Discusses the niche of community colleges within American higher education, noting rising enrollments and two-year colleges' transfer function. Provides information on cooperative arrangements between community colleges and local businesses, most popular majors, student characteristics, tuition, and earning power of associate degree graduates.…

John N. Gardner, Associate Vice Provost at the University of South Carolina (USC), responds to questions concerning cutbacks and in programs aimed at first-year college students, the role played by USC's Freshman Year Experience course, academic credit for support programs, teacher training for support/developmental courses, teaching style, open…

Describes a study of gender-based differences in community college students' writing and mathematical skills and performance in college-level writing and math classes following remedial coursework. Reports disparities favoring males in elementary algebra skills and favoring females in writing skills. Finds no gender-based differences in…

Discusses the process undertaken by Fresno City College to create a decision-making procedure driven by student success. Faculty, staff, and students worked together to identify a series of indicators of achievement, including course retention, degree/certificate completion, and job placement rate. Also included is an eight-step blueprint for…

Describes six programs: special-needs instructional support services, Lakeshore Technical College, Wisconsin; services for deaf and hard of hearing, Hinds Community College, Mississippi; program accessibility committee, Florence-Darlington Technical College, South Carolina; Project ABLE, Metropolitan Community College, Missouri; Center for Special…

Argues that a process-oriented nonjudgmental instructional approach can help English-as-a-Second-Language community college students become better writers. Discusses the principle of nonjudgmental awareness and its rationale, and describes five pedagogical techniques used in a nonjudgmental writing class. (SR)

Presents interviews with Dr. William H. Maehl, author of "Lifelong Learning at its Best: Innovative Practices in Adult Credit Programs," and Dr. Tony Zeiss, president of Central Piedmont Community College (North Carolina). Asserts that lifelong learners need flexible scheduling, credit for life experience, and a variety of degree or certificate…

Tells a number of stories about young people, including the author's own children, who find a second chance through two-year community colleges. Touts community colleges as one of the few places in this increasingly stratified society where persons of various ages and from a variety of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds come together.…

A study assessed the validity of the Tinto model of student attrition for community college students, and extended and refined the model by examining the mediational influences of a comprehensive set of psychological measures on the model's constructs. Results confirm the model's generalizability to this population, and show psychological measures…

This study examined the course shopping behaviors among a sample of approximately 5,000 community college students enrolled across nine campuses of a large urban district. The sample was purposely designed as an analytic, rather than a random, sample that sought to obtain adequate numbers of students in course areas that were of theoretical and of…