03/18/2013 Community College Front and Center

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TOP 50 Community Colleges for Hispanics 2-Year vs. 4-Year Degree Community College Completion

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ecognizing that they are often the most reasonable choice for minority or first-generation college-boundstudents, HO regularly reports on community colleges – especially those that graduate and enroll the most Hispanicstudents. And once a year, we devote an entire issue to celebrate the best of the best of these schools. Shining a spotlight on communitycolleges hopefully reminds lawmakers at all levels of government that the care and nurturing of the two-year college is a financialbargain producing prosperity and better jobs.

Although the emergence of community colleges as the pathway to a degree or job training has become well-established in the highereducation community, that’s only part of the story. This year, the American Association of Community Colleges released a policy brief,Community College Contributions by Christopher M. Mullin and Ken Phillippe, outlining how essential two-year colleges are to thefuture prosperity of the nation. And while the authors point out how important these institutions of higher learning are, they also makethe case that community colleges are underfunded and neglected by state funding sources. “Simply put, America’s community collegesare the brokers of opportunity for a stronger middle class and more prosperous nation,” the report concludes. “It is unfortunately thecase that community colleges are funded in a way that allows them to spend less than a third of the amount of education and generalfunds that a private research university is able to spend on a student. In fact, while community colleges serve nearly half ofundergraduates, they have historically received approximately 20 percent of state tax appropriations for higher education.”

Every year as we prepare our special Community College Issue, it becomes more and more clear that community colleges havestepped up in good and bad economic times to strengthen the education pipeline for all. ¡Felicitaciones a todos!

EsquinaEditorial

¡Adelante!Suzanne López-IsaEditor-in-Chief

R

http://www.swccd.edu


Have you ever noticed the posture of a Catholic Pope? A weak smile,the head tilting downward and shoulders leaning low and forward asif laboriously carrying the weight of the world on his conscience

whenever he makes a public appearance or pronouncement.The previous pope, John Paul II, always seemed to be frowning and

massaging his forehead as if he was suffering from a migraine while silent-ly wondering, “what in the world have I gotten myself into?”

As did others, our recently departed pope, Pope Benedict XVI, almostalways read from a prepared text in a frail monotone with a weak smile,glimpsing occasionally at the audience and thinking “what am I doinghere?” instead of sitting in the peace and quiet of the papal sanctuarywhere he could’ve been pursuing his intellectual work orplaying Mozart on the piano, his favorite pastimes.

Being the spiritual leader of over one billion peopleis not an easy job, particularly in these times when mostof the faithful remain devout amidst the latter-day issuesthat buffet the Catholic religion – from gender challengesand abuses to societal arguments cropping up with morefrequency but with illusive solutions.

A Mel Brooks character might peer through the cur-tains and say, “It’s good to be the pope,” because whilethe job is not getting any easier, it still comes with all thepomp and circumstance that goes with being the leaderof world’s largest religion.

Pope Benedict XVI had announced privately to asmall group of cardinals at the Vatican that he was call-ing it quits as head of the Catholic Church and world’sone billion Catholics.

It allegedly caught everyone by surprise, but the popehad indicated several months earlier to several of hisconfidants that he was too old and getting too frail for thedemands of a job with which he seemed never comfort-able from the start.

While the tradition of the Catholic papacy says thatonce elected, you live and die in the papal chair, PopeBenedict XVI said he’d rather spend his last days at acomfortable papal retreat writing and reading in an intel-lectual atmosphere as he did in his early pastoral career.

The last pope to resign the papacy was in 1415.There are 144 cardinals, but early in his rein, John

Paul II limited to 120 the number who can vote, elimi-nating those who have reached 80.

Europe has 66 votes; Latin America, 17; North America, 14; Africa, 11;Asia, 11; and Oceania, 1.

The Catholic Church of today has taken a dramatic turn in its teachingthough the basic tenets remain as does the world’s distribution of the faith-ful once centered in Europe.

