Author: Fionnuala Darby-Hudgens

Community Colleges and the Consequences of Change

Posted on Author Fionnuala Darby-Hudgens

The community college is an integral part of the equation in the American pursuit for education to function as societies’ great equalizer. It has a mission of open access for all, and the affordability of its programs supports this mission. While this might seem an ideal formula for providing upward socio-economic mobility for America’s students, the community colleges have evolved into institutions that support social class reproduction. The efficacy of these institutions needs to be examined to support the seven million students they currently educate. Inspection of the changes these institutions have made over the last fifty years must be considered in this evaluation. In order for an assessment to proceed, the question we must ask is: What factors caused the decline of social mobility among community college graduates since the 1960s?

Over the last century, the demographics of student populations at community colleges have changed drastically. Community colleges have responded to this demographic shift by transforming their curricula offerings. This has resulted in an increase in vocational, remedial, and business oriented certificate programs, and has reduced focus on Liberal Arts and Humanities transfer programs. A reduction of Liberal Arts and Humanities transfer programs limits baccalaureate attainment for community colleges students. The best course to promote socio-economic mobility of students is through attainment of a baccalaureate degree. Community colleges have become sponsors of social class reproduction for many of their students due to the increase in vocational, certificate, and remedial courses which limit opportunities for socio-economic mobility.

DEMOGRAPHIC SHIFT

A shift in the demographics of students attending community colleges began in the 1960s and proceeded through the 1970s. Prior to this demographic shift, and the ensuing curricula changes, community colleges sustained programs for socio-economic mobility of their students.  J.M. Beach Gateway to Opportunity clarifies, “the students who enrolled in community colleges in the first half of the twentieth century were middle-class high school graduates who wanted to earn their bachelor’s degree and enter a white collar profession.” 1 Many factors contributed to this demographic shift. By the 1970s, when compared to the student populations at four year institutions, student populations at community colleges were disproportionally of low-income and minority students. 2 The suggestions of Beach, and others imply two important things about the changes that occurred in community colleges around the 1970s and into the twenty-first century.

It first infers that the original students of community colleges focused on an academic curriculum that facilitated transfer to four-year institutions. It suggests that the students who were attending community college in the first half of the twentieth century came prepared for college level course work. The role of community colleges as a stepping-stone to four-year institutions also suggests that the degrees awarded at community colleges were not constructed to be the only degree obtained by the students.

Brint and Karabel’s account examining the increase in enrollment of economically disadvantaged students allows for a second inference to be made about this changing demographic. Compared to the white middle class students that attended community college in previous generations, a disadvantaged student population represents students who need education to facilitate socio-economic mobility. This change was facilitated by the increased access to federal financial aid with the Higher Education Act of 1965 and the amendments to that act in 1972. This legislation was designed to improve access to higher education for low-income students and to promote mobility. The results were an inflation of low-income students at open-access institutions like community colleges.

Brint and Karabel confirm the existence of a demographic shift in The Diverted Dream. Their interpretation of the shifting demographic of community colleges and the reasons for its occurrence support the argument of open access policies and an increase availability of student aid.  According to Brint and Karabel,

These funds, [federal student loans] combined with the growing number of open-door institutions located in or within easy access to minority populations, greatly increased the number of minority students in the nations community colleges… By the late 1970s, the major subordinate racial minorities, including blacks, were disproportionately concentrated in two-year institutions. 3

This increased access to higher education for low-income minority students is crucial to facilitating socio-economic mobility for marginalized populations. The change in community college curricula that follows contributes to the social class reproduction and is not a means of mobility for the students.

Community College Enrollment Demographics for 2006-2007 retrieved from the American Association of Community Colleges, "Fast Fact Sheet 2012"

CURRICULA AND PROGRAM CHANGES

In 1972 The American Association of Community and Junior Colleges (AACJC) released an annual assembly report, which demonstrates their acknowledgement of shifting student demographics and their changes in curriculum offerings in light of this shift. The report states that community and junior colleges should develop programs that:

  1. Aim for the goal of equipping all their students for personal fulfillment, immediate gainful employment, or for transferability to a four-year college
  2. Provide working students … access to instruction at times and places convenient to them… consider using external degree life experiences
  3. Improve Faculty-Staff-community-student relationships
  4. Give equal status to vocational, transfer and general education, student personnel and community services
  5. Development of occupational educational programs linked to business, industry, labor, and government
  6. Utilize new concepts of education through a learning center, personalizing, if not individualizing the instructional process
  7. Be flexible to change, in a continuing effort to provide more effective educational services
  8. Define and integrate programs in terms of specific student and societal needs. For example: Bilingual and bicultural programs. 4

In light of the changing demographics, community colleges were forced to retool their offerings, but how could any single institution achieve everything on the above list? The introduction of the many responsibilities outlined by the AACJA led to an explosion of many documented curricula changes at community colleges.

