WASHINGTON — Usually when a call is made for more diversity on campus, it entails increasing the proportion of poor students and students of color at selective institutions that grant baccalaureate degrees.
But at a press conference on Thursday, a group of thought leaders called for a different type of diversity at institutions that grant associate’s degrees.
Specifically, they said more should be done to attract students from middle and upper class backgrounds to community colleges.
The idea is to end the racial and economic isolation and stratification that exists at many community colleges and thereby bring about improved outcomes in terms of graduation and other measures. That’s according to Richard D. Kahlenberg, senior fellow at The Century Foundation and executive director of the foundation’s Task Force on Preventing Community Colleges from Becoming Separate and Unequal.
“Community colleges are inadequately funded and they’re increasingly segregated by race and class,” Kahlenberg said Thursday during an event to release the foundation’s new report titled “Bridging the Higher Education Divide: Strengthening Community Colleges and Restoring the American Dream.” The report comes in the form of a 165-page book that includes a series of background papers, including one titled “The Role of Race, Income, and Funding on Student Success.”
The report notes that the dropout rates at community colleges are believed to be much higher than the overall college dropout rate of 50 percent and that few students transfer to four-year institutions despite their intentions to do so.