The largest region of Catholics is now in Latin America and theCaribbean with 483 million. Of this total, 150 million are in Brazil; Mexicohas 100 million; Colombia, 42 million; Argentina, 36 million; Peru, 27 mil-lion; Venezuela, 25 million; Ecuador, 13 million; and Chile, 12 million.

In North America, the U.S. has 71 million Catholics, and Canada has15 million.

Europe in 2010 had a total of 277 million with Italy counting 57 mil-lion; France, 45 million; Spain, 42 million; Poland, 35 million; andGermany, 25 million.

Surprisingly for many, the Catholic religion on the African continent hasgrown dramatically and is third in the world with 177 million, among themNigeria with 21 million; Democratic Republic of Congo, 36 million;Uganda, 14 million; Tanzania, 13 million; and Angola, 11 million.

Asia has 137 million Catholics; the Philippines, 72 million; India, 19million; and China, 15 million.

The numbers might seem large, but the Catholic Church continues tolose ground to the evangelical movement, particularly in Latin America.

The basic tenets of the Church have not changedeven after the modifications and tweeting of church doc-trine at Vatican II held October 1962 to December 1965in which Pope Paul VI presided and Pope Benedict par-ticipated as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

The results of the conclave, which called for a con-stant renewal of the Church, supposedly made the Churchdoctrine more liberal and attuned to current society, butreforms in a centuries-old institution can come hard.

Traditionalists and conservatives like Pope Benedict XVIsupposedly paid allegiance to them while not finding thatmuch comfort in some of the restructuring and reforms.

There was some modernization in the liturgy and inthe celebration of the Catholic masses and services.

Some observers think the Church and its popes havebeen too Eurocentric even though the growth of thechurch has shifted from that area to Latin America.

The stress of the job at his age is perhaps the mostvalid reason for Pope Benedict’s stepping down.

Pope Benedict XVI might have had his virtues as adefender of Church doctrine and he certainly will beremembered as a progressive, but some found him lack-ing in his pastoral duties or dismissive of the Church’snew realities like confronting pedophile priests or pro-moting a greater role for women in laity and as religious.

There is a list of candidates waiting in the wings tosucceed him.

The most prominent is Argentine Cardinal LeonardoSandri, 69, who has held key positions in the Holy Seeand was once the voice of Pope John Paul when hisinfirmities cost him his ability to speak. There’s also 63-

year-old Odilo Scherer, archbishop of São Paulo, Brazil.If the Catholic Church is promoting diversity, there’s African Cardinal

Peter Appiah Turkson, 64, of Ghana. If it’s European, there is ItalianCardinal Angelo Scola, 71. The U.S. has New York Archbishop TimothyDolan, 62, but the odds of an Anglo pope from the U.S. are almost as bigas his age.

Picking a New Pope

KALEIDOSCOPE

LATINO

KALEIDOSCOPE

LATINO

Carlos D. Conde, award-winning journalist and commentator, for-mer Washington and foreign news correspondent, was an aide in theNixon White House and worked on the political campaigns of GeorgeBush Sr. To reply to this column, contact [email protected].

LATINO KALEIDOSCOPE by Carlos D. Conde


Page 11

Page 15

MAGAZINE®

CONTENTS

MARCH 18, 2013

The Impact of the Second Obama Administrationon Community Colleges by Michael J.Major

8

Community Colleges by the Numbersby Mary Ann Cooper

Community CollegesTake the Lead inTraining theNuclear EnergyWork Force by Marilyn Gilroy

Can aTwo-Year Degree Be MoreValuable than aFour-Year Degree? by Michelle Adam

Re-evaluating AP Courses by Frank DiMaria

Year Up Program Helping to Close theOpportunity Divide by Gary M. Stern

11

15

18

21

24

Courses in theWay of Community CollegeCompletion by Angela Provitera McGlynn

30

Online ArticlesSome of the above articles will also be available online;go to our website: www.HispanicOutlook.com.