In the 1970s, as a result of an escalation in disadvantaged students attending community college, an increase in remedial education courses began. 5 Remedial education typically involves courses in Mathematics and English that are below college level. While the need for remedial education at community colleges highlights a problem in K-12 education, the community colleges rose to their changing student needs. They developed programs based on the missions of the AACJC and the needs of their student populations. While remedial offerings seem necessary, they do not contribute to the mobility of the students at community colleges. Today, Complete College America reports that for every ten students seeking an Associates degree, five will require remedial education, and fewer than one of those ten will graduate in three years. 6

Graphic retrieved from completecollege.org, May 2012

Brint and Karabel submit another curriculum change that occurred during the 1970s and into the 1980s. They describe that as a response to the countries’ fiscal crisis during the mid-1970s, community colleges began to make stronger ties to businesses with an increase in occupational and vocational programs. 7 This furthers the case that community colleges contribute to class reproduction instead of upward mobility. The increase in vocational programs, at a time when baccalaureate credentials were needed to enter the professional managerial class, affected the socio-economic gains provided by community college completion in the 1970s and 1980s.

In the 1980s, Fred L. Pincus “The False Promise of Community Colleges: Class Conflict and Vocational Education” further criticized the increase in vocational offerings. Pincus suggested that vocational offerings to community college students were an additional educational tracking mechanism that assured economic class reproduction of their students. 8 For disadvantaged, part-time, students, the quick track of vocational education may be glamorous, but is nonetheless a program that will assure working-class students become vocationally trained working-class adults. If community colleges promote and increase vocational offerings they are not adequately contributing to the upward mobility of their students. Instead, they are acting as vehicles of social class reproduction.

Kevin Dougherty, associate professor at Teachers Colleges of Columbia University is quoted by The Chronicle, echoing earlier sentiments of Pincus.

Community colleges and state systems increasingly take steps to make vocational programs seem more attractive, to ease prejudice against them — by building new vocational-program facilities, and by claiming in their publicity materials that graduates can make as much money coming out of vocational programs as they could by completing a baccalaureate degree. That may be true in some instances, but on average it is not. 9

Vocational education is not the correct route to socio-economic advancement, especially in a country of limited vocational employment opportunities. The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce projection reporting suggests that by 2018, 62% of employment will require some college education with more than half of that requiring a bachelors degree. 10

The late 1990s saw an introduction of yet another program offering at community colleges: contract training. Beach explains that contract training was a response to the increasing use of technology in business. The community college took on the role of training students for specific job placement opportunities that utilized technology. According to Beach, contract training may contribute to an increase in non-credit courses and a decrease in resources for the liberal arts. 11 Non-credit course work does not contribute to obtaining a bachelors degree. The argument can also be made that non-credit course work is terminal; it leads students to believe they are progressing towards higher education when the truth is they have not even begun educational advancement.

CONSEQUENCES OF CHANGE

The expansive curricula development at community colleges over the last half-century has resulted in three major problems for community colleges. The first is the offering of extensive remedial education programs. Statistics suggest that very few students who begin in remedial programs are not likely to complete community college. One could speculate that this is due to the time required to complete a program if semesters in non-college courses are necessary prior to entering a credit-gaining program. Furthermore, students who enter remedial education classes may never be proficient enough for college level course work.

Excluding remedial education programs jeopardizes the open access mission of community colleges. Students who require remedial education have no higher education opportunity other than access to community colleges. Three Rivers Community College (TRCC), Norwich, Connecticut is an example of the overabundance and inflated importance of remedial course offerings. For their Fall 2012 semester TRCC is offering one hundred and four classes with an ENGL distinction. Forty-five of these courses are courses that are pre-college level and only seven of the course offerings are of a 200 level distinction. 12 TRCC has placed a focus on remedial education.  This does not support courses that teach and promote the higher-order thinking needed to transfer to four-year institutions.  Remedial education can and will deviate attention away from Liberal Arts and Humanities transfer programs. It creates bottom heavy institutions of higher education that are not educating at a level higher than what is offered in high school.

The second problem is that massive amounts of program offerings have inevitably resulted in a reduced focus on Liberal Arts and Humanities transfer programs. These transfer programs are what will assist students in obtaining baccalaureate credentials. Brint and Karabel further analyze the decline of Liberal Arts at community colleges. They quote 1979 findings of Cohen and Lombardi who state, “except for U.S. history, Western civilization, American and State government introduction to literature and Spanish, little in the humanities remain.” 13 Strong transfer programs into baccalaureate level institutions are necessary for community colleges to provide socio-economic mobility for their students. Limiting these programs inevitably keeps disadvantaged students in the underclass.

The mission constructed by the AACJC in 1972 outlines multiple directions of curricula and program development, which have led to a disorganized system. Thomas Baily and Vanessa Smith Morest “Defending the Community College Equity Agenda” suggest, “the public community college was so overloaded with diverse missions that it was impossible to do any of them well.” 14 Community colleges do a disservice to their students by offering too much, and not excelling at enough.

The third problem inhibiting socio-economic mobility for the students of community colleges is the increase in promotion and funding of vocational and occupational programs. The Contradictory College concludes that community colleges, “were just ineffective, non-encouraging, anti-academic, low performing, and overly vocationalized.” 15  Additionally, an ethnographic study conducted in 1990 determined, “vocational education reinforced class inequalities.” 16 While there may be a place for vocational education, where the correct place is, is undetermined.

