970s when many enrolled to escape the Vietnam era draft. The 1970s also marked a shift to faculty development, including more instructional training for the unique student body and mission of community colleges. During the 1980s, community colleges began to work more closely with high schools to prepare students for vocational and technical two year programs.

In recent history, a debate between the advocates and critics of community colleges has gained strength. Advocates argue community colleges serve the needs of society through providing college opportunity to students who may not otherwise go to college, training and retraining mid level skilled workers, and preserving the academic excellence of four year universities. Critics argue community colleges continue a culture of privilege through training business workers at public expense, not allowing working class children to advance in social class, protecting selective admissions at four year institutions for the nation's elite, and discouraging transfer through "cooling out."^{[citation needed]} Whether community colleges give opportunity or protect privilege, their century-long history has developed a distinctive aspect of higher education. Although the growth of community colleges has stabilized in recent history, enrollment continues to outgrow four year institutions. A total of 1,166 loosely linked community colleges face challenges of new technological innovations, distance learning, funding constraints, community pressure, and international influence.^{[citation needed]}

Governance

Most community colleges are operated either by special districts that draw property tax revenue from the local community, or by a division of the state university. In the first case, the special district is governed by a board of trustees that is appointed or elected by the local community and is subject to limited control by a state agency that supervises all community college districts.

Either way, the local board or the state university selects a president, who then acts as the chief executive officer of the college and leads the faculty and staff.

Enrollment

In North America, community colleges operate under a policy of "open admission". That is, anyone with a high school diploma or GED may attend, regardless of prior academic status or college entrance exam scores. Although community colleges have an "open admission" policy, students have to take assessment tests before enrolling at the college, due to not all courses being "open admission".

The "open admission" policy results in a wide range of students attending community college classes. Students range in age from teenagers in high school taking classes under a concurrent, or dual, enrollment policy (which allows both high school and college credits to be earned simultaneously) to working adults taking classes at night to complete a degree or gain additional skills in their field to students with graduate degrees who enroll to become more employable or to pursue lifelong interests. "Reverse transfers" (or those transferring from a university) constitute one of the fastest growing new community college cohorts.

One threat to enrollment at community colleges is the rapidly increasing popularity of for-profit e-learning and online universities, such as the University of Phoenix, which is now the 16th-largest university in the world. Market research firm Eduventures estimates that 10% of college students will be enrolled in an online degree program by 2008 ^[2] Many community colleges have supplemented their offerings with online courses to stave off competition from exclusively e-learning schools. For example, Northern Virginia Community College's Extended Learning Institute [1] has been offering distance learning courses for over thirty years. Texas offers the Virtual College of Texas whereby a student at any community college in the state can attend classes from any of the state's 51 community colleges or four Texas State Technical College campuses, paying local tuition plus a VCT fee of around $40.

California has the lowest community college enrollment fees in the nation. California's community college enrollment fee is $20 per unit.

Educational offerings

Community colleges generally offer three types of programs.

The first type of study is toward an associate's degree, in which a student takes necessary courses needed to earn a degree that will allow for entry into jobs requiring some level of college education but not a full four-year degree. The associate's degree program also allows students who wish to eventually obtain a bachelor's degree at a four-year college to complete the necessary "core" requirements to attend the college of their choice. Some states have mandated that the community college's curriculum be structured so as to satisfy "core curriculum" requirements at the state's public universities or private universities.

Many community colleges have arrangements with nearby four-year institutions, where a student obtaining an associate's degree in a field will automatically have his/her classes counted toward the bachelor's degree requirement. For example, a community college associate's degree in hotel and restaurant management, computers or accounting would count toward the four-year school's core requirement for a Business Administration degree. Some have gone one step further by arrangements with a four-year college for the student to obtain the bachelor's degree from the four-year college while taking all the courses via distance learning or other non-traditional modes, thus reducing the number of physical visits to the four-year school.

The second type of study is towards certification in an area of training (such as nursing, computer repair, allied health, law enforcement, firefighting, or welding), which require preparation for a state or national examination, or where certification would allow for hiring preference or a higher salary upon entering the workforce. These courses are often geared toward the needs of the local or area business community.

