The legal side of parliamentary procedure

This article describes the ideal comprehensive community college, a general profile of the community college student, and how a speech communication curriculum can be developed to fit the unique functions of the community college. The authors offer suggestions for a speech communication curriculum in college transfer, technical/career education, community services, and compensatory education programs for the community college.     

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGES: MISSISSIPPI'S SYSTEM OF COMMUNITY AND JUNIOR COLLEGES

Mississippi's system of public community and junior colleges developed as a response to changing educational needs in the state. The need to provide secondary education to rural areas of the state led to the agricultural high school movement in 1908. Time diminished the need for these schools, so the state's educational leadership proposed using the facilities to offer college‐level coursework. In 1928, Mississippi counties were authorized to join together in forming junior college districts. The colleges began as agencies of local government and continue so to the present. A state‐level office with coordinating responsibilities was established at the State Department of Education. The state's system of 2‐year colleges began just 1 year before the national economic depression. Easy access and low costs made the junior colleges attractive to Mississippians then and now. The junior college mission was to offer university transfer programs to students. After World War II, the junior colleges expanded their missions to include vocational and technical training. This was in response to the demands of business and industry as well as the needs of veterans returning to the workforce. Postwar industrial development in the state gave the junior colleges a greater role in workforce training. Mississippi's two‐year colleges have experienced demographic and technology changes that reflect national trends. In contrast to most other states, Mississippi's community and junior college leadership continues to identify university parallel programs as their primary mission.     

WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM PROGRAMS IN NEW JERSEY'S PUBLIC COLLEGES

Since 1976 in response to growing concern about college students’ writing abilities, faculty development programs on writing across the curriculum have arisen in a number of two‐ and four‐year colleges throughout the United States. This movement, for it seems to be one, has its roots in a similar movement that began more than 15 years ago in British secondary schools. This paper first reviews briefly the early history of the movement in England and compares the movement there to the one now under way in U.S. higher education. It then presents the results of a questionnaire survey of New Jersey's public two‐ and four‐year colleges undertaken in the spring of 1979. The purpose of the survey was to determine whether and to what extent New Jersey's public colleges had started or were planning to start development programs designed to bring groups of faculty together, across disciplines, to discuss problems relating to student writing performance and to develop specific interdisciplinary plans for solving these problems. In addition, information is presented about the nature of the steps taken in those institutions that reported having initiated such programs and about the efforts to evaluate the impact of these programs. Finally, conclusions are drawn about the state of writing across the curriculum programs in New Jersey public higher education and recommendations are made for further action in this direction.     

CORRECTIONAL POST‐SECONDARY EDUCATION: THE EXPANDING ROLE OF COMMUNITY COLLEGES

More than 75 percent of post‐secondary institutions offering education programs in prisons are community and vocational/ technical colleges. The predominance of community colleges among correctional education providers is a major change from the early 1970's when two‐thirds of such programs were provided by four‐year institutions.

Over 260 community colleges provide programs and services to the 26,000 inmates participating in higher education. Results of a survey on correctional post‐secondary education indicate that these programs are in many ways different from those educational institutions provide on their own campuses. For example, they generally, have different admission standards, are administered by part‐time staff, and rely upon part‐time and adjunct faculty.

Community and junior college administrators are urged to closely examine the operation and quality of their correctional programs and the need for evaluative research on the long‐term effects of these programs is also stressed.     

Articulation and student intentionality in professional development: A proactive model for teacher educators

Abstract

The Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) professional development movement, community college students’ emerging intentionality, and the role of two‐ and four‐year higher education faculty intersect in a proactive model proposed by the author that advocates ECEC community college programs separate from the vocational tradition and establishes ECEC transfer degrees to four‐year programs. Degree structures must be built with flexibility, and encompass checkpoints and highly articulated options as student intentionality unfolds. The proactive model is constructed from Morgan's (1994) 21 st century model of professionalism and her conception of students’ emerging intentionality, combined with Brint and Karabel's (1989) models that attempt to explain why community colleges moved from conferring primarily transfer degrees to conferring primarily vocational degrees.     

PASSION,POLITICS, AND COLLABORATION: CHANGING EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER PREPARATION AND CERTIFICATION

This narrative chronicles the development of a state mandated seamless early care and education career development system designed to improve the quality of preparation of Early Childhood professionals and services supporting young children. Issues of articulation between two‐year and four‐year institutions, statewide standardized core community college coursework, and accountability based on state testing for teacher certification are discussed. Finally, state‐wide teacher preparation changes and university responses to those mandates are included.     