Vocational education funding has recently been seen as an easy fix to the problems associated with creating education opportunities’ for all. Recent legislation that first went to congress as a twelve billion dollar plan to increase graduation rates and transfer prospects for community college students known as the American Graduation Plan was changed in house negotiations. The end result was a two billion dollar plan to support career training. 17 Although the country values and rewards baccalaureate attainment and has an existing system that the first half of bachelors could be completed by many Americans it does not fund it.

THE BACCALAUREATE MATTERS

As previous projection statistics have shown, employment opportunity requiring a bachelor’s degree is growing. When examining this change over time from the 1960s to the present, Statistical Abstract Census data is representative of this phenomenon. It suggests that changes made from 1964 to 2010, including the increase in remedial course offerings, vocational education, and a reduction in humanities transfer courses has stagnated financial gains for associate degree completion.

Utilizing the median income figures by degree holding, a graph was constructed to highlight the occurrence of deteriorated economic growth by associate degree graduates.  In 1970 the graph shows that the median income of a person holding an associates degree began to rise slightly above the income of a person who had only obtained a high school degree. By the end of the 1970s and into the 1980s the graph shows that there is little difference in the median incomes between persons with high school completion and associates degree. This clarifies that in the 1970s and 1980s there was little socio-economic mobility for community college students. 18

The graph was constructed by compiling data from the Statistical Abstract provided by the United States Census every seven years from 1964 to 2010.

The graph illustrates a second important finding. It highlights the significant economic advantage of completing a baccalaureate degree. Today, the associate’s degree shows some economic advantage over a high school degree, but a bachelor’s holds twice that economic advantage. This would allow students to build income-producing assets. Pathways that allow for transfers opportunities to four-year institutions must be created in community colleges to assist in the socio-economic mobility of the students. Contradictory programs like vocational education contribute to the class reproduction of already disadvantaged populations.

Table Retrieved from the National Center for Education Statistics “Special Analysis, Figure 4: Total Fall Enrollment in Degree-granting Institutions, by Control and Type of Institution: 1963 Through 2006”

Despite the limited economic gains of completing an associate degree community college  institutional expansion is still on the rise and enrollment continues to sore . According to Brint and Karabel, “by 1980, over 90 percent of the population was within commuting distance of one of the nations 900 community college.” 19 This growth shows a commitment to educational access and opportunity in America, although is commitment enough to improve the economic trajectory of community college students?

An assessment of the drastic changes community colleges have made over the last fifty years illustrates a story that is contradictory to the institutions popularity. This expository focuses on how community colleges act as an additional public institution, participating in the cycle of social class reproduction. Their offerings while extensive, divert resources and attention away from the best course for socio-economic mobility. Today only thirty percent of the students enrolled in community college will complete their degree in one hundred and fifty percent of the time required to finish an associate’s degree. 20 The open access has resulted in education for all and mobility for only a few.

  1. Beach, J. M. Gateway to Opportunity: A History of the Community College in the United States. Stylus Publishing, 2011. ↩
  2. Brint, Steven, and Jerome Karabel. The Diverted Dream: Community Colleges and the Promise of Educational Opportunity in America, 1900-1985. Oxford University Press, USA, 1991. ↩
  3. Brint, Steven, and Jerome Karabel. The Diverted Dream: Community Colleges and the Promise of Educational Opportunity in America, 1900-1985. Oxford University Press, USA, 1991. ↩
  4. Colleges, American Association of Community and Junior. American Association of American Community and Junior Colleges Assembly Report 1972. American Association of Community and Junior Colleges, April 1972. ↩
  5. Lombardi, John. “The Decline of Transfer Education. Topical Paper Number 70. – ERIC – ProQuest.” Report ED179273 (1979): 37. ↩
  6.   “Complete College America”, 2011. http://www.completecollege.org/. ↩
  7. Brint, Steven, and Jerome Karabel. The Diverted Dream: Community Colleges and the Promise of Educational Opportunity in America, 1900-1985. Oxford University Press, USA, 1991. ↩
  8. Pincus, Fred. “The False Promises of Community College – Class Conflict and Vocational Education.” Harvard Educational Review 50, no. 3 (1980): 332–361. ↩
  9. Monaghan, Peter. “Educators Urged to Help Vocational Students at 2-Year Colleges Move on to Bachelor’s Degrees.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 12, 2001, sec. Archives. http://chronicle.com/article/Educators-Urged-to-Help/108231/. ↩
  10. “Complete College America”, 2011. http://www.completecollege.org/. ↩
  11. Beach, J. M. Gateway to Opportunity: A History of the Community College in the United States. Stylus Publishing, 2011. ↩
  12. “Connecticut Community College Course Search”, n.d. https://www.online.commnet.edu/pls/x/bzskfcls.P_CrseSearch. ↩
  13. Brint, Steven, and Jerome Karabel. The Diverted Dream: Community Colleges and the Promise of Educational Opportunity in America, 1900-1985. Oxford University Press, USA, 1991. ↩
  14. Bailey, Thomas, and Vanessa Smith Morest, eds. Defending the Community College Equity Agenda. 1st ed. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. ↩
  15. Dougherty, Kevin J. The Contradictory College: The Conflict Origins, Impacts, and Futures of the Community College (Suny Series in Frontiers in Education). State University of New York Press, 1994. ↩
  16. Claus, Jeff. “JSTOR: Curriculum Inquiry, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Spring, 1990), Pp. 7-39.” Curriculum Inquiry 20, no. 1 (Spring 1990): 7–39. ↩
  17. Gonzalez, Jennifer. “Obama Praises Community Colleges Amid Doubts About His Commitment.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 10, 2010, sec. Government. http://chronicle.com/article/Obama-Praises-Community/124869/. ↩
  18. Division, Systems Support. “US Census Bureau The 2012 Statistical Abstract: Earlier Editions”, n.d. http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/past_years.html. ↩
  19. Brint, Steven, and Jerome Karabel. The Diverted Dream: Community Colleges and the Promise of Educational Opportunity in America, 1900-1985. Oxford University Press, USA, 1991. ↩
  20. “Digest of Education Statistics, 2010”, n.d. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d10/tables/dt10_198.asp. ↩

