ARTICULATION AND TRANSFER ISSUES IN COMMUNITY COLLEGE ART PROGRAMS IN ILLINOIS

This study documents trends and issues pertaining to articulation and transferabil‐ity of students in art programs at community colleges in Illinois to 4‐year institutions. There has been a discernible lack of consensus and data regarding the current state of articulation in art, both institution‐specific and statewide. Many problems arise when art students attempt to transfer from community colleges to 4‐year institutions. A survey was conducted among selected art faculty at Illinois community colleges to seek relevant information. The findings of this study may direct collaboration between community colleges and 4‐year institutions for purposes such as facilitating transfer and articulation in art.     

Community colleges maintain modest response rates to prospective student inquiry

None of the community colleges in this study responded with a text message, as requested in the prospective student’s inquiry. Only 1.38% (n = 3) of the institutions responded to the inquiry with a telephone call. This research realized a slightly higher rate of e-mail response within five working days; 54.98% (n = 116) as opposed to the 2009 results of 50.5% (n = 110) in Shadinger’s (2014) study. More community colleges (n = 12, 5.5%) also had e-mail addresses or information request forms (n = 182, 83.5%) than in the original study (n = 170, 78.0%). Nearly 100% of community college websites had social media links, even when an e-mail address or information request form was not available. In an expansion of previous statements about communication, Noel-Levitz (2014a) reported prospective students were “more likely to consider schools that use e-mail, text messages or social media to communicate” (p. 4). Concurrently, the underutilization of e-mail, social media, and cell phones will simply exacerbate communication and recruiting issues for community colleges.     

Community College Governance,Funding, and Accountability: A Century of Issues and Trends

Community colleges in America are now very visible and highly respected institutions of higher education. More than 1,000 community colleges in all 50 states now comprise nearly 25% of all colleges and universities in the U.S., with over 6.5 million students, or about 45% of all college students.

State and local governance and coordination of community colleges vary from single-state governing boards to minimal state control and strong local governing boards. The relative degrees of state and local control of community colleges generally “follow the money,” in that accountability to state and local governing board and state legislatures is generally about proportional to the funds provided by each level of government.

Funding for operational support of community colleges comes primarily from state and local governments, with considerable federal support for grants and subsidized loans to students. In 2000–2001, the largest proportional funding sources for community colleges were: state governments (44.6%), local governments (19.5%), tuition and fees (19.5%) and the federal government (5.4%). State lotteries in at least 38 states represent a relatively new source of funds for community colleges, often in the form of student scholarships.

Many of the earliest public junior colleges charged no tuition, especially in California in the early 1900s. Now many community college students pay $3,000 or more per year in tuition and fees, and recent annual tuition increases in many states have been in double digits. This is a troubling trend that threatens to reduce access to higher education for poor people.     

Counseling after Dark: Evening Students' Perceptions of Counseling Resources

Abstract

Community colleges have traditionally emphasized the role of educational-vocational counseling for students, although in recent times community college counselors seem to desire more involvement in personal-emotional counseling and to be more therapeutically oriented. This study assessed how evening community college students perceive various professional resource personnel and students' likelihood of consulting these professionals for assistance with diverse kinds of problems. Evening students' perceptions were discussed in comparison to perceptions held by day students and by students attending 4-year colleges and universities. Implications for training and the professional identity of community college counselors were also noted.     

Community College Engineering Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Climate and Fundamental Engineering Skills

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine community college engineering students’ perceptions of their classroom climate and how these perceptions are related to fundamental skills in engineering. The study was guided by the following research question: How are community college engineering students’ perceptions of their fundamental engineering skills related to their perceptions of classroom climate? Data from a 2009 National Science Foundation sponsored project, Prototype to Production: Processes and Conditions for Preparing the Engineer of 2020 (P2P), which contains information from students in 15 pre-engineering community college programs, were examined. Measures of classroom climate and fundamental skills related to engineering were first established through an exploratory factor analysis. In order to explore differences in student perceptions by individual characteristics and by institution, hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used. Results indicated that for community college engineering students, a warmer perception of classroom climate was associated with a higher perception of fundamental engineering skills. At community colleges, class sizes are generally smaller, especially compared to introductory courses at universities, and may provide a warmer climate for students considering beginning their engineering degrees. Given the diversity within community colleges, these institutions may provide an important pathway for underrepresented groups in engineering.     

