Community College Students are often a busy smart group of students. They choose to attend community college to save money, to do their first two years of prerequisite work, and, then, they can switch over to a prestigious four-year college to complete their major core requirements. Therefore, they are not, as posited by Cohen and Brawer, students of inferior academic ability (2008). In fact, some may be students of a superior academic ability, but whose financial resources or limitations cause them to have to manage those resources in a way that is conservative, and assures there is money to attend a more prestigious, and presumably more expensive, four-year first or second tier university or college. Also, Cohen and Brawer convey the impression that a two-year community college is perhaps inferior in academic programs and instruction, when that is not the case.
Cohen and Brawer are also failing to recognize the high level of professional instruction offered by many community colleges. One, in particular, Edison State College, in Florida, is a two-year college that has an outstanding curriculum, and highly qualified staff. The college cooperates with a number of four-year colleges, affording students the opportunity to complete baccalaureate degrees in some majors while taking classes at Edison State. Many of the colleges are impressive, like the University of Florida, Florida State University, Nova Southeastern University, and others. These partner colleges and universities are all accredited, and have rules of performance and grade averages that students must meet and maintain in order to be accepted into those institutions. This, too, would suggest that Cohen and Brawer are flawed in their assessment of students who choose to attend two-year colleges.
Works Cited
Cohen, Arthur M., Brawer, Florence B., and Lombardi, John R. (Foreward by) (2008),
The American Community College, 5th Edition, Jossey-Bass, Inc., Publishers, NY, NY.
Edison State Community College, Baccalaureate Partners (2009), found online at http://www.edison.edu/universitycenter/offering.php, retrieved 8 January 2009.