Community Colleges: The potential for socio-economic gain of their students from the 1960s to the present.

Posted on Author Fionnuala Darby-Hudgens

The community college plays a significant role in the quest for American education to function as societies great equalizer, and resource to promote American meritocratic values. It has provided open access to higher education at a fraction of the cost of four year institutions. This has resulted in student populations that are disproportionally low-income and minority students when compared to the student populations at four year institutions 1 . Due to the high percentage of disadvantage students attending community college, analyzing the returns of community college education is essential to understanding the reality of upward economic mobility for disadvantage populations. This asks the question: how have community colleges contributed to the socio-economic mobility of their students when examined from the 1960s to the present? There is economic gain for an associate’s degree holder, this gain has grown since the 1960s. Unfortunately, it is not substantially more than the value of completing high school, and does not compare to the economic advantages of obtaining a baccalaureate degree. Additionally, current retention rates at community colleges are extremely low. The fluctuating economic benefits of an associate’s degree are due to the changing functions of community colleges, the demographic changes in the student populations, and the educational needs of the country.

Community colleges were created out of the common school movement in the early twentieth century as a response to the increase in amount of high school graduates and the need for more accessible higher education. Over the last century the demographics of their student populations have changed drastically. Beach explains, “the students who enrolled in community colleges in the first half of the twentieth century were middle-class high school graduates who wanted to earn their bachelor’s degree and enter a white collar profession” 2 . He is suggesting that community college was focused on academics that would facilitate transfer to four year institutions and that the degrees awarded at community colleges were not constructed to be the only degree obtained by the students. Beach proposes the shift in student demographics suggesting, “by the 1970s the community colleges became the point of entry for new student populations who were older and more economically disadvantaged” 3 .This demographic shift had profound effect on the economic value of the degree earned at community colleges.

The 1970s brought many changes to community colleges. An increase in the availability of federal financial aid, and the growing number of institutions allowed community colleges to actively recruit low-income minority populations and older non-traditional students. This demographic shift, contributed to less enrollment in liberal arts transfer courses and a high need for remedial courses. Brint and Karabel add to the change, by explaining that community colleges began to make stronger ties to business as a response to the countries fiscal crisis of the mid-1070s 4 . Increased enrollment of disadvantaged populations, the need for remedial classes, and the fiscal crisis of the 1970s contributed to the increase of vocational programs at community colleges. The increase in vocational programs at a time when baccalaureate credentials were needed to enter the professional managerial class affected the socioeconomic gains provided by community college completion.

The graph was constructed by compiling data from the Statistical Abstract provided by the United States Census every seven years from 1964 to 2010.

Examining Census data of the 1970s suggests that vocational education at community college stagnated growing financial gains for community college completion. In 1970 the graph shows that the median income of person holding an associates degree began to rise slightly above the income of a person who had only obtained a high school degree. By the end of the 1970s the graph shows that there is little difference in the median incomes between persons with high school completion and associates degree. This clarifies that in the 1970s there was little socio-economic mobility for community college students a trend that the graph indicates continued through the 1980s 5

In the 1990s Kevin Dougherty examined community colleges and concluded that they were contradictory institutions in his book, The Contradictory College. Dougherty believed that the institutions “were just ineffective, non-encouraging, anti-academic, low performing, and overly vocationalized” 6 . Although this critique suggests that community colleges are not deliberate institutions of social class reproduction, it brings up interesting questions about the undetermined purpose of community college and how their many purposes affect the socio-economic mobility of their students. Can a public institution of higher education be a jack of all trades and a master at none?  The recent census data suggests that there is economic advantage to holding an associate’s degree but certainly not as high as the economic advantage of obtaining a baccalaureate degree (see chart above). Additionally, what good are these economic advantages if they apply to so few students? Only 30% of the students enrolled in community college will complete their degree in 150% of the time required to finish an associates degree? 7 . Lastly, community colleges currently enroll seven million students and half of all undergraduate students in the country. The efficacy of these institutions needs to be examined to support the populations they serve.