THE EFFECT OF ACADEMIC FACTORS ON TRANSFER STUDENT PERSISTENCE AND GRADUATION: A COMMUNITY COLLEGE TO LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGE CASE STUDY

Critics contend that enrollment in a community college lessens the likelihood that a student will complete a bachelor's degree (S. Brint & J. Karabel, 1989). A number of studies have examined personal, demographic, and environmental characteristics that influence the academic performance of community college transfer students. This research has included characteristics that are not readily available to admissions representatives at four‐year institutions, and studies have not considered the private, liberal arts college as the senior institution.

The purpose of this study was to identify easily ascertainable characteristics that occur prior to transfer and to assess the relationship of these characteristics to persistence and baccalaureate attainment at a private, liberal arts college. Two academic factors related to persistence and graduation were included in the methodology: completion of the associate (AA) degree and community college grade point average (GPA) The subjects for the study were 200 students who completed the AA degree and transferred from one of three community colleges to a private, liberal arts college over a 5‐year period.

Results indicated that whereas completion of the AA degree resulted in a higher persistence/graduation rate, completion of the AA degree with a community college GPA of 3.0 or higher increased the persistence/graduation rate to a level equal to that of native students.     

ATTRITION AND RETENTION AMONG ACCOUNTING MAJORS IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES: PROBLEMS AND POSSIBLE REMEDIATION

Accounting programs nationwide are reporting declines in enrollment and the demand for new accountants continues unabated. Given this current crisis in accounting education, attention needs to be given to recruitment and retention issues. This study used a Delphi procedure to sample the accounting department chairpersons in one state's community college system regarding four questions: What initially attracts community college students to accounting?; What are the predictors of success for community college students who choose accounting for majors?; What are the major problems students encounter in completing accounting programs and What recommendations do these chairpersons have for reducing attrition among community college accounting majors? Conclusions and recommendations are presented for community college counselors, administrators, and accounting faculty.     

THE ROLE OF MENTORING IN THE CAREER DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE PRESIDENTS

Since the mid‐1970's community colleges have devoted more attention than ever before to the preparation and inservice training of administrators. Despite these efforts, there is as yet no clearly defined career path to top level administrative posts. Most administrators learn skills for their job by observing others, through trial‐and‐error, and in some cases, through being mentored. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role mentoring has played in the career development of community college presidents.     

Engaging Faculty for Innovative STEM Bridge Programs

Bridge programs, in which underprepared students gain the academic and technical skills necessary for college level courses and entry-level employment, are a promising initiative for expanding access to, and success in, community college education. For career pathways related to science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM), bridge programs are critical for enlarging the pool of students who are exposed to, and can aspire to, STEM preparation. This study, conducted with support from the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education program, followed four community colleges for a year to understand local factors that facilitated or impeded implementation of a bridge program in which basic skills were contextualized in biotechnology. The findings are that implementation of a contextualized curriculum requires substantial faculty learning. Implementation of these bridge programs was facilitated by instructional leadership by both administration and faculty. Administration assisted in creating the conditions that supported learning by coordinating faculty schedules and funding faculty time for initial and ongoing program development. Faculty benefitted by the support of experienced team members who could guide interdisciplinary learning. Implementation was facilitated when team members met frequently and when faculty worked collaboratively to implement the curriculum. Recommendations include planning for faculty development, both for faculty collaboration and contextualizing curriculum.     

CURRICULUM APPROVAL IN ILLINOIS COMMUNITY COLLEGES: LOCAL AND STATE PROCESSES

Following a discussion of the historical relationship between education and democracy, from which the concept of curriculum emerges as a legitimate field of research, this paper traces the development of curricular diversity in U.S. two‐year institutions and reviews the control and coordinating functions of curriculum governance in the community college systems of several states. The paper focuses on the system of curricular administration in Illinois, in which primary responsibility rests with the local two‐year school board and a coordinating function with a state agency, the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB). The state process is summarized and the local process of course and program approval from initiation to implementation in Illinois community colleges is identified. The data suggest that while the state role in curricular governance is formally defined as one of coordination, the local community college curriculum administrators may in fact view it as one of control.     

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.     

