EFFECTS OF COMMUNITY COLLEGES ON LOW-INCOME MINORITY STUDENTS

The purpose of this paper is to examine existing research related to determining the influence of community colleges on the academic achievement and career development of low-income minority students. To add context to the review, the paper begins with a brief description and historical overview of community colleges in America.

Community Colleges: Definition and Historical Overview

O'Bannion (1989) states that the community, junior, or technical college--an American educational innovation--offers programs of study leading to two-year associate degrees, certificates, or other academic awards. Known as "two-year colleges," these institutions do not confer bachelor's (baccalaureate), graduate, or professional degrees; only Associate or two-year degrees.

Most American community colleges are public institutions receiving funds from state and local sources. O'Bannion (1989) reports that despite a good deal of variance in policies and practices, community colleges, in general, have eight distinguishing characteristics. These are: open admissions; a local service region, facilities readily accessible to citizens, low cost, a comprehensive educational program, diversified learners, commitment to innovation and nontraditional programming, and ties with community organizations.

Community colleges offer education geared to the needs of learners and their communities. Such colleges are primaril

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put into place to support students to continue on in their educational attainments and to shorten the time-span necessary to obtaining their degrees. As noted in the presented overview of community colleges, another central feature of these institutions is that they have ties to community organizations, especially businesses because these often play a pivotal role in supplying students with vocational training. In this regard, Pincus (1989) has noted that community colleges have developed customized contract training agreements between community colleges and corporations in order to provide students with real-life, on-the-job training experiences. Pincus (1989) reports that corporations receive economic benefits because contracting with community colleges is often cheaper than providing in-house training for employees. Community colleges also benefit because they receive increased revenue and increased political support from corporations. While the foregoing facts would appear to make the contract training endeavor a no-lose situation, Pincus (1980) states that the training emphasis is likely to hurt the colleges by detracting from their already weakened liberal arts and transfer programs. The overall effect of customiz
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Approximate Word count = 2389
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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