An analysis is presented of the position of American community colleges in the nation's educational system. First, background is provided on the historical development of the community colleges. This section examines: (1) the forces contributing to the rise of higher education and the emergence of junior colleges; (2) the expansion of the two-year college role to include community services and remedial education, as well as transfer, occupational, and postsecondary terminal programs; and (3) influences on community college growth over the past four decades, including increased educational access, the student consumerism movement, the increasing enrollment of part-time students, and the absorption by community colleges of the educational functions of other agencies. The next section provides information on community college faculty, focusing on their educational background and professional involvement in contrast to that of their four-year college counterparts; the faculty union movement; and factors, such as long working hours and underprepared students, which erode faculty job satisfaction. Curriculum and instruction in the community college are discussed next, with particular focus on transfer, occupational, and community service curricula. The article concludes with an examination of the dilemma faced by college leaders attempting to maintain their institution's place in graded education, while providing a variety of educative services to their constituents on an open-door basis.
Educational theorists as diverse as Ivan Illich and Thomas Green have traced the configurations of the American educational system. Illich (1970) explained how the attainment of each level of schooling creates a demand for the next level, and effects a form of regressive taxation since the participants in the system's upper reaches tend to be drawn from the higher income groups. He deplored the power of a system that could allocate a person's position in society by determining who was learned and thus capable of obtaining high-status occupation.
An extended version of this paper was prepared for the National Commission on the Condition of Excellence in Higher Education.