Evidence arrives in tantalizing dribs and drabs:
* Almost 64 percent of juniors and seniors at Arizona State University have transfer hours from community colleges.
* Half of all the students receiving engineering degrees from the University of Maryland began at community colleges.
* About half of all juniors and seniors at the Newark campus of Rutgers University are transfer students most of them probably from community colleges.
* Enrollement of African American students in eight public Mississippi universities increased by 1.8 percent from 1996-97 to 1997-98 while the number of first-time African American freshmen dropped 8.3 percent during the same period. The difference? They are transferring from community colleges.
School-by-school, state-by-state, the evidence is sketchy but tends toward the same direction: more and more four-year college students are beginning their higher education careers at community colleges.
If this is true, the implications for four-year colleges and universities could be profound, especially in how they think about recruiting and retaining students. This is especially true for students of color, since about half of all college students of color attend community colleges.
The Lack of Documentation
The trouble is that no one appears to have any definitive, national figures.
“I don’t know if we have the data on that,” says Dr. David Pierce, executive director of the American Association of Community Colleges. “There are some states that collect data — California, Washington, probably others.”
California is the acknowledged leader in forging clear pathways between community colleges and four-year state institutions, particularly the California State University System. And although Washington and Arizona State Universities are close behind, the question of whether the trend has spread east is difficult to answer. That’s because there are no national numbers on how many baccalaureates began their careers at community colleges.
Alison Bernstein, vice president of the Ford Foundation, tracks the issue of community college transfers as closely as is possible, and she says, “No one will give you reliable national data.”
Even many institutions don’t know.
“We don’t have an ability to track backward that way,” says David Crook, assistant director of institutional research for the city University of New York (CUNY), which is under attack for maintaining open-enrollment two-year colleges.
“We know that roughly half of our baccalaureates came as transfer students, but we don’t know how many came from two-year colleges or from other baccalaureate programs,” says Crook. “I would think most transfer from community colleges.”
At CUNY’s flagship senior college, City College of New York (CCNY) — which in 1996 conferred more baccalaureates on African American students than any other non-historically Black institution — the statistics show that in 1996, 742 students transferred to the college, of whom 394 came with either community college degrees or community college credit. And CCNY can further say that transfer students graduate at a rate slightly higher than first-time freshmen.
But that’s as far as the data goes. CCNY can’t say how many of its baccalaureates started at community colleges.
City University is not alone in the paucity of that kind of data. Many institutions don’t track their students that way. And if they do, the information is kept internally only and not reported nationally.
A Shift in Demographics
The number of African Americans and Asian Americans obtaining baccalaureate degrees is increasing at a startling rate, while Latino degree-acquisition rates are increasing at a much slower pace. For African Americans, the increase in baccalaureate attainment this decade has been 6.8 percent a year — meaning that the number of bachelor’s degrees conferred on African Americans has gone from 64,556 in 1990-91 to 84,108 in 1995-96.
The only degree-acquisition rates which are decreasing are those for White students — a development likely attributable to the sharp decrease in the number of eighteen- to twenty-four-year-olds in this demographic group.
But what seems to come through the swelter of numbers is that degree attainment — especially for students of color — is going up at the same time dropout rates, persistence rates, and graduation rates are going down.
One explanation is that more and more students — particularly students of color — are older, begin first at community colleges, and may take several years before completing a two-year degree. Even if they then transfer to a baccalaureate institution, they may not be reflected in the national statistics.
A recent public policy trend, which might account for the increased number of four-year college students who began their postsecondary studies at community colleges, is the increased number of states that have crafted transfer and articulation agreements. These agreements, between community colleges and four-year institutions, ensure that students can transfer core education credits earned at a community college to four-year institutions.
Some of the impetus for the agreements is political, as state legislators have realized that they often subsidize students taking the same course twice — first at a two-year and then at a four-year school. Last year, the legislatures in Arizona, Kentucky, Washington, and several other states passed laws designed to smooth and strengthen in-state transfers, following a path blazed by Maryland and others.
In addition, dozens of colleges and state universities all across the country have signed articulation agreements in the past year. Arizona State University, for example, recently announced that a community college degree means automatic entrance into the university.
However, it is unclear whether such transfer and articulation agreements are the reason for more transfer students or a response to them.
“The transfer and articulation agreements have been in response to the movement of students,” says Dr. Ronald Williams, vice president for academic affairs at the Community College of Philadelphia, and a board member of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. “What we have done has been to attempt to accommodate the students’ desire to move. It was the difficulties of moving which prompted the agreements.”
A Need for Acceptance
Those difficulties are well-documented — including a lack of information for students about what curriculum is required at four-year institution, and course credits that don’t transfer between institutions. Part of the reason for those difficulties is the suspicion by four-year institutions that community college courses don’t meet high enough standards.
However, that suspicion seems to be abating.
“We are in a more mature state in that role,” says Dr. Joseph Hankin, president of Westchester Community College in suburban New York. “Years ago we worried if [the public and the universities] would accept us as transfer institutions.”
Some community colleges are working harder at their transfer function. For example, all fifty-eight of North Carolina’s community colleges switched to a semester system last year, largely to be more in sync with the academic calendars of that state’s public universities.
But even information about transfer and articulation agreements tends to be gathered piecemeal because the information is not being gathered nationally.
“There’s really been no compilation on that subject because it is so diverse,” says Elizabeth Foote, of the ERIC Community College Clearing House.
“I’m not sure anyone has documented this,” says AACC’s Pierce.
Ford Foundation’s Bernstein says that a number of things could be at work in increasing enrollments of community colleges, which have gone from 4.7 million in 1986 to 5.5 million in 1996.
“These are only speculations based on factors that might be influencing college choice,” Bernstein says. “One factor is affordability. If students can begin their baccalaureate studies at community college, they save a lot of money.
“The second phenomenon is…there is more enrollment [in community colleges] in order to increase professional and vocational training,” she continues. “Last but not least, there is a question whether, with the elimination of affirmative action, students of color find more of a welcome at community colleges.”
Berstein contends that community college students are not recognized often enough as a source of talent by four-year institutions. She was instrumental in putting the Ford Foundation’s money behind nurturing that notion in a transfer program developed between Vassar College and LaGuardia Community College.
“To say that half of four-year students received community college credits is becoming almost universal,” contends Dr. Robert E. Parilla, president of Montgomery College in suburban Maryland.
But, he adds, “It has not necessarily been recognized by policy makers or practitioners.”
COPYRIGHT 1998 Cox, Matthews & Associates
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
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