The third type offers services of local interest to members of the community, such as job placement, adult continuing education classes (either for personal achievement or to maintain certification in specialized fields), and developmental classes for children. Some community colleges offer opportunities for high school dropouts to return to school and earn a high school diploma or obtain a GED.

Community colleges offering bachelor's degrees

A growing trend in the United States is for community colleges to begin offering bachelor's degrees. At least fourteen states have authorized them to do so and others are considering the issue.^[3] Many large community colleges, such as Miami-Dade College and St. Petersburg College, in Florida have even completely dropped the words "community" or "junior" from their names as they have added bachelor's degree programs in limited fields and have started their evolution into four-year colleges while retaining their local commitments. Even some smaller community colleges, such as Northern New Mexico College in Española, New Mexico, have dropped community from their names and now offer six or more bachelor's degrees.^[4] Others such as Manatee Community College, in Florida, have chosen not to go beyond the associate's degree.^[5]

Advantages of community colleges

• Community colleges are geared toward local students and local needs.^[6] Students who could not afford campus or off-site housing at a four-year college, or for other reasons cannot relocate, can attend courses while staying in their local community (though some colleges do offer student housing). Also, community colleges can work with local businesses to develop customized training geared toward local needs, whereas a four-year institution generally focuses on state-wide or national needs.^[7] Some community colleges have "concurrent enrollment" programs, allowing local high school students to "jump start" their college career by taking classes at the community college that count both toward their high school diploma and as college credit (mainly in core areas such as history and political science). Policies and classes offered vary with different agreements existing between the community college and high schools.
• The "open enrollment" policy allows anyone to begin the goal towards future college education. The policy is highly beneficial to students with mediocre academic records in high school, students who dropped out or got expelled and later obtained a GED, students who never took the SAT and/or ACT, students "maturing" later in life who now see the benefits of college education, or students who could not attend college after high school but now have the chance to do so.
• In North America, tuition and fees are substantially lower than those of a traditional four-year public or private institution. Students from low-income families, those having to work to pay for their education, or those simply wishing to reduce the total cost of a planned four year education benefit from the reduced costs.^[8] In addition, many colleges offer and accept scholarships or educational grants.
• Community colleges have little or no time limits on when classes must be taken or a degree must be earned; in contrast, many four-year schools, tired of "professional students" taking up limited space, have imposed limits on when a degree can be earned. Students who cannot take a full-time load for whatever reason (family, job, etc.), are thus not under pressure to complete courses in a limited timeframe.
• Four-year colleges often give priority to students transferring from community colleges, citing their demonstrated preparedness for junior and senior college-level work. Students who may not have been able to attend a particular college after high school (whether for academic, financial, or personal reasons) may now be able to attend the college of their choice. Several states have regulations requiring the associate's degree in a particular field to be automatically credited towards the core curriculum for a four-year degree at another state university or private university.
• Community college professors are solely dedicated to teaching, and classes are generally small. In comparison, a four-year college course may be taught to 300 students by a teaching assistant, while the professor is concentrating on research. Outside of those teaching in the technical and vocational fields, most instructors at community colleges have master's degrees and many hold doctoral degrees. In addition, community college professors can help students achieve their goals, work more closely with them, and offer them support, while at a four-year college, a professor's primary mission is to conduct academic research, with most of their remaining attention focused on mentoring graduate students.
• A number of community colleges have athletic programs; certain colleges also serve as incubators for college athletes, particularly in basketball and football. A talented player who would not meet the academic or athletic standards of a major college program may be able to play for two years in junior college, establishing an academic record in the process, and then transfer to the major college.^[9] In addition, many baseball players at community colleges have gone to play for major colleges and/or the major leagues. Others offer no athletic programs.^{[citation needed]}
• Research shows that there is no learning or income penalty for individuals who start at a community college and transfer to a four-year institution. Additionally, research indicates that students who begin their higher education career at a community college are more likely to transfer to a higher quality four-year institution than if they had started at a four-year college.^{[citation needed]}
• Holders of a two-year associates degree have more immediate earning potential than students with >2 years of higher education but did not earn a degree.^{[citation needed]}

