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April 20, 2010, 04:38 PM ET
6 Community-College Groups Pledge to Improve Completion Rates
Calling improving the United States' record on college completion a "national imperative," six groups that represent community colleges signed a pledge today to "promote the development and implementation of policies, practices, and institutional cultures that will produce 50 percent more students with high-quality degrees and certificates by 2020, while increasing access and quality." The groups that signed the "call to action" are the American Association of Community Colleges, the Association of Community College Trustees, the Center for Community College Student Engagement, the League for Innovation in the Community College, the National Institute for Staff & Organizational Development, and the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.
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Comments
1. alwaysquestioning - April 20, 2010 at 05:33 pm
How are they going to produce 50% more students with high-quality degrees when 70% of their faculty are part-time? Improving graduation rates and student success is directly tied to faculty imvolvement in any new policy, practice or culture. Most of the faculty in community colleges are too busy traveling to their next job to be involved in any major restructuring or redesign of courses, curriculum, etc. Until community colleges commit to hiring more full-time faculty, it's all administrative pandering.
2. archman - April 21, 2010 at 11:11 am
I see a new spurt of canned courses and grade inflation on the horizon... having greater numbers of powerless adjuncts will greatly streamline the process.
3. sallybemis - April 21, 2010 at 01:46 pm
Glad to see that the publics are starting to be held to some of the same standards as the for-profits.
4. mdanieltex - April 21, 2010 at 07:38 pm
There is already a surplus of bachelor's degrees (except in engineering, math, science); therefore, the push to produce more degrees does not serve students if they expect it to get them a job. Some community colleges are already making completion rate part of a faculty member's evaluation. It will just lead to pressure to pass more students. These things are problems even if all faculty are full-time. I talked to one instructor who runs a food management program whose school has set a graduation quota by race.
5. ccnorm - April 21, 2010 at 09:37 pm
Wow! 50% more of what? Without a quantitative starting place or definition of which degrees or programs might be targeted make this just empty rhetoric. I bet future "budget exingencies" will deflate some of this puffery.
6. gkllevy - April 27, 2010 at 03:46 pm
Not only do we need a quantitative baseline, but we also need a qualitative baseline before we try to increase the number of graduates by 50%. Not only is it important to know how many of our community college students are transferring to four-year institutions with or without associate's degrees or are being hired in the workplace, but it is also important to know how well they are doing in these future environments. To increase the quantity of graduates is relatively simple, e.g., cut down the number of credits and courses required for an associate's degree, but to maintain and increase the quality of the graduates, ah, there's the rub.
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