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Essay on The effects of Nontraditional Students on Community Colleges
The American community colleges started as neighborhood schools. Subsequently, state plans guided their development. The federal government had little to do with them. In fact, excepting special circumstances such as a college for the deaf, a college for blacks, and the military academies, the federal government was not involved in the establishment of colleges at any level. Its only direct connection with junior colleges was during the Great Depression of the 1930s when it organized a few colleges as part of its workforce development effort. But in the main, the building of institutions was left to local, and then state, governments.
A community college is defined as any institution accredited to award the associate degree as its highest degree. Although private junior colleges and two-year proprietary schools are included in that definition, the 1,050 or so publicly supported comprehensive institutions are the dominant form; hence, this discussion concentrates on them. Located in every state, these colleges provide occupational programs, the first two years of baccalaureate studies, basic skills development, and a variety of special interest courses to nearly half the students beginning postsecondary education.
As the emergence of “experimenters” illustrates, the purposes of community colleges have shifted as the institutions have developed. The original purpose of the early “junior college”—allowing students to transfer to four-year colleges—is still alive and well, and it remains the highest-status purpose in most institutions. But it’s difficult to justify the community college solely by its transfer function. Many students don’t intend to transfer, and by most estimates transfer rates are relatively low and have declined over time. Other purposes have become just as important, though lower in status. The occupational purpose is among these.Thus community colleges have become the most important locus of relatively job-specific occupational education, preparing individuals for the sub-baccalaureate..........
