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Do community colleges respond to local needs?: evidence from California

This book examines how well community colleges respond to changing local conditions. Using data obtained from the California Community Colleges and California's Employment Development Department, and through a variety of sophisticated quantitative analyses, the following research questions are examined: (a) are community colleges meeting the education and training needs of current and recent generations of immigrants?; and (b) do community colleges respond to changing demand conditions by providing occupational training programs that produce skills that are marketable in the local economy? The authors find significant gaps between Latinos and Whites, and Whites and Asians on three outcome variables-transfer rates, associate degree completion, and total credits earned. There is considerable variation in how responsive individual California community colleges are to local labour markets. Colleges that are heavily oriented toward vocational training appear to be no more responsive to the labour market than more academically oriented colleges. Indeed, external constraints such as student enrollment, revenue per student, share of local revenue to total revenue, and suburban location appear to be the only variables that positively affect an individual college's market responsiveness. Market responsiveness was also reviewed, with multicampus districts being more responsive to labor markets than single-college districts. In conclusion, two main themes emerged from the examination: (1) immigrant groups are quite different in terms of their backgrounds, aspirations, and experiences in California community colleges. Lessons learned from an analysis that takes account of these differences can be valuable in designing community college programs intended to assist immigrants; and (2) community colleges are complex institutions in terms of not only their missions but also in terms of their organisation. In California, the organisation of college into districts should be taken into account in any attempt to evaluate how successfully community colleges carry out their missions.

This book examines how well community colleges respond to changing local conditions. Using data obtained from the California ...  Show Full Abstract  

Authors: Leigh, Duane E.; Gill, Andrew M.
Date: 2007
Geographic subjects: North America; United States
Resource type: Book
Subjects: Vocational education and training; Providers of education and training; Outcomes;

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