Disadvantages of community colleges

• Transferring credits can sometimes be a problem, as each four-year college has its own requirements as to what is and isn't required for enrollment. However, many four-year colleges (usually near the community college) have made arrangements, known as articulation agreements, allowing associate degrees to qualify for transfer, and in some cases allowing the student to complete the bachelor's degree via distance learning from the community college campus. Some states have passed rules whereby certain associate's degrees in a field will automatically transfer to state universities as the core curriculum for specified bachelor's degrees. Minnesota has created a statewide "transfer curriculum" allowing credits to be transferred to any other public university and almost all of the private colleges. The North Carolina system has a similar agreement, whereby specific courses are designated for mandatory transfer credit to all statewide public four-year institutions. Illinois' I-transfer program program aids students in transferring credits across the state. California has a system known as Assist[2] which labels course equivalencies between all California Community Colleges and California public four-year colleges. In Arizona, the completion of the Arizona General Education Curriculum, or AGEC, at any Arizona community college guarantees residents of Arizona admission to any public university in the state of Arizona. And in Florida, students earning associate degrees from community colleges actually receive preferential admissions treatment, in comparison to all other students transferring to state universities.
• It is frequent for many courses to be taught by part-time lecturers holding a master's degree (or bachelor's degree) in the field, although there is little evidence, other than anecdotal, to indicate that taking a class from a full-time college instructor leads to higher order learning outcomes. Research conducted by the University of Washington's Labor Center, however, has suggested that community colleges relying on a higher part-time (adjunct) faculty workforce have lower graduation rates than those with a full-time workforce - see http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/10/16/parttime. According to federal statistics, 42% of public community college freshmen take remedial courses, and further studies show that 79% of remedial courses are taught by part-time faculty.^[10]
• Many community colleges lack on-campus housing (most common in urban area colleges; rural area colleges are more likely to offer such housing due to the overall lack of housing in such areas). This creates so-called 'commuter campuses', in which nearly all students commute to class only, with the campus completely deserted during off-hours. This makes participation in group collaboration exercises and study groups difficult to coordinate, and extra-curricular activities suffer as well. In turn, the social benefits of college are essentially lost, which can adversely affect future professional employment opportunities.
• Research shows individuals with Associate's degrees earn less than those with Bachelor's degrees. However, because a correlation exists between years of education and earnings, this says more about years of schooling than the value of Associate's degrees or certificates.^{[citation needed]}
• Community colleges typically have smaller libraries than universities, possibly reducing the research opportunities of their students (though libraries may be part of an interlibrary loan agreement with other libraries at universities). This is also somewhat less of an issue today due to the proliferaton of online academic databases, for which community college students may share equal access with their bigger State University cousins and/or private universities.
• Community colleges might have fewer sections available for students to enroll. For example, there might be only one section in higher physics while a four-year college might have four or five sections of its equivalent. Some equivalent lower-division classes required for the major may not be offered. However, many community colleges have concurrent enrollment programs with local universities which permits students to complete the required lower division courses prior to transferring.
• There is a historic connotation that community colleges are often considered the schools of last resort, because of their open-admissions policies, which some feel hurts their reputation.^[11]

Community college libraries

Community college libraries, sometimes called learning resource centers, have evolved over their existence. These libraries often include traditional library services such as book checkout, online research tools, and research help, but they also have included multimedia technology expertise, video centers, tutor centers and support services. Community college libraries play a significant role in the college curriculum by supporting information literacy across campus. The librarians spend a significant amount of their work week in the classroom teaching students to select research tools, to evaluate search results, and to use their results in papers, speeches, or in other projects. For this reason, community college librarians are considered full faculty members at most institutions.^{[citation needed]} If sufficient funding is provided, community college libraries may be at the cutting edge of research services and may be able to change faster than their larger cousins at major research institutions.^{[citation needed]}

Timeline of important events

1901 – Joliet, IL added fifth and sixth year courses to the high school curriculum leading to the development of the first public junior college.^[12]

1920 – American Association of Junior Colleges established.

1930 – First publication of the Community College Journal.

1947 – Publication of Higher Education for American Democracy by the President's Commission on Higher Education (the 1947 Truman Commission).

1965 – Higher Education Act of 1965 established grant programs to make higher education more accessible.

