Community colleges in the United States

Abstract

The community colleges in the United States serve an essential function. Standing between compulsory education and the postsecondary sector, they provide the first 2 years of college along with occupational training and developmental studies. They first opened 100 years ago as expansions of secondary schools in a few states and spread rapidly, supported mainly by public school districts along with universities preferring to concentrate on research and graduate studies. No longer adjunctive, they are now found in every state. Nearly 1,200 publicly supported community colleges provide liberal arts and occupational programs along with basic skills development and a variety of services to the community. They are defined as institutions regionally accredited to confer the associate's degree as their highest award. Community colleges had their greatest growth as postsecondary education expanded after World War II. High school graduation rates had risen to 55% and, since one of the major outcomes of schooling is the desire for more schooling, young people seeking entry to college put pressure on the universities. The latter were happy to have alternative institutions to which they could divert the petitioners they could not accommodate, especially those whose prior academic preparation had not qualified them for higher education. And because by the 1970s the community colleges had been organized within commuting distance of 95% of the nation's population, they thrived on the students who were not admissible to universities in addition to those who could not afford to live away from home and pay the higher tuition charges. They also organized programs to prepare people for middle-level occupations, especially paraprofessional assistance and the technologies not taught in universities. Stemming from the colleges' roots in the lower-school systems, they allowed open access to all but a few high-level technological programs that required prerequisite courses. © 2009 Springer Netherlands.