The Relationship between Faculty Confirmation and Community College Student Self-Efficacy

Nearly half of all college students in the United States begin at community colleges, including higher numbers of students coming from backgrounds which have been historically underrepresented in higher education. Despite record numbers of new students enrolling at community colleges, the number of students who are retained at the institution long enough to be deemed successful, either through transferring or graduating, remains largely unchanged. One theory is that some students enter college with less confidence in their ability to be successful, hastening their departure. Faculty members are in a unique position to impact student self-efficacy, which ultimately may impact student success. This exploratory study quantitatively assessed whether a relationship exists between confirmation behaviors employed by faculty members in the classroom and changes in reported academic self-efficacy of students. The research was conducted through a causal comparative matched pair design with Midwestern community college students during their first semester. The results support a relationship between change in self-efficacy and perceived faculty confirmation (r_s = .212, n = 70, p = .039*), particularly for female students (r_s = .331, n = 35, p = .026*) and for those students where neither parent completed a degree higher than high school (r_s = .316, n = 46, p = .016*).     

Great Business Training is Just Enough,Just in Time,and Just for Me

Retrenchment practices in the 1980s represented a new challenge to institutions of higher education. The literature encompassing higher education within the past 10 years has revealed limited information concerning retrenchment policies in public community colleges in Texas. This study investigated the presence or absence of retrenchment policies and their relation to fluctuations in enrollment and state funding. All 49 public community‐junior college districts in the state of Texas were included in the study. Twenty (41%) of these community colleges had a retrenchment policy. This study indicated that administrative decisions regarding the development and adoption of retrenchment policies are based on state revenue declines as opposed to enrollment fluctuations.     

RECRUITING HEALTH INFORMATION FACULTY: THE EFFECTS OF MONETARY RECRUITMENT INCENTIVES

This paper addresses recruitment of Health Information faculty for community and technical colleges, an issue of crucial importance because many faculty hired during the enrollment boom of the 1960s are retiring. The design for this research was a factorial experiment, involving a two-way analysis of variance. The participants (N?=?194) were medical coding professionals. The participants role-played as applicants for community and technical college health information faculty positions by rating jobs described in simulated recruitment advertisements. Offering a salary incentive and a signing bonus increased applicant attraction to community and technical college faculty positions. Implications for faculty recruitment are discussed.     

A SYSTEMS MODEL FOR CURRICULUM DECISION MAKING

Abstract

Two types of community colleges are described, one serving as a miniuniversity and the other as an opportunity center. The academic progress of 750 students from four community colleges, two classified as miniuniversities and two as opportunity centers, was compared in terms of (a) persistence, and (b) success after transferring to a senior institution. Institutions classified as opportunity centers were found to graduate a greater proportion of their students than did the miniuniversities. Academic performance after transferring to a senior institution was equivalent for students graduating from either type of institution. It is concluded that large numbers of community college students are unnecessarily discouraged and thereby deterred from higher education by community colleges that operate as miniuniversities and that the needs of most community college students are better served by the opportunity center.     

Using the Wisdom Development Theory to Conceptualize Student Professionalism Development in Community Colleges

ABSTRACT

Historically, community colleges have played a vital role in career and vocational preparation for students. In today’s complex and ever-changing work environment, professionalism issues are at the forefront of employers’ concerns related to millennials and other young students and recent graduates. This issue is aggravated by the rise of social media and other trends that pose challenges related to, for example, professionalism in communication. The community college community is an excellent site for a movement towards structured professionalism training and research that is process-centered and that emphasizes lifelong learning. Drawn upon the literature review and our own experiences in career counseling, we expand on the perspectives of professionalism at the individual and group levels. And we present on how community colleges’ offices, instructors, and administrators can use the Model of Wisdom Development to understand whether and how are students developing professionalism.     

Adult learning in ontario

Ontario, a province located in central Canada, has a population of over 8 million people. Although the total area of the province is over 400,000 square miles (over I million square kilometres), the overwhelming majority of the population lives in southern Ontario, which includes less than one-third of the area of the province.The Ontario school system offers elementary and secondary education to all children and young persons able to profit from instruction. The school programme covers kindergarten, eight years of elementary instruction, and five years of secondary school. Compulsory school attendance has been enforced since 1870. At present the age of compulsory attendance is 6 to 16; kindergarten is voluntary at the age of 5, but nearly all children of this age are enrolled. Since the second half of the 1960s, junior kindergarten is being offered in many schools, and by 1974 the percentage of Ontario's 4-year-olds enrolled in junior kindergarten was 33 per cent. As far as the secondary school is concerned, in 1974/75 the net enrolment rate¹ of persons age 16 was 87 per cent; of age 17, 69 per cent; and of 18, 34 per cent.The post-secondary educational system consists primarily of two major components: community colleges with over ninety compuses serving all the major economic regions of Ontario; and universities.The community colleges were introduced in the 1960s with the main purpose of providing joboriented programmes beyond the secondary level for high-school graduates who require post-secondary training and education other than university. They also offer programmes to meet the educational needs of adults and out-of-school youth, whether or not they are secondary-school graduates.In 1975/76 the post-secondary enrolment of full-time students in community colleges was about 60,000, and in universities about 160,000. However, the number of part-time credit students enrolled in colleges considerably exceeds full-time enrolment, while the number of part-time university students reached 75,000. In addition, many hundreds of thousands of adults participate in non-formal learning opportunities offered by the colleges and universities, as well as by a great variety of other organizations, such as the local school board, social, community and cultural organizations, municipal authorities, private schools, sports and interest clubs, etc. author of numerous educational films, television programmes and publications, among others, Broadcasting for Adult Education: A Guidebook to World-wide Experience (Unesco Press).     

