The majority of new jobs in the 21st century will require some postsecondary education. Yet more than one third of those entering college are underprepared and needful of remediation. In this essay the author shares with the reader his first experience of teaching the lowest level prealgebra course at an urban community college. This is a story of…

This book provides beginning teachers and educational leaders with a series of articles that can help them build their curriculum knowledge base. Features include: (1) Provides a historical context of the curriculum field, giving educators a solid foundation for curriculum knowledge; (2) Describes the political nature of curriculum and how we must…

This action research study evaluates a classroom approach incorporating a reflective, metacognitive component within a second language process-oriented writing environment. Inspired by the literature and developed by the first author, this approach seeks to provide English language learners (ELLs) with a command of metalinguistic principles…

This article uses the 2005 Basic Classifications of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a framing device through which to examine patterns of student financial aid at America's rural community colleges, which represent 64% of all U.S. community colleges. Rural community colleges serve more first-time, full-time students than…

Community colleges educate students from both oppressed and marginalized groups, yet there is almost no literature on community colleges and issues of social justice. Student participation in service learning has been tentatively linked to development of a social justice lens. In this study, I analyze community college students' post-course civic…

This chapter describes rural community colleges, compares them to their urban and suburban counter-parts, and highlights the unique challenges they face in the twenty-first century. (Contains 4 tables.)

It is an unfortunate reality that not all students successfully navigate the path from urban community colleges to four-year institutions. Despite the apparent obstacles and odds, some students are successful. This article is the equivalent of reading a book by starting with the last chapter and then reading the rest of the book to find out why…

Palm Beach Community College realigned its curriculum to allow students to seamlessly process through career pathways. Students can start in clock-hour-based instruction and transfer that learning into credit-based associate in science degrees. Along this pathway, students can use exit points to employment with recognized certificates.

This chapter describes how a well-respected peer-led academic support model, Supplemental Instruction (SI), has been successful in improving grades and reducing failure in high-risk courses at LaGuardia Community College since 1993. (Contains 1 table.)

At a time when, nationally, community colleges are increasing their reliance on contingent faculty, and nonacademics are increasingly attacking the tenure system, some community colleges--like Bronx Community College, City University of New York--continue to follow the traditions of shared governance. The collective bargaining unit at CUNY that…

This chapter presents lessons learned from a community college in Arizona in implementing dual-enrollment partnership programs.

This paper presents a goal-based scenario approach to teaching introductory database concepts to undergraduates using two different scaffolding methods. One method, termed "worked-out examples," attempts to reduce extraneous cognitive load by requiring students to complete increasingly complex missing parts of worked out examples. The other…

The study reported in this paper investigated the effectiveness of an Integrated Holistic Teaching Method for teaching grammatical structure, cultural norms and behavior, writing and listening to German language students. The study involved a sample of 24 undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory college-level German course at a large…

An urban community college routinely assigns Swift, Plato, Joyce, and other classic authors of the Western tradition to its immigrant and minority students. Bruce Gans, who founded and directs the program, tells of the value of Great Books to those who have the most to gain from rising above race, culture, and class.

This paper is an exploratory description of remedial coursetaking over several semesters. In attempting to characterize the introductory course classrooms of urban community colleges, it proposes a distinction between fragmentary and full cohorts. Also proposed is a concept little examined in community colleges, the placement/course level match,…