Community College Transition Programs: A Social Reproduction Intervention Strategy
Introduction
In recent years, a college degree has been more and more widely viewed as the marker of career readiness and a ticket to social mobility. It is because of this that there has been a growing effort to attract and provide all students with access to higher education. According to a 2015 study by the US Department of Education, students of color are not enrolling in college at rates as high as their white counterparts (US Department of Education, 2015). With deterrable factors such as rising tuition costs and low levels of academic readiness affecting the decision and ability to attend college, intervention programs have played a significant role in promoting college access and retention among students from underrepresented communities, particularly those from low socioeconomic backgrounds and students of color. One of these interventions is community college transition programs.
Community college transition programs may be designed in various ways and may have various missions. However, the primary goal of these programs is to offer high school students an awareness of the benefits associated with attaining a college education beginning at the community college. These programs not only encourage students to imagine a future that involves college, they also give students access to resources that prepare them for the college-going process. These resources span from academic (tutoring, literacy support, etc.) to social and emotional (mentorship, counseling, etc.) (US Department of Education, 2003).
Youth Development Approach Theory
When analyzed within the context of youth social and development approach theories, community college transition programs are an example of an intervention strategy that is modeled as a response to the theory of social reproduction. The theory of social reproduction has its roots from Das Kapital, which is a theoretical communist text written by Karl Marx and published in 1867. According to social reproduction theory, the production of goods and services and the production of life are part of one integrated process (Battacharya, 2013). In this case, the goods and services being referred to are types of capital: financial, cultural, human, and social. Education is significantly tied to all four of these types as both a driver and a product. As stated above, education is a ticket to social mobility. However, the upward bound journey towards a college degree is greatly affected by factors such as a student’s socioeconomic status. If a student hails from an environment with limited academic and financial resources, there is a very high chance that generations following this student will also be subjected to similar challenges and situations, thus transmitting social inequality from one generation to the next (Doob, 2015; Anyon, 1981). Community college transition programs, then, are a tool to disrupt this transmission of social inequality by affording at-risk youth an opportunity to break the cycle.
Concerns Being Addressed
It is crucial to take this exploration of community college transition programs a bit further and identify some of the concerns that they address, beyond the overarching mission of providing access to a college education: (1) affordability, (2) remediation and college preparedness, (3) students with disabilities, (4) transfer to a four-year institution, (5) workforce development.
Due to increases in tuition and the even greater role that loans play in the financing of higher education, the burden of paying for college has increased exponentially in recent years (Goldhaber and Peri, 2007). While studies have shown that those who hold a college degree make higher wages and live healthier lives, the costs associated with attaining the degree are astronomical and continue to become a deterrent for high school students. This is particularly pronounced among students who come from low-income families and live in low-income neighborhoods. Four-year institutions tend to be more costly to attend than community colleges, so in an effort to push college enrollment among high school students, transition programs steer them in a direction towards community colleges which are less expensive and tend to be more compatible with the existing situations and conditions of these students. These community college transition programs provide high school students with access to information regarding how to navigate the overwhelming processes around applying for financial aid, securing college loans, qualifying for scholarships, and narrowing down colleges based on affordability.
Another significant concern that community college transition programs address is remediation and college preparedness. Remediation courses are typically catered towards underprepared students with the intention of improving their abilities to handle academic material at a college level and succeed in higher education. Research shows that more than one-third of all first-year students in college today are taking some iteration of remedial coursework in either mathematics or English. In some postsecondary institutions, this figure can climb to six out of ten students. The bulk of remediation is provided by nonselective public institutions, such as community colleges, which is the point of entry for 80 percent of four-year students and virtually all two-year students. Some community college transition programs allow students to enroll in summer courses for several weeks before they begin their freshman year (Bettinger et al, 2013).
Students with intellectual disabilities aged 18–21 are increasingly receiving services through community college transition programs during their last years of public schooling. These students may attend college courses, work in the community, access community recreational activities, and engage in age-appropriate experiences with peers without disabilities such as mentorships (Neubert and Redd, 2008). There are several reasons why students with disabilities opt for community college, which include: convenient locations, cost, campus and class sizes; student support services (e.g., academic advising and personal counseling, career and employment assistance, and learning and study skills development); specialized programs (e.g., disability services, Trio programming, and career and technical education and Workforce Investment Act initiatives); and course accessibility and flexibility (e.g., online, blended, in-person, day, weekend, evening, and remote campuses) (Oertle and Bragg, 2014).
The community college is sometimes a stepping stone towards a four-year degree. Due to the rising tuition costs at selective four-year institutions, many students start their higher education in community college and then transfer. Empirical evidence indicates that community colleges are increasingly important in serving this purpose, and so community college transition programs are key players in this process. For example, a sample of students from the mid-1970s showed that about 9 percent of university graduates had started at a community college, while a that proportion had increased to roughly 20 percent for a sample of 1999 and 2000 college graduates (Goldhaber and Peri, 2007).