Enrollment data complied from the National Center for Educational Statistics
  1. Beach, J. M. Gateway to Opportunity: A History of the Community College in the United States. Stylus Publishing, 2011. ↩
  2. Beach, J. M. Gateway to Opportunity: A History of the Community College in the United States. Stylus Publishing, 2011. ↩
  3. Beach, J. M. Gateway to Opportunity: A History of the Community College in the United States. Stylus Publishing, 2011. ↩
  4. Brint, Steven, and Jerome Karabel. The Diverted Dream: Community Colleges and the Promise of Educational Opportunity in America, 1900-1985. Oxford University Press, USA, 1991. ↩
  5. Division, Systems Support. “US Census Bureau The 2012 Statistical Abstract: Earlier Editions”, n.d. http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/past_years.html. ↩
  6. Dougherty, Kevin J. The Contradictory College: The Conflict Origins, Impacts, and Futures of the Community College (Suny Series in Frontiers in Education). State University of New York Press, 1994. ↩
  7. “Digest of Education Statistics, 2010”, n.d. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d10/tables/dt10_198.asp. ↩

Maintaining A Mission: The History of Community Colleges in the United States

Posted on Author Fionnuala Darby-Hudgens

Why were community colleges founded in the United States and have they maintained their original goals?

Community colleges, formally called junior colleges, provide the populations of their surrounding communities with higher education opportunity. These colleges provide associate degrees, certificate programs, developmental courses, vocational programs, distance learning opportunities, flexible scheduling, childcare, veteran resources, counseling, and employment for the communities they reside in. They provide these resources at a fraction of the cost of the traditional four- year colleges and universities. Community colleges are currently reporting record high enrollment rates; seven million students were attending community college in 2009. 1 High enrollment has lead to closer examination of their results. These institutions are under tremendous scrutiny for low retention and graduation rates.  Perhaps, a look at history can uncover what has resulted in the under performance of our countries community colleges. Why were community colleges founded in the United States and have they maintained their original goals?

Retrived from American Association of Community Colleges

In the early twentieth century community colleges were founded on the belief that a more skilled workforce would result in a stronger economy. Enrollment in high schools had increased, and additional higher education prospects were necessary 2 The history of community college creation is what I hope to examine. What were the original goals, and intentions for these institutions? Who were the original supporters of community colleges? Where were these colleges founded? Who were the first students to attended community colleges and what were their prospects upon completion? Finally, how were community colleges funded? To assist in answering some of these questions, primary source data is available at the American Association of Colleges, which houses a historical photo gallery and timeline of community college development.

In 1930, a Wisconsin automotive-mechanic class poses for a picture in their shop. Vocational schools were founded in Green Bay and Marinette in 1913 to standardize the education of apprentices. Today, those two campuses and one that opened in Sturgeon Bay in 1941 compose the Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. Retrieved from Sarah's AACC's Photostream at Flicker. http://www.flickr.com/photos/51048873@N02/sets/72157624996758893/

I hope to continue this research by examining the success of the early community colleges and compare that success to the community colleges of today. How did community colleges of the past contribute to the socio-economic mobility of their students? How did they respond to economic trends of the United States, and were they as scrutinized as community colleges are today? Secondary source information in “Diverted Dream” by Steven Brint and Jerome Karabel, a book about “community colleges and the promise of educational opportunity in America 1900-1985” and in “Gateway to Opportunity” by J. M. Beach will assist in answering the historical questions and provide further sources for primary data. Furthermore, I will obtain the data available through the National Center for Educational Statistics on the enrollment and retention rates of community college, which dates back to 1963 3 Additionally, I will utilize the data provided by The National Educational Longitudinal Study to help facilitate understanding of population demographics of students who have attended community college at different times throughout the past century.

While maintaining the underlying goal of the research, I am hoping that by learning who community college students were at various points in history, will provide a better analysis of the intended goals of community colleges. Have the student populations of community colleges changed over time and have they shifted the goals or purpose of community college education? As goals and directions may have shifted how were they influenced by political pressure.  In 2012 President Obama commissioned eight million dollars to go towards developing a career path for community college students 4 Were community colleges always a part of political education policy? How has politics and policy affected their goals, and rates of success?

A journal article published by Teachers College at Columbia University in 2011 “The Growth of Community Colleges in the American States: An Application of Count Models to Institutional Growth” utilizes statistical regression and data on all fifty states to suggest that political force has only small affect on the role of community colleges. It states, “This study provides support for the idea that the supply of higher education institutions is responsive to demand. Little support is found for the role of social stratification in the development of new institutions. Political forces do appear to play at least a small role in the expansion of institutions. Existing institutions may slow the growth of newer forms of post secondary education” 5 Yet, presidents as far back as Harry Truman and as recent as Obama have provided funding and addressed the state and success of community colleges 6

Today community colleges are frequently in the media. They are examined for their cost, their enrollment, their retention, their graduation rates, their curriculum and their transfer rates.  The Chronicle, a publication dedicated to the news of higher education has an entire weekly newsletter responsible for reporting the news of community colleges. Some of their articles include “Community-College Dropouts Cost Taxpayers Nearly $1-Billion a Year” and “Success Programs at Community Colleges -Often Offered, Rarely Required-Miss Many Students” are at the heart of some of the newest criticism on community colleges. The New York Times has featured pieces titled “Two-Year Colleges, Swamped, No Longer Welcome All” and “Community Colleges Need to Improve Graduation Rate” these provide proof of the current pressure that community colleges are faced with. I hope this recent media attention will help analysis when answering how community colleges are counseling, providing, and educating their seven million students? Have their goals remained the same or have they changed?

