Posted on 11/05/2007 1:20:17 PM PST by Kaput
Community College Bowl by: Malcolm A. Kline, October 30, 2007
Many years ago—16 to be exact—Saturday Night Live broadcast a sketch called Community College Bowl in which slow-witted contestants slowly answered simple questions normally asked of grade school students. The writers of that sketch may have been way ahead of their time.
Community colleges have tried just about every promotional gimmick short of a “Going out of business” sale. Ironically, given their increasing use of remedial coursework, that might be the most appropriate stratagem for them to use.
“Estimates vary, but many community-college educators and experts say that on average between 40 percent and 70 percent of new students entering two-year colleges around the country place into remedial math,” Debra E. Blum reports in The Chronicle of Higher Education. And the news gets even worse.
“There are students taking these courses three, four, five times before they can pass them, and many who drop out, give up before they do,” Barbara S. Bonham of Appalachian State said. Graduation hopes seem to fade with every repeat.
“No national statistics exist to track pass rates, but among a group of 27 two-year colleges participating in a foundation-supported effort to improve graduations and transfer rates, called Achieving the Dream, the data are grim,” Blum writes. “Fewer than one-quarter of the students at the 27 colleges who placed into a remedial-math course in academic 2002-3 had finished their pre-college math requirements three years later.”
It bears repeating that community colleges are two-year institutions of higher learning. Many casual observers think that this is the time it takes to earn a degree from one of these egalitarian institutions.
Not necessarily. “Students see that it’s all right to take more than two years to graduate,” says Walter Hunter, who teaches at Montgomery County Community College in suburban Philadelphia. “That’s critical because many of these students are also taking developmental courses in English and reading, and there’s little chance they can do that and finish in two years.”
“We don’t want to lose people because they are discouraged.” No, of course not.
MCCC is trying to boost its graduation rate to 23 percent. That’s right, less than a quarter of its students graduate.
An enterprising salesman may want to find these students and sell them a time share. Could this remedial bent be one reason why this generation is more in debt than any of its forebears?
Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.
If you would like to comment on this article, please e-mail mal.kline@academia.org
I have a friend who is a professor at MCCC. Some of the stories she tells about students there would make your hair stand on end.
"Well, The world needs ditch diggers too!" -- Judge Smails
Moron CCC?
Not particularly surprising. There are some bright or at least intelligent kids at CCs because of money or other situations, but a fair number simply wouldn’t have gone to college at all in the days before CCs. A lot of them don’t make it and should be concentrating on a trade (which you can also get in CC). In fact, I’d love to take culinary arts just for the heck of it.
Our local community college (Northern Virginia Community College) attracts some very bright students. Two of my kids have taken classes there (during high school and after). Last summer one took a writing class given by a man who’d spent his career teaching at Northwetern University and UVA. Many students attend the community college to get the two years of courses over before transferring to a four year college.
For large families, the community college option is a very oost-effective way to get a degree. It has the added benefit of allowing some maturity, so when the student does move on to the more costly four year school, s/he may have a better idea of where s/he is headed than would have been the case right out of high school.
Community college isn’t necessarily the best option for every student, nor are all community colleges equal, but I’ve been very pleased with the results I’ve seen with my own kids and some of their friends.
No disrespect intended. I am sure there are many kids that attend community colleges who work hard and use them as a stepping stone to later success.
I’ve often thought I’d enjoy chef’s school.
I didn’t interpret as a sign of disrespect, was just trying to show that some students and some community colleges are really quite good.
I have two ‘late bloomers’ who did well by spending some time locally before moving on. Both had SAT’s > 1400 and good enough grades, but maturity was sorely lacking. I was not about to lay out $30K for two years while they ‘found themselves.’
Unfortunately, way too many kids are shoved on to college before they have a clue. The Brits’ ‘gap year’ is something that should be observed in the USA.
And, many accredited colleges are rife with remedial courses. It’s not just community colleges. IMO, that should all be taken care of before the kid is granted a high school diploma much less admitted to an accredited four-year college. That is, if you can find a ‘college.’ They all seem to have graduated to ‘universities,’ the better to charge more tuition, one presumes.
Maybe, but most of the credits will transfer to just about any school. A lot of rather bright people are picking community colleges to save a lot of money.
There are bright ones, of course, and home-schoolers who get a free ride with advanced courses at our local community college, but it is discouraging to find out how many students didn’t learn the basics because they were never exposed to them.
One of the top Culinary Schools at Community College prices, one of the top 5 in the nation, (not far behind "CIA" in NY) if my memory is correct.
Go here:
http://www.architechmag.com/articles/detail.aspx?contentID=2628
My oldest son is a "late bloomer", and he'll be in the local CC until he proves to me he can hack a 4-year college.
I haven't been surprised at the large # of kids from my son's HS are starting their college careers at CC's. After four years of shelling out thousands for sports and extracurricular activities, parents are drawing the line as well.
My daughter is in her 3rd year (of most likely five) at Univ of N. TX in Denton. Fine public school, but our total support for her is $12K per year, minimum. If I sat down and really crunched the numbers, I know it would be more. I just don't feel like beating myself up.
agreed.
What’s good is that the kids at CC can meet more mature
folks who have been through lots of living, i.e. veterans,
foreign older students, mom’s, people with motivation to
change their lives, etc...
Going to a 4 year college with lots of grade-gunners, or
front row rangers who don’t know didly about life is
not necessarily very good, cause sometimes the student
get’s caught into the “student” ghetto mentality, then
there is very little diversity in the students experience,
But an intelligent, purposeful, disciplined student at
a four year institution is nice to see and generally
a very good experience, and the benefit of working with
and learning from practicing researchers, or experts in
their fields can be very intellectually stimulating.
You got that right! One can get their prerequisites out of the way for perhaps $1500 a semester at a CC. That's a bargain when public universities are running $6K and up per semester.
“I’ve often thought I’d enjoy chef’s school.”
I know I would, although I’d never go at it as a profession. My wife says she cooks, while I “chef.” Although that’s definitely an exaggeration.
I went to a Community College. CCs are populated mostly by people who really want to be there but have jobs. Remedial math is nothing to be ashamed of, I did it and went on to get an A in calc 3 at a “real” college. I’m an engineering PM with 8 figures worth of contracts now. It worked out for me.
My wife teaches at the local CC. She encounters students who can't compose a single sentence without mistakes, who have never been taught any English grammar. How can they write correctly if they haven't been taught? Apparently, the only language instruction they received was, "Be creative".
As others have pointed out, sometimes the classes have older students (40s, 50s+). They are aghast at what the younger ones don't know.
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