美国社区学院及其办学特点

美国社区学院的办学宗旨是为其所在地区提供教育计划和服务，属于高等教育体系，也被称为两年制学院或初级学院，是连接高中和四年制大学的桥梁。社区学院的任务包括转学教育、职业生涯教育、一般教育、补救教育、社区教育，社区学院以其办学的灵活性、适用性、开放性获得了巨大成功，满足了美国人对高等教育和职业教育的需求。     

MARKETING THE PERCEPTIONS OF A COMMUNITY COLLEGE'S POSTSECONDARY ENROLLMENT OPTIONS PROGRAM

A vast majority of colleges and universities have provisions for admitting high school students to special college programs (Robinson & Noble, 1992). These postsecondary enrollment options programs are vital because they link local higher education to the community by actively involving high school personnel, students, and parents in planning for college. Establishing and maintaining this link presents unique challenges to educators because it must meet the needs of a diverse population. The purpose of this study was to assess how students and parents perceived a suburban community colleges’ postsecondary enrollment options program. Basing marketing strategies on these perceptions provides colleges and universities an effective means to maintain the established community link.     

TUITION AND THE OPEN‐DOOR: A RELATIVE PERSPECTIVE

This research was initiated to explore the effects of changing tuition rates on the open‐door policy of U.S. community junior colleges. Tuition trends in the two‐year colleges of 50 states were assessed using data gathered from the 1975 and 1980 editions of the AACJC Directory, 1980 Fact Book for Academic Administrators, and recently published journal articles. The relationship between tuition rates and enrollment levels in each state were analyzed. The analyses point to a trend of continuous increase in tuition rates for U.S. public two‐year colleges since 1951. Even though the percentage of increase in tuition for recent years has been higher for two‐year colleges than for four‐year colleges, there remains a substantial difference between the average annual tuition of the two types of institutions. There appears to be a negative correlation between tuition and enrollment at two‐year colleges for 1974‐1975 (—.27) and for 1979‐1980 (—.21). Based on these findings, it would appear that further increases in tuition might serve to close college doors for those not able to afford the rising costs of education. Suggestions are offered for internal and external actions to help maintain open access despite rising tuition costs.     

Turning a College Around Through Planning,Governance, and Finance

There was rapid growth of Alabama community colleges in the late 1960s. At the same time, there was rapid growth nationally of fire science associate degree programs. With these concurrent events, one would expect fire department personnel in Alabama to benefit from new community college opportunities in fire science and fire administration. Instead, participation in fire science degree programs has been disappointing. Almost 40 years later, most of the fire-related community college programs in Alabama have closed due to low enrollment, while the national trend for fire science programs indicates steady or growing enrollment elsewhere. This article looks at the 25-year period of 1977 to 2002. Reasons for the decline in Alabama fire-related community college programs are examined. During this period of decline, fire chiefs and leaders of the statewide fire associations failed to publicly embrace higher education. The inescapable conclusion is that the expected benefits to the people of Alabama resulting from significantly higher levels of professional training and education programs for Alabama fire fighters and officers have not been realized.     

IMAGE OF THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE DURING THE 1970s: A STUDY OF PERCEPTIONS

This article resulted from a funded research study which secured data from which conclusions could be drawn about the extent to which the image of the public, two‐year college changed during the decade of the 1970s, and about possible reasons for such changes. Six significant groups of educators across the nation were surveyed to secure their perceptions of change in image of the public community college. Survey instruments were sent to 903 persons in those six groups; 55% of the instruments were returned. By more than six to one, respondents indicated a perceived significant change in image. Detailed responses to items in five areas of possible change were submitted by respondents. The areas which were studied included: growth and management; programs offered; faculty; students; and other changes in policies, programs, or procedures.     

Factors Influencing Enrolment in Community College Career and Technical Degree Programs

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study explored the factors influencing community college career and technical degree program enrollment. Participants for this multi-site study included currently enrolled community college career and technical students with at least 30 credit hours completed and alumni. The researcher coded the participant’s phenomenological data, which revealed four themes. Principal themes included employability, family educational background, denied enrollment to a four-year college or university, and socioeconomics. The findings of this study could be used by governing bodies to develop a better understanding of the importance of the community college system. Community colleges could use the findings of this study to ensure that their organization offers students a conscious teaching and learning environment.     

Community College Students With Criminal Justice Histories and Human Services Education: Glass Ceiling,Brick Wall,or a Pathway to Success

In spite of open access to community college education, specifically human service associate degree programs, students with criminal justice histories do not necessarily have an unobstructed pathway to obtaining the degree and admission to the baccalaureate programs in human services and social work that are almost always selective. The first obstacle may arise when a student must be placed in the field internship. This may mark the first time in a student’s educational career where he or she must disclose his or her ex-offender status. While higher education plays a well-documented role against recidivism, students who are ex-offenders who are enrolled in community college programs and also have their sights set on transfer, professional credentialing, and professional employment, may face similar barriers. There is a paucity of research related to students in community college with criminal justice histories and a clear need for qualitative and quantitative study in the area. The author calls for more active advocacy and community education roles for community college professionals in this arena as well.