I am a graduate of community college. At community college I was provided a space to develop skills in writing, reading, and math that were never before taught to me. I was provided a community, a group of supporters who understood the precarious nature of the adult student. I was provided guidance on how to achieve and advance in my educational pursuits. I would not be at Trinity College, without community college. The topic is not only relevant because of increasing enrollment rates or media attention – it is relevant to me, and my own aspirations for educational success and completion.

Additional Works Consulted

Anon. 2012. “Community Colleges Past to Present.” American Association of Community Colleges. http://www.aacc.nche.edu/AboutCC/history/Pages/pasttopresent.aspx.

Anon. “Digest of Education Statistics, 2010.” http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d10/tables/dt10_201.asp.

Anon. 2012. “Low Graduation Rates at 2-Year Colleges Affect Students and State Governments, Report Says”. The Chronicle of Higher Education. The Ticker. http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/low-graduation-rates-at-2-year-colleges-affect-students-and-state-governments-report-says/41961.

Anon. “Badillo Says Community Colleges Need to Improve Graduation Rate – New York Times.” http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/01/nyregion/badillo-says-community-colleges-need-to-improve-graduation-rate.html?ref=communitycolleges.

Brint, Steven, and Jerome Karabel. 1991. The Diverted Dream: Community Colleges and the Promise of Educational Opportunity in America, 1900-1985. Oxford University Press, USA.

Beach, J. M. 2011. Gateway to Opportunity: A History of the Community College in the United States. Stylus Publishing.

Doyle, William, and Alexander Gorbunov. 2011. “EBSCOhost: The Growth of Community Colleges in the American States: An Application of …” Teachers College Record 113 (8) (August): p1794–1826.

Foderaro, Lisa W. 2009. “Two-Year Colleges, Swamped, No Longer Welcome All.” The New York Times, November 12, sec. Education. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/education/12community.html.

Lewin, Tamar. 2012. “Obama Budget Seeks Job Training at Community Colleges.” The New York Times, February 13, sec. Education. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/education/obama-to-propose-community-college-aid.html.

Supiano, Beckie. “In California, Private Colleges Benefit From Public System’s Shrinking Capacity – Students – The Chronicle of Higher Education.” http://chronicle.com/article/In-California-Private/131331/.

Thomas, Jacqueline Rabe. “Report: Community College Graduation Rate Lags | The Connecticut Mirror.” http://ctmirror.org/story/11893/grad-rates.

Weisberger, Ronald. 2005. “EBSCOhost: Community Colleges and Class: A Short History.” Teaching English in the Two Year College 33 (2) (December): 127–142. ERIC.

  1. Anon. “Digest of Education Statistics, 2010.” http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d10/tables/dt10_201.asp. ↩
  2. Anon. 2012. “Community Colleges Past to Present.” American Association of Community Colleges. http://www.aacc.nche.edu/AboutCC/history/Pages/pasttopresent.aspx. ↩
  3. Anon. “Digest of Education Statistics, 2010.” http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d10/tables/dt10_201.asp. ↩
  4. Lewin, Tamar. 2012. “Obama Budget Seeks Job Training at Community Colleges.” The New York Times, February 13, sec. Education. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/education/obama-to-propose-community-college-aid.html. ↩
  5. Doyle, William, and Alexander Gorbunov. 2011. “EBSCOhost: The Growth of Community Colleges in the American States: An Application of …” Teachers College Record 113 (8) (August): p1794–1826. ↩
  6. Anon. “Community Colleges Past to Present.” American Association of Community Colleges. http://www.aacc.nche.edu/AboutCC/history/Pages/pasttopresent.aspx. ↩

Fionnuala – Avoiding Plagiarism

Posted on Author Fionnuala Darby-Hudgens

Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word.

A teacher who gets a particular ranking in year one is likely to get a different ranking the next year. There will always be instability in these rankings, some of which will reflect “real” performance changes.

Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word.

A teacher who receives a ranking in year one is likely to get a different ranking the following year. There will always be instability in these results, some might reflect real performance changes.

Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include a citation. Even though you cited it, paraphrasing too closely is still plagiarism.

A teacher who receives a ranking in year one is likely to get a different ranking the following year. There will always be instability in these results, some might reflect real performance changes (Ravitch 270-271).

Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York: Basic Books, 2011, pp. 270-71.

Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source.