1992 – The American Association of Junior Colleges change their name to the American Association of Community Colleges.

See also

• Adult education
• Adult high school
• Continuing education
• Distance learning
• E-learning
• Lifelong learning
• Vocational university
• Vocational education
• Higher vocational education
• Articulation (education)

In Australia:

• Technical and Further Education
• Workers' Educational Association also in the UK

In the UK:

• Further Education

North American community college systems

• California Community Colleges system
• Community College of Baltimore County, Maryland
• Houston Community College System, Houston, Texas
• Illinois Community College System
• Ivy Tech Community College, Indiana Community College System
• North Carolina Community College System
• Nova Scotia Community College system
• Ontario Colleges
• Quebec CEGEPs
• St. Louis Community College system
• Washington Community and Technical Colleges
• Wisconsin Technical College System
• Kentucky Community and Technical College System
• Virginia Community College System
• South Carolina Technical College System
• The Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education
• List of community colleges in the USA

External links

• American Association of Community Colleges
• Association of Community College Trustees
• Association for Community Colleges - a new European movement
• American Association of University Professors - Contingent Faculty
• League for Innovation
• The Instructional Role of the Two-Year College Learning Resources Center
• Center for Community College Policy
• The Community College Baccalaureate Association
• The Economic Outcomes of Community College Attendance
• Council for the Study of Community Colleges
• Building an Instructional Framework for Effective Community College Developmental Education
• The Role of Scholarship in the Community College
• Internationalizing the Community College: Examples of Success
• Institutional Effectiveness at a Community College
• NISOD (The University of Texas)
• Encarta: Famous Community College Alumni
• Encarta: Myths about Community Colleges
• MSN: College for Half-Price
• Comprehensive Literature Review
• List of Community Colleges by State

Notes

1. ^ Roberta Couch, Tom Jamison, Doug Stine, Susan Johnston, Rene Lynch, and Judy Sisk, Foothill College: 25 Years (Los Altos Hills: Foothill College, 1981), 10.
2. ^ Golden, Daniel. "Online University Enrollment Soars" The Wall Street Journal. 15 May, 2006.
3. ^ http://goforward.harpercollege.edu/uploaded/bachelordegree/harperbachsum.pdf
4. ^ http://www.nnmc.edu/about/BaccalaureatePrograms.shtml
5. ^ http://www.sun-herald.com/Newsstory.cfm?pubdate=013107&story=tp6np18.htm&folder=NewsArchive2
6. ^ Irving Pressley McPhail, "Top 10 reasons to attend a community college," Community College Week 17, no. 11 (3 January 2005): 4-5.
7. ^ M.H. Miller, "Four-year schools should take more cues from community colleges, some educators say," Community College Week 17, no. 9 (6 December 2004): 3-4.
8. ^ John Merrow, Community Colleges: The Smart Transfer, The New York Times, April 22, 2007.
9. ^ Robert Andrew Powell, Community College: Tennis in a Parking Lot, The New York Times, April 22, 2007
10. ^ John Merrow, Community Colleges: A Harsh Reality, The New York Times, April 22, 2007.
11. ^ Beth Frerking, Community Colleges: For Achievers, a New Destination, The New York Times, April 22, 2007.
12. ^ John Merrow, Community Colleges: Dream Catchers, The New York Times, April 22, 2007.

References

• Baker, G. A. III (1994). A handbook on the community college in America: Its history, mission, and management. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
• Cohen, A.M., Brawer, F.B. (2003) The American Community College, 4th edition. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
• Dougherty, K. J. (1994). The contradictory college: The conflicting origins, impacts, and futures of the community college. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
• Floyd, D.L., Skolnik, M.L., & Walker, K.P. , eds. (2005). The Community College Baccalaureate: Emerging Trends and Policy Issues. Sterling VA: Stylus Publishing.
• Frye, J. H. (1992). The vision of the public junior college, 1900-1940. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
• Kasper, H. T. (2002). The changing role of community college. Occupational Outlook Quarterly, 46(4), 14-21.
• Murray, J.P (2002). The current state of faculty development in two-year colleges. New Directions for Community Colleges, 118, 89-97.

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