As the rate of community college dropouts steadily increases, leaving educators and advisors at every campus scrambling for a solution, there are several problems that attendance of a community college entails for a young student. A great number of high school graduates choose to attend a community college rather than a university. However, due to various policy problems within the individual college’s educational system, many students find that the structure is flawed, deterring many students from ever finishing his or her degree. Problems that prevent students from receiving a degree from a community college include having too many “filler classes,” high tuition, and offering “too much choice and too little guidance” (Tugend 2016). I completely agree with the solutions to these problems that the article “Revamping Community Colleges to Improve Graduation Rates” presents. To increase graduation rates and create a better community college experience, schools can choose to implement programs that offer remedial classes to struggling students, cut tuition costs, and dispose of unnecessary courses.
To solve the problem of having a large number of students with subpar or failing grades, community colleges can offer remedial classes. Many community colleges rely heavily on performance from assessment tests to determine course placement of students. The problem with this, however, is that many students do not test well. Also, the pace of a regular class on a college campus
Countless numbers of college freshman transfer out after their first year of studies. Many return, some don't. Unfortunately, many of these students felt displaced and found that their expectations were not met by the university they attended. Attending community school gives students the opportunity to earn college credit while taking the time to select the 4-year institution that is right for them. Because there is little financial investment, most students
In Alina Tugend’s article, “Revamping Community Colleges to Improve Graduation Rates,” several points are discussed regarding graduation rates and what community colleges can complete by reforming the structure of the schools. Many of the points discussed cover topics of problems with remedial classes, tuition costs, and inadequate student-to-advisor ratios among community colleges across the nation. I found that, with the progression of Tugend’s sentences, I agreed exponentially with everything she wrote. Reforming community colleges will improve graduation rates by allowing remedial classes to benefit students rather than hinder them, lowering the overall cost of college, and providing more advisors to help with students’ needs.
There isn't anything more important to community colleges than the certainty that they can and should provide all qualified people who are looking to be accepted with admittance (Vaughan). The people of the community college represent forty-four percent of all undergraduates and forty-nine percent of students attending college for the first time (David). These students include a lot of minority students, students with a low social standing and the non-standard (age twenty-five and older) student who commonly enters college less academically equipped (David). Most community colleges have made immense advancement in reducing a lot of geographical and economic blockades that have in the past limited college admittance (David). Community
Students go to college in search of knowledge, a new lifestyle, and the hope of a job after graduation. For many young adults, college is a rite of passage into an independent, mature new lifestyle. Not only is higher education a rite of passage, for some, it is also an opportunity to have a better life. Overall, college is a wonderful part of many people’s lives, yet the way the college education system is conducted wastes students time and money. College is basically composed of two parts: general education classes and major specific classes. General education courses are the source of wasted time and money, and should not be required of students. A few of the problems associated with general education classes are that they are
According to Scandoval-Lucero, Maes and Klingsmith (2014), “Community colleges have the potential to significantly impact the higher education outcomes for the students that they serve” (para. 5). The mission of the community colleges is to work with individuals from different background, academic skills and diverse educational backgrounds. Therefore, learning outcomes evaluation or assessment in community colleges brings wide range of opportunities and challenges typically to these colleges and the students that they represent. Community colleges have been providing open access to everyone who did not get accepted in a four year
Community colleges, along with the many other schools in our society, were designed as factories to train workers (Ackoff & Greenberg, 2008). With a focus on reading, writing, and arithmetic, individuals gained skills needed to complete robotic instructions, but unfortunately, not problem-solving. This concept is still present in many of our schooling systems today including Your State Community College (YSCC). Founded in 1968, YSCC serves about 6,000 students preparing them for jobs in both academic and trade careers. Unfortunately, many of the students who enter the school need remedial courses and enrollment in these courses cause a crippling effect on the success rate of each individual student. Similar
Alan Greenblatt also examines the effects providing students with two free years of community college tuition. While Cubberley believes that students need to be provided two years of free tuition, Greenblatt believes students are still advancing in life just fine, even with their debt. “graduates with high levels of debt are still reaching their major life milestones, although students who dropped out without completing degrees are struggling” (Greenblatt). Community colleges are a wonderful resource for many students. They provide them with the ability to explore their dreams, have less worry about their finances, and are a stepping stone into better opportunities. While two free years of community college may sound like a wonderful investment,
