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Title: America's Secret Educational Weapon: Community Colleges

Source: Phi Delta Kappan Vol. 89, No. 9

Publication Date: May 2008

Page Number: 640-642

Database: SIRS Researcher

“America's Secret Educational Weapon: Community Colleges” By C. Peter Magrath

The U.S. has a powerful weapon in its educational arsenal: its community colleges. Yet these institutions are so often overlooked in discussions of the future of U.S. society and the U.S. workforce that they might as well be deemed "top secret."

But consider some basic facts. More than 1,200 community colleges enroll some 47% of all undergraduates. Put another way, each year community colleges enroll 6.5 million students in credit courses and another 5 million in valuable noncredit learning experiences. Nearly half of all baccalaureate degree recipients in the U.S. first attended a community college.

And yet, despite these extremely large numbers, many leaders and faculty members at four-year colleges and universities and many secondary school counselors engage in a subtle put-down of community colleges. A patronizing attitude is all too common in the view that these institutions are fine for less talented or less well-off individuals, who deserve some educational opportunity even if it is "just" at a community college. Such schools may be useful institutions, but many in higher education, to put it bluntly, view them as second rate.

To those who, perhaps unintentionally and without malice, exhibit these attitudes, I say, think again. In the highly economically competitive 21st century, the U.S. needs to be fully armed educationally. And to be so armed, all parts of the system are essential. Without strong and educationally challenging elementary and secondary schools and without strong collegiate education--both two- and four-year--America will not compete successfully in this new century.

The outdated misconceptions about community colleges are confronted forthrightly in the recently released report from the College Board, Winning the Skills Race and Strengthening America's Middle Class: An Action Agenda for Community Colleges. 1  The opening words come directly to the point:

American community colleges are the nation's overlooked asset. As the United States confronts the challenges of globalization, two-year institutions are indispensable to the American future. They are the Ellis Island of American higher education, the crossroads at which K-12 education meets colleges and universities, and the institutions that give many students the tools to navigate the modern world.

Moreover, the report continues to cite numbers that might strike some as startlingly large. Community colleges produce "nearly 80% of first responders in the United States (police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians)." They produce more than half of the new nurses and health-care workers in the nation each year, and they award more than 800,000 associate degrees and certificates each year.

But of course the role of community colleges is far broader man the preparation of police officers or nurses. Indeed, America needs all the skills that it can mobilize in its work force, from savvy businesspeople, to first-rate researchers, to committed professionals in countless fields, including great teachers in our elementary and secondary schools. And here again, community colleges play an important role. More than 50% of teachers have attended a community college for part of their education, and community college and associate degree programs are an essential part of the pipeline that feeds the teacher education programs of the nation's four-year colleges and universities. Community colleges also offer professional development programs to pre-K-12 teachers in such vital fields as math, science, English as a second language, and special education. And in many states they offer an alternative path to certification.

Consider the example of just one state. In Maryland, community colleges have taken on a growing role in teacher education. In recent years, Prince George's Community College expanded its teacher education program into a complete department and worked with all of the state's community colleges to create a single associate degree in teaching. This in turn made it possible for the four-year institutions to have a single transfer relationship with the community college system. Moreover, Prince George's Community College tackled the problem of the many uncertified teachers in that county by developing a program in conjunction with the local school district that enables the teachers to obtain certification. In addition, the college has started a program to strengthen the skills of math teachers who are teaching "out of field."

Efforts such as those in Maryland are being duplicated in many states, and they are likely to have a big impact on the teaching profession in the coming decades. The profession clearly faces daunting challenges, as the nation will need to hire roughly two million teachers in the coming decade. Moreover, having community colleges as the first higher education experience for many preservice teachers could provide a means of increasing the relatively small number of minority teachers so as to more closely match the demographics of our changing school population.

Winning the Skills Race addresses the challenges America faces not only in preparing teachers but also in preparing workers in many areas where first-rate skills are essential. While community colleges already do a great deal of this work, they can contribute even more if they are better supported and creatively linked to elementary and secondary schools and to four-year colleges and universities. However, the report is candid and flinty-eyed with regard to the future and in no sense gives community colleges a free pass in terms of their challenges and obligations if they are to become stronger players in America's education system.

Community colleges face rising costs in a period when states are increasingly strapped for funds. Inevitably, this means that community colleges must raise their fees. However, even an increase that would be deemed modest in other settings can be totally daunting to the large numbers of low-income students who attend community colleges. And as these cost pressures escalate, community colleges face rising expectations from local communities and employers.

Yet the National Commission on Community Colleges believes that community colleges can rise to meet these and other challenges, and the recommendations offered in Winning the Skills Race are intended to help make that happen. Looking forward to 2009, the report recommends that Congress and the President work together to enact legislation to strengthen community colleges through a Community College Competitiveness Act, which, among other things, would encourage the concept of universal public education through at least 14 years as an essential element in our national efforts to meet global competition. U.S. Department of Labor work force development programs should be strengthened, and financial aid programs should be amended, so that students, including those who study part time, can be adequately supported.

The Commission further recommends that community college leaders take the initiative to work with governors and legislators to strengthen the inadequate system of community college finance, facilitate transfers into four-year colleges in areas of critical national and state need, and work to better align secondary education systems with the collegiate sector. Finally, the Commission urges community college leaders to commit themselves to universal access and to adopt stern accountability measures to better assess how they educate their students.

Accomplishing these objectives will not be easy. Nothing so ambitious ever is. But community colleges are so central to the national education system that their case is compelling. Even during the heated exchanges of a Presidential campaign, it is encouraging that community colleges have at times been recognized by leading candidates. To cite just one example, John McCain, in arguing about how America can respond to the loss of traditional manufacturing jobs to low-wage countries, commented on the hustings that "we need to go to community colleges and design education and training programs so that these workers get a second chance. That is our obligation as a nation." So perhaps the idea of a federal Community College Competitiveness Act is not just a vision in a report. Perhaps it is a real possibility, whether the next President is named McCain, Clinton, or Obama.

Finally, regardless of what happens to the proposed legislation, all of us who believe in the power of education to improve lives need to communicate to policy makers and political leaders at all levels of government the great value of community colleges to America and to its people. Community colleges are far more than a "nice" second-tier alternative to the four-year colleges and universities. They enrich and transform lives. Gene Budig, a contributor to this journal and a distinguished educator and professional baseball executive, put it this way in describing his own higher educational journey that began in a small community college in rural Nebraska:

I know what a community college degree can do to instill confidence, to provide needed academic skills, and to ensure the strongest possible desire to go on and succeed. It also gives those among us who have limited financial resources a chance to compete in today's ever-changing society.

The conclusion is clear and unequivocal: no longer can the United States afford to keep the promise of community colleges secret. In the global competition to develop the skills of our people, they are an essential weapon in our arsenal.

Reference

1. National Commission on Community Colleges, Winning the Skills Race and Strengthening America's Middle Class: An Action Agenda for Community Colleges (New York: Center for Innovative Thought, College Board, 2008).

C. Peter Magrath is president emeritus of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges and a senior presidential advisor to the College Board, New York, N.Y. This article is based on Winning the Skills Race and Strengthening America's Middle Class: An Action Agenda for Community Colleges, released in January 2008 by the College Board.

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