Community Colleges for the Students They Actually Have

Autor/in	Wyner, Josh
Titel	Community Colleges for the Students They Actually Have
Quelle	In: Chronicle of Higher Education, (2012) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0009-5982
Schlagwörter	Tenure; Community Colleges; Educational Change; College Students; Remedial Instruction; Comprehensive Programs; Educational Innovation; Educational Improvement; Educational Quality; Student Responsibility; Student Needs; Homework; Student Employment; School Schedules; Teaching Methods + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Amtszeit; Beschäftigungsdauer; Community college; Community College; Bildungsreform; Collegestudent; Förderkurs; Gesamtunterricht; Instructional innovation; Bildungsinnovation; Teaching improvement; Unterrichtsentwicklung; Quality of education; Bildungsqualität; Hausaufgabe; Studentenarbeit; Schulzeiteinteilung; Teaching method; Lehrmethode; Unterrichtsmethode
Abstract	In the United States, people think of elementary and secondary education as fundamentally different from higher education. The first two levels are where students are expected to learn the building blocks for lifelong learning, while college is meant to confer higher-order thinking and more-specialized skills. How students are treated flows directly from the difference in these sets of expectations. Before college, students generally are provided with schedules for prescribed classes, where they end up doing more learning inside than outside the classroom. College students, by contrast, are expected to be far more independent, to figure out which classes to take and then do most of their course-related work outside the classroom. For most of the roughly seven million students seeking degrees at community colleges, though, this construct makes little sense. They have often not mastered the building blocks: Up to two-thirds of community-college students need remedial education. Even though they are often the first in their families to go to college, community-college students receive scant support or advice for navigating course choices. And most of them have jobs, leaving less time for homework. The result: Fewer than 40 percent of those who attend full time go on to graduate or transfer within three years. But what if community colleges were organized to achieve success for the students they have, not for students like those who attend four-year residential colleges? First, such a re-envisioned community college would offer far greater numbers of block-scheduled programs. Rather than selecting courses, most students would be directed to enter comprehensive programs built around specific degree goals and schedules. A second important change would affect what happens in the classroom. A central operating theory in elementary and secondary reform is that the most important variable that schools can directly influence to improve learning is the quality of teaching in the classroom. There is every reason to believe the same is true in community colleges. Re-envisioned, community colleges would focus their hiring, professional development, and tenure systems on a single goal: improved teaching and learning. These innovations--structured programs and rigorous systems of tenure and support for improved teaching--are already happening at some excellent community colleges in the United States as well. Now more community colleges must follow suit if they are to meet the vital goal of significantly increasing the success of their diverse student bodies. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Chronicle of Higher Education. 1255 23rd Street NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037. Tel: 800-728-2803; Tel: 202-466-1000; Fax: 202-452-1033; e-mail: circulation@chronicle.com; Web site: http://chronicle.com
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10