Finally, another key concern that community college transition programs address is workforce development. Students are more successful in the labor market with a degree from a community college as opposed to simply a high school diploma. On average, those with a community college degree have lower unemployment rates and higher salaries than those with only a high school degree. With that being said, the existence of a community college sector appears to indeed be beneficial for those students who otherwise would not have received a college education (Goldhaber and Peri, 2007).
State of the Environment
Community colleges appear to be particularly important for minority students. In 2002, the percentage of minority students - including American Indian, Asian-Pacific Islander, African American, and Hispanic - was 48 percent. For white students, this figure was 37 percent. In the case of Hispanics, nearly 60 percent of those attending postsecondary schooling were enrolled in two-year colleges. It is not a surprise that community colleges are significant as a postsecondary option for minority students, as they tend to be more economically disadvantaged than their white counterparts (Alon 2001). Another key characteristic of students requiring remediation are those who were not born in the United States, or those who grew up in a household that spoke languages other than English, or both (Goldhaber and Peri, 2007). Most community college transition programs share a common target population: first- generation, low-income, and minority students who are in need of remedial coursework. The goal is to help students make the academic and social transition to college (Bettinger et al, 2013).
Recommendations
Below are several recommendations that aim to address each of the concerns outlined above, as well as improve the overall quality of community college transition programs.
Regarding affordability, community college transition programs should partner with local businesses and private entities to acquire funds that can be allotted towards community college scholarships. Transition programs should provide both students and their families with financial literacy and college funding workshops. This strategy is an example of a two-generation intervention, which provides attention and education to caregivers and their children (Shonkoff and Fisher, 2013).
In response to remediation and college preparedness, community college transition programs should continue to advocate for students’ acquisition of college credit when taking remediation courses. Many times, students are not earning credits for these courses that will count towards timely graduation. Community college transition programs should also have close working partnerships with local community colleges to ensure that standards are clear and consistent, so that transition programs are aware of benchmarks for which to prepare students.
As for students with disabilities, community college transition programs should be more intentional in their approach with regards to addressing students’ motivations for attending college. Advisors from these transition programs should work with the students to identify how community college aligns with their goals. Transferring to a four-year institution is not the universal goal of students who begin postsecondary education at a community college. For students with disabilities who require more attention and need more assistance in being set up for success, it is important to engage them in the discussion about what success means to them, and then move them in that direction, whether it be vocational pursuit, finishing a two-year degree, or indeed transferring to a four-year institution.
For students wishing to transfer to four-year institutions after completing two years of higher education at the community college, transition programs should continue to cultivate strong partnerships and articulation agreements with local four-year institutions, ensuring that the college credits earned by students at the community college seamlessly transfer over towards degree completion.
Finally, with regards to the development of the workforce, community college transition programs should build and develop relationships with local businesses and prevalent local industries to establish recruitment programs. The community college might serve as a feeder program of employees, and community college transition programs might consider incorporating content in their curriculum that is specific to certain businesses or industries, essentially grooming students to gain employment with these business entities, and thus eliminating the process of job searching after completion of a two-year college degree.
Conclusion
Community college transition programs play a highly significant role in providing advancement opportunities for youth from under-resourced and low-income backgrounds to attain a college degree and break the cycle of the social reproduction of inequality. As college costs continue to rise and price-out students, more attention needs to be given to programs such as these, especially as the population of students of color continues to grow and outnumber their white counterparts. Within the landscape of education, there needs to be a cultural shift from transition programs to transmission programs, wherein the goals and aims of these programs are actually being met and wherein students in these programs are seen less as “people who need a space to be carefully carved out for them on the other side,” and more as “people for whom space is already reserved on the other side.”
References:
Alon, Sigal. (2001). "Racial, Ethnic and Socioeconomic Disparities in College Destinations, 1982 and 1992." Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University, Office of Population Research
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Battacharya, T. (2013). What is Social Reproduction Theory?. Socialistworker. Org.
Bettinger, E, Boatman, A. & Long, B (2013). “Student Supports: Developmental Education and Other Academic Programs” in C. Rouse, L. Barrow, and T. Brock (Eds.), Postsecondary Education in the U.S. Princeton, NJ: Future of Children.
Doob, C. B. (2015). Social inequality and social stratification in US society. Routledge.
Goldhaber, D. & Peri, G. K. (2007). Community Colleges. In S. Dickert-Conlin & R. Rubenstein (Eds.). Economic inequality and higher education: Access, persistence, and success (pp. 101-127). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Neubert, D. A., & Redd, V. A. (2008). Transition Services for Students with Intellectual Disabilities: A Case Study of a Public School Program on a Community College Campus. Exceptionality, 16(4), 220-234.
Oertle, Kathleen Marie, and Debra D. Bragg. "Transitioning students with disabilities: Community college policies and practices." Journal of Disability Policy Studies 25.1 (2014): 59-67.
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U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), Spring 2001 through Spring 2015, Fall Enrollment component. See Digest of Education Statistics 2015, table 306.10.
U.S. Department of Education (2003). College Transition Programs: Promoting Success Beyond High School. The High School Leadership Summit Issue Papers, 1-5.