In recent years, a convergence of several forces--increased legislative involvement in higher education, governmental and philanthropic pressure to increase postsecondary degree and certificate production, demands for a highly trained workforce, and fiscal belt-tightening at colleges and universities across America--has resulted in efforts to…

The role of the community colleges in career education, compensatory education, community education, and transfer education is discussed in terms of its development in the 1970s and its future in the 1980s. (JMF)

Differences between researchers and practitioners can be found in four areas: the distance from the object of study; the ideological perspective; the purposes of the research; and the political agenda behind the research. Each of these principles dominates the perceptions of the people involved and thus contributes to the phenomenon of mutual…

When compared with university freshmen, students beginning their collegiate studies in community colleges are less likely to attain the baccalaureate. However, after equating for differences in the students' entering abilities, socio-economic background, employment status, on-campus residence, and pattern of attendance, the difference is slight.…

The community college mission includes such diverse goals as preparing students for job entry, teaching literacy, and satisfying students' personal interests. Measuring the colleges' transfer rates by no means tacitly elevates the transfer function above these other functions; it merely helps institutions estimate the effects of interventions on…

Specific facets of the collegiate function of the community college are analyzed in this book. Chapter 1 defines the collegiate function as an amalgam of the liberal arts curriculum and efforts to promote student transfer. Chapter 2 focuses on the liberal arts curriculum, pointing to patterns in enrollments and courses offered in the disciplines…

In 1989, the Center for the Study of Community Colleges received a grant from the Ford Foundation to assist community colleges in defining their transfer rates and collecting data to support those definitions. The Center invited 240 community colleges with at least a 20% minority enrollment to participate in a Transfer Assembly. Interested…