In the context of a discussion of the role of developmental education in the nation's community colleges, this paper responds to criticisms of developmental education that have been made in recent years. First, the paper considers the role of developmental education in promoting literacy, examines definitions of literacy, highlights results of…

Responds to criticisms commonly leveled against community colleges with respect to their provision of developmental education. Looks at issues related to program costs, departmental responsibility, articulation with secondary schools, teacher preparation, placement and diagnostic test validity. (DMM)

Provides a basic model for instructional technology and discusses its applicability to community colleges. Reviews the role of mastery learning and competency-based instruction in reforming general education in the community college. Identifies the elements common to most successful instructional programs. (DMM)

The Urban Community Colleges Transfer Opportunities Program (UCCTOP) was initiated in 1983 to stimulate the transfer of minority students from community colleges to universities. Collecting data on the effects of the UCCTOP activities proved to be one of the most difficult aspects of the project as community colleges typically do not have reliable…

Considers ways of measuring educational outcomes. Summarizes results from the Center for the Study of Community Colleges' administration of the General Academic Assessment, which measures the general education/liberal arts knowledge of two-year college student cohorts. Reveals direct relationships between test scores and credits taken and…

This paper describes the JumpStart project, a two-year grant program initiated by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Center for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC) to help community colleges develop entrepreneurship education efforts. Following a brief introduction, findings are presented from an initial review of existing community…

After providing evidence of the decline of student academic ability and identifying some of the factors influencing this decline, this paper examines the role of community colleges in providing compensatory education for the growing population of students who are underprepared for college-level work. This examination begins by tracing the…

This discussion of the transfer function of California's community colleges focuses on the problems of obtaining reliable information, research findings on factors affecting transfer success, and ways of accurately assessing transfer rates. After affirming the importance of the transfer function of community colleges, the paper examines flaws and…