Ravitch explains that to measure a teachers professional growth from year to year is no perfect science. I believe the problem is defining a measurable variable to establish if professional growth has taken place.  She further criticizes the growth measurement system that utilizes student test scores to determine a teachers growth. She cites a New York Times economist who explains that there are large margins of errors in this type of assessment of teachers professional growth (Ravitch 270-271).

Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York: Basic Books, 2011, pp. 270-71.

Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source.

Ravitch explains that to measure a teachers professional growth from year to year is no perfect science. I believe the problem is defining a measurable variable to establish if professional growth has taken place.  She further criticizes the growth measurement system that utilizes student test scores to determine a teachers growth. She cites New York Times economist Sean Corcoran, who explains that there are large margins of errors in this type of assessment of teachers professional growth. Corcoran says, “found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points.” (Corcoran qtd in Ravitch 270-271). Ravitch continues stating, “a teachers who has ranked at the 43rd percentile compared to his or her peers might actually be anywhere between the 15th percentile and the 71st percentile” (Ravitch 270-271). Ravitch then compares the accuracy of educator ratings to the consistency of a coin toss. (Ravitch 270-271).

Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York: Basic Books, 2011, pp. 270-71.

Quietly Announcing A Crisis

Posted on Author Ashley Ardinger and Fionnuala Darby-Hudgens

Fair Housing and the Achievement Gap
How one can not be accomplished without the other.

HARTFORD – In an unsuspecting building on Lawrence Street, housing and education experts, professionals, and scholars came together today to discuss and pose solutions to a crisis shaping Connecticut’s public education system; how can we achieve equitable public education without equitable housing? The Partnership for Strong Communities, (PSC), hosted the open forum, at the Lyceum Center, to facilitate a forum entitled Connecticut’s Achievement Gap: How Housing Can Help Close It, and the turn out of was impressive.

The conference room was buzzing with energy and excitement from the moment the reception began. Education and housing professionals alike were sharing theories on how to improve our current public school achievement gaps via housing in the beautiful and recently remolded space at the Lyceum Center, which is funded by The Melville Trust. Sadly, the excitement waned quickly, when the unenthusiastic Executive Director of Partnership for Strong Communities, Howard Rifkin quietly opened the forum. A forum that was bringing together two topics rarely discussed in unison. A forum supported by shocking statistics reported in a policy brief by the PSC, including that “824 children were homeless on a single night in January 2011 in Connecticut”. A forum calling urgency to the obvious crisis for the children of the state, and their educators. A forum that was disorganized, littered with inequality, and quietly introduced.

The forum agenda included two panel discussions and an address from CT Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor. The first panel included Susan Eaton, Research Director at Harvard Law School and author of The Children of Room E4, and Heather Schwartz, Policy Researcher, RAND Corporation. Schwartz polled the audience to assess how many individuals worked in housing and how many worked for in education. The response was about fifty-fifty; indicating the rarity of the inclusion and intersection of professionals in the room. While the interests of the audience were divided, even greater divides were present on stage. Both women, Eaton and Schwartz, were seated lower to the ground than facilitator Shelby Mertes, policy analyst at PSC, who was seated in a much taller stool, with his body perpendicular to the audience. Mertes spoke down at the women as they gave their expert opinions, and forcefully pushed the conversation along while inserting many of his own opinions into his questions.

Eaton spoke confidently and knowledgeably about the history of neighborhood schools in Connecticut, dating back to the 1920’s. Schwartz, gave an eye-opening summary of her research in Montgomery County, Maryland. She researched for seven years about achievement gaps in state testing of students in public housing in both “moderate” poverty neighborhoods as well as “low” poverty neighborhoods. Figures from her study show that “after two years in the district, children in public housing performed equally on standardized math tests regardless of the poverty level of the school they attended” – Heather Schwartz


Heather Schwartz’s, “Housing Policy Is School Policy: Economically Integrative Housing Promotes Academic Success in Montgomery County, Maryland”

After receiving applause from the audience for her explanation of research that defied the odds of student achievement, Mertes sarcastically poked at Schwartz asking, “how did Montgomery County do it then?” The confidence of intellect radiated off of Schwartz as she explained her study, again. Schwartz lost her train of thought during her explanation more than likely due to the conversation Mertes was having with David Fink on stage, while Schwartz was speaking. Mertes’s body language and tone left audiences wondering; does the policy analyst of PSC believe that fair housing can eradicate the achievement gap? If not where do we go from here?

The address of Education Commission Stephan Pryor separated the two panels. Energetically he bellowed to the audience that “housing and education are inextricably intertwined.” As our impassioned Commissioner of Education refueled the crowd, our host, Mertes, remained on stage. Followed by Pryor’s uplifting segment, the second panel including four working education professionals took the stage; two public school principals, a city superintendent, and a member of the CT Board of Education. They energetically put the conversation of race and money on the table. Gary Highsmith a high school principal, said in response to current education reform, “we can not make back bones out of wish bones.” Allan Taylor, Chairperson of the CT State Board of Education challenged school transportation costs in CT remarking that the Connecticut Regional Education Council spends $6,000 dollars a year per child, busing students away from their neighborhoods. This means that $72,000 dollars is spent in the school life of a child before they even arrive at school. This panel called for accountability and assigned concrete expenditures to unequal housing, and unequal education in Connecticut.

