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America’s Community Colleges: On the Ascent

By Arthur M. Cohen

Across the spectrum that is higher education in the United States, the community college system is of comparatively recent vintage – fundamentally a phenomenon that surfaced, developed and expanded over the course of the past century.

Originally, this two-year program was designed to accommodate the rising number of secondary school graduates who sought to further their education but, for one reason or another – time, funds, family obligations or capability – could not enroll in a standard four-year college or university.

Since those early years, community colleges have expanded their role beyond the two years of pre-baccalaureate study. Today, they prepare people for the workforce and offer a variety of services to local communities. They assist people to grow within their careers. Moreover, they offer basic literacy instruction for people who failed to fully learn rudimentary skills in primary and secondary education, as well as for new immigrants to the United States. Finally, they maintain courses for the personal interest of adults – foresting the spirit of lifelong learning.

Indeed, the general principle underlying community college development has been a belief in individual mobility and achievement – the belief that anyone seeking it should be given the opportunity to learn in order to advance professionally or personally in society, notwithstanding their prior educational accomplishments or their social or economic status. Because community colleges place few barriers to students’ admission, and because their tuition fees are lower that those of four-year colleges and universities, they offer and open access, a readily available opportunity for one and all to find something of value.

By definition, the community college is an institution accredited to award an associate degree as its highest diploma. Typically granted after two years of collegiate-level instruction, it qualifies the recipient to enter a university at the junior, or third year level, or to enter the workforce as a qualified employee in numerous occupational and paraprofessional fields.

Invariably, community college students have diverse goals. One-third of them seek skills and certificates that qualify them for employment. Nearly 20 percent want to upgrade themselves in jobs they already hold, and 10 percent are attending strictly for their general personal interest. An additional one-third want to earn credits that would be transferred to a four-year school towards a bachelor’s degree. This is significant: Few other educational systems around the world allow students to transfer credits readily from one institution to another. Only the U.S. community colleges provide pre-baccalaureate education, short-term vocational training, adult education, and job entry and professional upgrading in technology, health professions and other occupations, all under one roof.

Positioned as they are between secondary school and baccalaureate education, the community colleges have developed collaborative ventures with institutions on either side. They attempt to smooth the road toward higher learning for graduates of secondary school lacking requisite funds or skills. They do so by meshing their programs with those of universities so that students taking community college courses can transfer credits without any shortfall, and by helping ensure that secondary school courses will prepare students for college.

Evidence of the success of these efforts abounds, beginning with the rates at which two-year college alumni gain jobs or pass licensing exams, and the rates of transfer to four-year schools. Community college students who transfer to four-year institutions achieve baccalaureate degrees roughly equal to those students who entered those institutions as freshmen.

Most of the colleges are inexorably linked with international education. They enroll students from abroad, sponsor study-abroad programs for American students and conduct overseas study tours. Some maintain international business centers, training programs for local businesses wishing to engage international trade, or contract training with companies based in other countries.

By maintaining open admissions for all who wish to enter, it has become the lungs of the higher education system, expanding when the number of students seeking postsecondary study grows, reducing its enrollments or young people when the numbers decline.

With it all the community college has maintained a unique role as a vital component of postsecondary education in America.

Source: U.S. Society and Values, 2002, June

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