Faculty at work: Focus on teaching

Within the framework of cognitive motivation theory, selected personal and environmental motivational variables for faculty in English, chemistry, and psychology from community colleges, comprehensive colleges and universities, and research universities were regressed against faculty allocation of work effort given to teaching. The data came from a 1988 national survey. Gender (sociodemographic); quality of graduate school attended, career age, and rank (career); self-competence, self-efficacy, institutional commitment, personal interest in teaching, and percent time preferred to give to teaching (self-valuations); and institutional preference, consensus and support, and colleague commitment to teaching (perception of the environment) were entered into regressions.R ² were generally strong (.86 for community college chemists) and significant. For all institutional types, self-valuation and perception of the environment motivators significantly accounted for the explained variance whereas sociodemographic and career variables did not.     

台湾社区大学的经验

台湾地区经济活动的快速变化,热心青年投入社区大学创办工作,为台湾社区大学迅速成长提供了客观与主观条件。台湾社区大学具有民间催生、不以技职教育为主的特点。台湾各社区大学拥有解放知识与建设公民社会两大办学理念。     

The Cognitive Value of Two‐Year Colleges for Whites and Blacks

Although community college educators believe their programs benefit their students through cognitive development, until now no good evidence was available. The fourth follow‐up of the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 allows the controlled assessment of the value of two‐year institutions. The results indicate that while whites benefit cognitively from two‐year post‐secondary programs, blacks do not.

In 1947, the President's Commission on Higher Education (1947, p. 9) concluded that, “The first goal in education for democracy is the full, rounded and continuing development of the person. ... To liberate and perfect the intrinsic powers of every citizen is the central purpose of democracy, and its furtherance of individual self‐realization is its greatest glory.” From these principles the specific goals of higher education are derived (Bowen, 1977). The formal academic program and extra‐curricular life of an academic community are intended to help students develop in three respects: cognitive learning, affective development, and practical competence (Bowen, 1977). It is assumed that as these goals are realized so are the powers of the individual.

Whenever there are goals to be reached in any endeavor, it is natural to ask whether they are in fact being realized. Bowen (1977) compares education to an industry that is responsible for disclosing both its costs and outcomes. Assessing the outcomes of higher education is necessarily a complex task; nevertheless attempts have been made to pull together information from a variety of studies and draw conclusions from them (e.g., Feldman and Newcomb, 1969; Bowen, 1977; Pace, 1979). In general the effects of college attendance have been found to be positive. Attending college raises the level of knowledge and cognitive

powers of students, increases psycholgocial well‐being, understanding, tolerance and self‐reliance, and helps students develop skills and traits that make them more adaptable to a variety of social and work situations (Bowen, 1977).

Comprehensive evaluations of higher education have been limited to four‐year colleges. For example, Kar‐weit and McPartland (1981) studied the cognitive gains produced by postsecondary schooling, and found that college attendance enhanced vocabulary skills, but only maintained mathematic skills. In contrast, little has been done to evaluate outcomes of community college attendance, although educators within community college systems stress the importance of accountability in establishing the much maligned credibility of community colleges (Roueche and La Forge, 1974; Miller, 1979).

The absence of research on community colleges is in part due to the variety of functions that community colleges have assumed. Community colleges were originally intended to open the doors of education to all high school graduates, especially the economically disadvantaged (Monroe, 1972). Emphasis was placed on providing two years of additional general education beyond high school, and on low‐cost preparation for students who wished to transfer to four‐year colleges in the third year. In 1947 the President's Com‐mision on Higher Education (1947) suggested that the emphasis of two‐year colleges should be shifted to preparation for semiprofessional white collar and vocational occupations. This preparation was not to be at the expense of general education, but in addition to it, for those who desired to learn specific occupational skills. As the popularity of community colleges grew, it also became apparent that many economically disadvantaged students were also academically disadvantaged, and community colleges found themselves in the business of providing remedial courses for many students who were not ready to enter regular academic programs.

Although research indicates that community colleges in general place greater emphasis on occupational education than when originally conceived, they remain, at least in philosophy, committed to providing an education that contributes to the intellectual development of their students, whether they are in academic or vocational programs (Monroe, 1972; Cross, 1974). This commitment is in recognition of the fact that cognitive skills such as verbal ability and basic mathematics competence, and affective development in the areas of self‐awareness and interpersonal relations, are necessary to practical competence in most work and social situations.

