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The Association of Community College Trustees released two white papers today. One examines how leaders from the two-year sector can partner with local school districts to close the gap in college readiness. The other paper tracks how Latino students are faring at community colleges.
The association, along with the American Association of Community Colleges and Higher Education for Higher Standards, is urging community college leaders to partner with K-12 for more high school interventions, to identify college-readiness measures, to revise institutional placement practices, to provide reformed remediation opportunities for first-year students and to work with policy makers to push these practices statewide.
"One of the great strengths of the American education system -- as with the United States as a whole -- is its great diversity," said Noah Brown, president and chief executive officer of ACCT, in a news release. "At the same time, we have a responsibility to unify our public high school and community college systems to give students their best chances of success."
By eliminating the disconnect between K-12 and higher education, the organization believes the number of recent high school graduates who need at least one developmental course will decrease, while completion rates will improve. Currently, about 58 percent of recent high school graduates in community colleges took at least one developmental course.
The paper highlights colleges across the country that are already doing this, including Chattanooga State Community College in Tennessee, Washington [State] Community and Technical College System and Lehigh Carbon Community College in Pennsylvania.
The second white paper outlined challenges many Latino students face while attending community colleges. More than half are the first in their families to attend college, 41 percent receive Pell Grants and 62 percent work while enrolled full time. Latino students often enter college less prepared than their non-Hispanic white peers, and this gap has not changed in recent years.
As a result, more than half of Latino students who first begin at a community college drop out without earning a credential.
The paper describes five promising student success programs at colleges that enroll large numbers of Latino students, including ones at the City University of New York and at Lee College, which is located in Texas.
