In this article, the author shares his experiences as a professor of English at Monroe Community College in New York. He compares teaching at a community college as something similar to transporting lost souls across the River Styx. He relates that the open door admissions policy practiced at his school has given him opportunities to reach out to…

Community college students can be characterized by factors that typically relate to students at-risk. On the whole, community college students are members of minority groups, older, attend school on a part-time basis, have taken on family responsibilities, and are less well-prepared than students in four-year colleges and universities. Although…

Discusses the need to improve basic skills of students at community colleges, including the need for faculty to accept their role as teachers, not professors; the importance of training faculty in teaching skills; recognition by community colleges of their role in developing basic skills and job skills; and enrolling students only in courses for…

Offers answers to 20 questions most frequently asked by faculty concerning supplemental instruction (SI) programs. Explains that SI instructors are usually students who have successfully completed a course that has been targeted as high-risk. States that students who attend SI sessions have a high course success rate overall, and that they persist…

The Faculty Alliance for Education in Newark (New Jersey) is a network of faculty from local universities, a community college, and two high schools, all in the city of Newark, dedicated to improving the opportunities for at-risk youth to achieve a college education and an improved quality of life. It is an initiative of the Newark Educational…

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…

Increasingly, educators are being challenged to find meaningful ways to meet the needs of nontraditional college students. A transdisciplinary model is useful in meeting these needs, in that it focuses on the individual and is characterized by a sharing of information and skills across traditional disciplinary boundaries. This model was conceived…

Describes methods which have proven effective in motivating largely nontraditional and bilingual community college students to succeed. Suggests that teachers require writing, use graphs/illustrations creatively, use primary sources as required readings, provide supplementary readings, use brainstorming and quality circle techniques, and prepare…

This teacher's manual, designed to improve the math and writing skills and self-images of entering college students, offers a model for faculty-counselor collaboration within the developmental classroom and focuses on affective and cognitive learning. The first chapter provides an administrative strategy for encouraging faculty-counselor…

Non-learners are externally controlled students conditioned to expect both failure and success. They are aware of their basic skill deficiencies yet know that passive behavior in high school classrooms has resulted in passing grades. Given the nature of the non-learner, developmental educators cannot achieve positive results through manipulating…

This document contains 30 papers on professional development in community colleges. The following papers are included: "Effective Leadership Strategies for Planning and Implementing Tech Prep" (Bragg, Huffman); "Small Business Management-Tech Prep" (Harvey); "Educational Reform and the New Mission" (Hoerner);…