upon question number one of the Comprehensive Examination, I would like to present to you “General and Applied Knowledge of Higher and Community College Education as a Field of Study / Discipline” which can be used as an approach to transforming Community College’s into institutions that are more learning-centered institutions for the current and future benefit of our students. With the assistance of factors such as Admissions, Financial Resources, Student Populations and The Role of The President and The Board of Trustees playing key roles in the transformation of Community Colleges, I believe that low academic performance of students will improve in American education. According to Antonio, A., Kirst, M., & Venezia, A. (1997), a major
Community college are considered to be gateways to career or to a four-year colleges offering bachelor’s degrees. They provide valuable post-secondary educational opportunities, teach technical skills and provide flexible schedules for working students, or help the one who want to gain skills to achieve a better position in the workforce. Also it offers reasonable price for higher education. Community college play an important role in this society. It open up postsecondary education to everyone. However, community college have very low graduation rates and just 20 percent of full-time students get one degree within three years. According to the statistics
Community college is often seen and used as an avenue to access a higher level of education at a reduced cost when compared to four-year universities. However, as these costs are lower, there are still those who face difficulties when meeting these monetary requirements. This can be seen as there are those who still require financial aid to attend community college. To add onto this, a higher level of education has become an increasing necessity to secure one's place in today's world. Many are facing the prospects of job loss and career redundancy which requires re-education due to local and global factors such as increased globalization, job automation, climate change and what some see as a precarious economy. For this, I propose a full federal and state government subsidization for community college attendance nationwide.
The American Community College system is an essential institution which provides not only education for all types of learners, but also outreach and community service for the region each individual College serves. Each Community College strives to create an environment where both academic achievement and quality of life of each student can improve. Community Colleges also carry outreach programs that seek to improve quality of life for an entire region, including individuals who may not be students at the College.
Many new college students lacking preparation to successfully pursue postsecondary education on campus, a recent study shows that only one-third of high school graduates possess the minimum qualifications for a four-year college (Greene and Foster, 2003). In addition, a majority of students who study in two-year (community) college that also judged too weak to allow them enroll in college-level courses. In other words, those under-prepared students once study in college could not complete their degree on time, even drop out. In order to help under-prepared student complete college, postsecondary institution provides remedial or developmental courses on campus.
The significance of the acfode of Student A describes the need of support for students across the board. The information shown tells a story of the struggle many college students. The question is, why do college student take so long to complete one degree and what is the solution? Because of high dropout rates at community colleges, Mott Community College’s Board of Trustees should provide mandatory cohort classes. The students who while the most changes to dropout is commty college students and those in a two year program. Community colleges have a high accepted rate of 76% according to “communticollge reavw” but they also have a dropout rate to match according to
The greatest challenge for American higher education today is how to improve the success of developmental education students. Having a postsecondary degree is often the difference between having a career and living comfortably or holding a minimum wage job and struggling to make ends meet. Gabriel (2008), reports that nearly half of higher education students do not have the necessary skills needed in reading to perform successfully and faculty insist these students are not prepared. Community colleges plays a pivotal role in education and give students the opportunity to sharpen their skills, personal relations, and receive needed assistance to decide their future goals. Community colleges serve nearly half of the undergraduate students in the United States. With their open door policy and low tuition, community colleges are an important pathway for students.
There is a low number for community college graduation rates, and there are many ways to improve it. The low graduation rates call for changes that must be made within the system. Articles written by Alina Tugend (2016), Meredith Kolodner (2015), and KeriLynn Engel (2014) explain how to improve the graduation rates. They go into detail to point out why there is a low number of students graduating and reveal ways that show how the low number can be raised significantly. Community colleges “only have one-third of students complete” college and receive a degree (Engel, 2014, para. 2). Grauation rates in community colleges can be improved with these appropriate reasons: reducing costs, providing more guidance, and offering less or no remedial classes.