Miguel Cardona, Principal of Hanover Elementary School, Gary Highsmith, Principal of Hamden High School, Susan Marks, the Superintendent of the Norwalk Public School District, and Allan Taylor, Chairperson of the Connecticut State Board of Education and Shelby Mertes, PSC.

The forum closed with an opportunity for the audience to ask all experts from both panels any questions. Again, a divide was witnessed. This time between expert scholars, who were white females, and the second panel of education professionals. The females sat above and behind the professionals in a fashion that would be similar of a test proctor looking down at a class. A further separation of subject was even more evident when Shwarts asked the professionals about the inclusion of Advanced Placement Courses and Baccalaureate programs in high schools. Not only did the experts have to strain to turn around to answer Shwarts, it was painfully obvious that these two groups rarely engage each other.

With greater frequency one can hope these conversations will improve. No concrete solutions were provided for audience, scholar, or expert, and towards the end a circling of conversation began to develop in the room. In a state where the crisis has been identified as owning the largest achievement gap between non-low-income and low-income students in the nation, one might anticipate a greater call for rally when discussing the very barriers that prevent eradicating the crisis.

Ashley Ardinger is a senior at Trinity College majoring in Educational Studies with a minor in music.  She plans to continue working in the field of education and is currently applying to graduate programs for her Masters and teacher certification in special/bilingual education.  In her spare time, Ashley is the director of Trinity’s oldest a capella group, The Trinity Pipes.


Ashley Ardinger and Fionnuala Darby Hudgens

Where can you find Common School teachers’ letters?

Posted on Author Fionnuala Darby-Hudgens '13

Question: In her 2003 book, historian Nancy Hoffman published letters written by nineteenth-century teachers such as Ellen Lee and Mary Adams, which were located in an archive. How can you find similar letters (or diaries) written by other teachers from this era? Describe your search strategy (but obtaining the actual letters is not required).

Option One (requires prior knowledge)

This particular source detective work, to explain how to find actual letters or diaries written by nineteenth century school teachers, lead me first to Google. The original source provided by Jack, Woman’s “true” profession : voices from the history of teaching by Nancy Hoffman, cited in the chapter heading, that the letters were from a collection at the Connecticut Historical Society. In the Cities Suburbs and Schools seminar  I learned about the Connecticut Historical Society and was taught that they did have an online presence, as well as some material available on line.

1. Open your computer, then an Internet browser of your choice, and type in www.google.com into the address bar at the top of the screen.

2. When the google window appears, in the large search bar provided, type “Connecticut Historical Society”.

3. The search will produce many findings, the second option was what I was looking for. I was aware the museum was located in Hartford and the address to the right of the website title alerted me that this was indeed the Hartford Historical Society of Hartford, Connecticut. (Reason number 724,356 to LOVE Google.)

4. After selecting the second option I was able to see the website for the Connecticut Historical Society.

5. On the top of the page there is a menu bar, click on the one titled “Research”. Then click on the link “online database and subject databases” and search “National Board of Popular Education Collection”.

6. Only one option was returned in the search and it was indeed a letter! The summary description of the source explains that this is exactly what I am looking for. It was not available to view online so I will need to go the library to view it. You can use Google Maps for driving or walking directions to the Connecticut Historical Society.

Option Two (Assumes comfort with navigating the internet and access to Trinity College databases.)

Ask a Librarian

As students at Trinity College we are fortunate to have easy access to librarians. The first step is to make an appointment with them. Here.

Screen Shot of Trinity College Website

2. I selected the librarian I wanted to work with, and then a time I he and I were both available. Finally, I pasted the assignment instructions into the question box that asks “What is your research topic?” and I was all set. I received an email confirmation of the appointed that was easy to insert into my Google Calender.

3. My appointment was with Rob Walsh, and he also believed starting with Nancy Hoffman’s book was a good idea. We searched for it in the library catalouge using the advanced search option.

4. Rob informed me that the subjects listed underneath the comments section of the book are actually in all the libraries. Meaning that libraries categorize all their holdings of specific subjects in the same way.

Screen Shot of Trinity College library advance search.

5. Rob insisted using the specific vernacular of the library subject to search World Cat. “WorldCat is the world’s largest network of library content and services. WorldCat libraries are dedicated to providing access to their resources on the Web, where most people start their search for information” (WorldCat website).

6. When we search “Women teachers–United States–History”, our search produced thousands of results, but more importantly many were a part of Trinity’s collection. The first book listed, Women Teachers on the Frontier by Polly Welts Kaufman is described as, “collected reminiscences tell the story of the single women who travelled to the West as teachers before the Civil War.” This is what I was looking for!

7. In the spirit of Rob’s “serendipitous finding” I went to the call number of the book and found a shelf of texts related to the subject.

Option Three (Unexplored)

Trinity College does have a database of primary source documents, oral historys, and videos etc. I did not utilize this data base because I felt that I had enough to start with. The database can be found here.