New Report Says College Access is Deeply at Risk
Monday, August 9, 2004
Education Commission of the States

A ccess the report online at http://www.league.org/league/projects/promise/download.html

--Nation's Leading Higher Education Experts Offer Analysis and Policy Recommendations--

Community colleges are the critical access points of higher education and economic opportunity for half of the nation's college students. A new report called Keeping America's Promise shows that while these institutions are affordable and effective, they are undervalued and underfunded. 

Community colleges educate and prepare young people, parents, workers, and first-generation college students for their professional lives, but college access in America is deeply at risk. Funding and academic preparation are essential to the success of students, but dangerous trends are conspiring against them at a critical point in the economic recovery. According to Keeping America's Promise , associate's degrees generally provide workers with a wage boost of about 20-30% over a high school diploma. However, the report says that as demand for community college enrollment continues to grow, funding will continue to fail to keep pace with either inflation or the number of students enrolling. Reduced state financing and shifts in financial aid policies are sending well over a quarter million prospective students each year away from the nation's community colleges.

"The U.S. is currently number one in the global economic race, but mediocre performance on international assessments of educational quality suggest that its preeminent status is living on borrowed time," writes Anthony Carnevale, a Senior Fellow with the National Center on Education and the Economy and Donna Desrochers, a Director of Policy Research with the Educational Testing Service. They add, "As economic and demographic changes increase the demand for workers with at least some college, income differentials between the most and least skilled will continue to grow, threatening the egalitarian base at the core of America's culture."

Academic preparation to succeed in community colleges is also critical, but almost 50% of all first-time community college students are assessed as under prepared for the academic demands of college-level courses. The challenges are more acute for low-income students and students of color - those whose previous schooling has served them least well. With their open door policies and extensive remediation support programs, community colleges are mission driven to serve these students, many of whom have learning disabilities and can succeed with extra help.

The report highlights how only one in six college students is a "traditional student" - one that is 18 to 24 years old, attends school full time, and lives on campus. Almost 90% of all community college students are "nontraditional." More than half of them work full time, and over one-third have dependents. Community colleges require multiple support programs to address their specific needs.

Kay McClenney, a leading authority on community colleges and a report contributor said, "Opportunity in this country is more and more a function of education. We need to keep our promises to young people so they can live the American dream - so they can enroll in our colleges and achieve their goals." 

The report also details how investing in higher education has far-reaching positive effects. The more educated people are, the more likely they are to be gainfully employed, pay taxes, be able to provide for the needs of their children, and participate in civic life and democratic processes. More educated people are less likely to be dependent on public support, on welfare or in prison; they are less likely to experience violence, addiction, illness, and abuse. The least educated are more likely to be living in poverty. In households headed by high school dropouts, the poverty rate (22%) is 10 times higher than in households headed by college graduates. 

To best position community colleges to improve and expand educational and economic opportunities for the widening base of students, McClenney recommends that community colleges:

Create stronger connections with K-12 education. Replicate dynamic model programs that reach out to high school drop outs, co-locate secondary and post-secondary programs, co-enroll students in high school and community colleges and offer flexible GED preparation classes.

Using better data as evidence, community colleges must create greater accountability. Institutions should identify key performance indicators for the institutions themselves; and break down student data by race and ethnicity, income, gender, and age.

Provide effective remediation. As the nation's open door institutions, there is a critical need for community colleges to succeed with remedial education, which often means the difference between completion and dropping out. 

Strengthen student engagement in the community college learning experience. The more engaged students are, the more they will learn and the more likely they will be to persist to attainment of their educational goals.

Rethink basic assumptions, and redesign some traditional policies. For example, focus more resources on incoming students since schools lose half of their students in the first year. Schools should also get rid of late registration and other practices that are more about revenue generation or faculty convenience than they are about student learning and success. 

Exercise leadership. More effective policies within institutions, public policy advocacy at the statehouse and before the federal government are needed. Community colleges must rethink, redefine, and redesign, confronting the need for institutional change. 

Katherine Boswell, an expert on higher education and a contributor to the report, recommends that state policymakers provide incentives for institutions to collaborate across educational sectors, support student unit data systems that track students and their performance at every level, and reward institutions that meet expectations. 

Other contributors to the report include Mario Martinez , an associate professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Nevada Las Vegas; Cynthia D. Wilson , Vice President of Learning and Research at the League for Innovation in the Community College; Russell E. Hamm, a consultant on workforce development issues and a former senior community college administrator and official with the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration; and Derek V. Price, a higher education consultant and author of Borrowing Inequality: Race, Class, and Student Loans.

Keeping America's Promise is a joint project of the Education Commission of the States and the League for Innovation in the Community College.