ABSTRACT
Community colleges – publicly controlled colleges primarily offering two-year degrees or less – play a crucial role in United States higher education. Numbering nearly 1,000 and enrolling nearly one-third of all US college students, community colleges are key to providing access to higher education, provision of sub-baccalaureate and even baccalaureate degrees and preparation for jobs. But this key role is marred by the fact that nearly half of community college entrants leave higher education without a degree or certificate. This problem is rooted to a great degree in institutional obstacles and systemic problems in US higher education. While community college students are less prosperous and academically prepared than university students, their poorer rates of completion also reflect the fact that community colleges – in good part because they are poorly financed compared to universities – have great difficulty in helping their students chart efficient paths through the institution. In response, a powerful reform agenda has arisen, centred on constructing clear student pathways into, though and out of the community college. This ‘guided student pathways’ programme provides a powerful roadmap for how to improve the community college. However, it also faces major conceptual/empirical, financial and political challenges.
