Projecting the prospects and possibilities for community colleges accurately is not an easy exercise due to the vulnerability of both internal and external conditions to unanticipated forces. One aspect of the community college that is particularly affected by external forces is enrollment. Enrollments are influenced by legislation, the decline in…

This paper traces the development of community colleges, analyzes their curricular functions, and discusses their contributions to the American educational system. First, several hypotheses accounting for the rise of the community college in America are summarized, including those pointing to a conspiracy of the elite, a populist alliance, and a…

This paper considers data on community college students provided by the California Statewide Longitudinal Study (SLS) and the implications of this study for curriculum and educational planning in areas other than vocational education, with special emphasis on implications for the transfer program. First, a background is provided on the origins and…

This paper describes the JumpStart project, a two-year grant program initiated by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Center for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC) to help community colleges develop entrepreneurship education efforts. Following a brief introduction, findings are presented from an initial review of existing community…

Projecting the future for U.S. community colleges into the early 21st century involves projecting the future for the United States in general. Based on trend data, it can be expected that the number of community colleges will not change, except to the extent that public universities organize additional two-year branch campuses or community…

The term general education has been employed to characterize an array of community college non-vocational programs, from Great Books courses to guidance services. General education at present differs from previous decades in terms of its emphasis on tighter curricular structure, global, gender, and ethnic studies, and the integration of knowledge.…

The Center for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC) in Los Angeles, California has examined transfer data for students at two-year institutions from 1984 through 1987. In the CSCC studies, transfer rates are calculated by dividing the number of students entering a community college with no prior college experience and completing at least 12…

Community colleges, in order to maintain a credible place within higher education during the 1980's, will have to integrate arts and sciences instruction into a curriculum provided for an increasing percentage of non-transfer students. This increase, due to an expected intensification of the competition from universities for a shrinking pool of…

Summarizes findings from a national study of the students, staff, and programs that make up community college fine arts departments. Reviews the history of community colleges' involvement in the fine and performing arts, student characteristics and goals, support for arts programs within the schools, and policy issues. (DMM)

Projecting the future for California community colleges involves projecting the future for the state and for the nation in general. According to population projections, the absolute number of 18-year-olds in the U.S. will rise to 4 million in 2004 up from 3.3 million in 1992. The tuition differential between California's community colleges and the…

After providing evidence of the decline of student academic ability and identifying some of the factors influencing this decline, this paper examines the role of community colleges in providing compensatory education for the growing population of students who are underprepared for college-level work. This examination begins by tracing the…

Reports on the Transfer Assembly, created to calculate student transfer rate from community colleges to public, in-state, four-year colleges or universities within four years. A consistent transfer rate over the past eight years suggests that community colleges are effectively serving as the postsecondary entry point for 22% of their students.…

Inconsistencies in the definition of transfer from two-year to four-year institutions and in the calculation of the transfer rate have given rise to incongruous findings. For example, one researcher in 1989 reported a transfer rate of less than 12% for the colleges in Illinois at the same time that the Chancellor's Office of the California…

A major reason for the paucity of usable data on the contributions and effectiveness of community colleges is that the definitions on which the data are based are imprecise. Colleges' contributions might be better understood if their functions were reconceptualized. The collegiate dimension of community colleges (i.e, that portion of the…

This discussion of the transfer function of California's community colleges focuses on the problems of obtaining reliable information, research findings on factors affecting transfer success, and ways of accurately assessing transfer rates. After affirming the importance of the transfer function of community colleges, the paper examines flaws and…