Community college curricula, in general, reflect a commitment to intellectual and affective development. The general education requirement in community colleges varies greatly, but usually consists of a specified number of elective courses to be chosen from the humanities, natural sciences, mathematics, and the social sciences (Monroe, 1972). Remedial programs are primarily for academic deficiencies in reading, language, and mathematics (Monroe, 1972).

Although community college programs seem designed to further cognitive and affective development, critics (Scigliano, 1976; Hudson and Smith, 1976) question the ability of community colleges to provide a good general education. Nevertheless, there is little evidence on this point one way or the other. Existing studies are lacking in several ways. For example, Rou‐eche and Kirk (1973) and Lavin et al.(1979) determined the success of programs for academically and economically disadvantaged students in community college programs by looking at grade point averages and completion rates; however, neither of these measures establish gains in cognitive or affective development. Rossmann et al.(1975) measured cognitive development by gain scores on reading and mathematics tests, but they were unable to compare gains against a control group of noncollege attenders.     

A STUDY OF STATE ASSOCIATIONS OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT GOVERNING BOARDS

This study describes the organization, staffing, cost‐sharing alternatives, and administrative patterns of associations that coordinate community/junior college local governing board activities on a statewide basis. A review of literature is provided.

Methodology used for the study included letter‐surveys to state associations of community/junior colleges, community college presidents’ organizations, trustee organizations, and knowledgeable community college individuals in 33 states. Information concerning structure of community college associations, organizations of local trustees and college presidents, whether such organized groups operate as one common group or as separate organizations, and definition of any paid staff was obtained. Results were tabulated for 25 states identified as sharing state and local control of community/junior colleges. Tables are included to show: (1) states that elect trustees, states that appoint trustees, and the number of college districts and campus locations in each state; (2) organization and staffing patterns of trustee organizations and chief administrator groups; (3) patterns of organization types in the 25 states; and (4) fee structure used to finance state community college associations in a selection of state examples.

It was found that little work has been done to evaluate effectiveness of the various systems cited. Information furnished by the study did not give evidence that one form of structure serves more effectively than another.     

Precollege Factors and Leading Indicators: Increasing Transfer and Degree Completion in a Community and Technical College System

Today, community colleges are challenged to maintain their historical identity of open access while increasing student success. This challenge is particularly salient in the context of performance-based funding models. These models create student achievements, which determine institutional levels of state funding. Therefore, these new student success metrics are important to the fiscal health of community colleges. In an effort to better identify the likelihood of meeting these metrics, some scholars have suggested leading indicators. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of leading indicators on transfer to a four-year institution and associate degree completion for community and technical college students at Kentucky’s two-year public institutions for groups based on student characteristics. Logistic regression analyses showed that leading indicators do predict transfer to a four-year institution and associate degree completion, but with varying levels of affect. Earning 30 credit hours by the end of the first year, passing a summer class and completing a college-level English class had the greatest effect on transfer to a four-year institution and associate degree completion. For performance-based funding models to be most effective and fair, policies and practices should consider precollege factors in their models. Also, these findings have implications for institutional level policy-making and practices.     

THE COMMUNITY‐JUNIOR COLLEGE AND ITS ECONOMIC VALUE: A 3‐YEAR STUDY

As local governments tighten their budgets, community‐junior colleges are often caught in the squeeze. Economic impact studies are often appropriate to help explain the monetary benefits of a local community‐junior college. Temple Junior College evaluated its impact on the local Temple, Texas, economy over a 3‐year period. The results have been used as a meaningful public relations tool that has allowed the administration to explain the value of the college in quantitative terms.     

高职院校创新团队建设的探索与研究

近年来,高等学校在逐步推进创新团队建设,目的是提高自身的科技创新能力与水平。而高职院校作为高等教育的一个特殊群体,也在积极探索一条适合自身的创新团队发展路径。在确定高职院校创新团队内涵建设的基础上,针对现阶段同类院校在创新团队建设中出现的一些问题,从以政策为导向、以创新为目标、以项目为依托、以服务为基准作为出发点,结合辽宁建筑职业学院实际情况提出了创新团队建设的一些工作思路及具体做法。     

Do Learning Communities Effect Academic Outcomes? Evidence From an Experiment in a Community College

Abstract

Many postsecondary institutions utilize learning communities to increase social engagement and attachment to the college community. In recent years, these communities have proliferated as part of a trend fueled by low retention and persistence rates, increasing reluctance of 4-year institutions to provide remedial education, and pressure on colleges to be accountable for their outcomes. This article reports the findings of a randomized experiment of a learning communities program that operated in an urban community college. The 1-semester learning community, which focused largely on remedial English, had modest effects on full-time enrollment, the number of courses attempted and passed, remedial English pass rates, and credits earned during the semester in which it operated. Impacts diminished in postprogram semesters.