Page 18

Page 21

DEPARTMENTS

Cover photo courtesy of Miami Dade College

Picking a New Pope

Latino Kaleidoscope by Carlos D. Conde 5

PPrriimmiinngg tthhee PPuummpp...... by Miquela Rivera

Alcohol Abuse Among Latino Students

Back Cover

HO is also available in digital format; go to our website: www.HispanicOutlook.com.

Two-Y

ear/Four-Year ?

Book Review by Mary Ann Cooper

The Wrong Kind of Different

27

IInntteerreessttiinngg RReeaaddss 27

Targeting Higher EducationCommunity College Certificates by Gustavo A. Mellander

28

HHiissppaanniiccss oonn tthhee MMoovvee 20


The Impact of the Second Obama Administrationon Community CollegesP

resident Barack Obama is no stranger to criticism. He has beendemonized by some of his opponents, and even a segment of hismost ardent supporters has expressed disappointment with some

aspects of his first four years in office. Although he has, from the start,been a champion of education, some supporters have mixed feelings aboutwhat he has done and might still doin terms of four-year institutions.However, when it comes to commu-nity colleges, the praise for whatObama has done and what he willcontinue to do, at least from the fourminority educators interviewed forthis article, is expansive and unqual-ified.

“Before Obama came to power, itwas hard to find articles on commu-nity colleges even in mainstreameducational publications,” saysEduardo J. Padrón, Ph.D., presidentof Miami Dade College in Florida.“But Obama put community collegesfront and center in the national spot-light. He validated our work andhelped us not only with federal pro-grams but also with attracting theattention of corporations. For thegovernment grants we have receivedfrom sources such as the depart-ments of Education and Labor,important as they are, cannot do italone. We need to work with corpo-rations to provide real solutions bycreating real jobs for the market-place.”

Padrón reports that the eightcampuses of Miami Dade Collegehave 176,000 students, about 70percent of whom are Hispanic. “Weenroll and graduate more minori-ties, including Hispanics andAfrican-Americans, than any otherinstitution in the United States,” he says.

The school has grown to include four-year college degrees, so studentsare prepared for both the immediate labor market and to move on to high-er education. “I arrived in this country as an immigrant teenager from

Cuba, and the only institution that gave me access and opened the door forme was what was then called the Dade County Community College,” recallsPadrón.

Padrón went on to earn his Ph.D. in economics from the University ofFlorida, went to Miami Dade to teach economics, climbed up the adminis-

trative ladder, was president of oneof Miami Dade’s colleges for 15years, and then of the entire institu-tion for the past 17 years. Padrónhas been recognized through a widearray of local, national and interna-tional awards. He has been appoint-ed to positions of prominence by thepast six presidents, most recently byObama as chairman on the WhiteHouse Commission on EducationalExcellence for Hispanic Americans.

“Community colleges are trulyan American invention, a way toprovide the average person accessto both the job market and highereducation,” Padrón says. “PresidentObama has truly put community col-leges on the map, and I believe hissupport will only grow during hissecond term, in a way that will makenot only Democrats but alsoRepublicans very happy.”

“I really believe that PresidentObama’s policies for communitycolleges have been very positive, toattract our young people and retrainour adult residents so they mayenter the work force as soon as pos-sible,” says Pete Campos, Ed.D.,president, Luna Community College,near Las Vegas, N.M. “This is a sig-nificant trend across the country,but it is especially important here innorthern New Mexico, where 80percent of the population is

Hispanic, living in small communities, with a high level of poverty.”Campos reports that Luna’s current enrollment is 2,790, of whom 2,158 or77.3 percent are Hispanic.

Campos began taking advantage of Obama’s support of community

COMMUNITY COLLEGES


Eduardo J. Padrón, Ph.D., president, Miami Dade College (Fla.)

colleges right at the start of his first administration. “For the past four anda half years, we have worked diligently to develop our goals and becomeeligible for Title V and other grants, and we have been successful,”Campos says.

A special focus has been high school dropouts that the school has beenable to train and to which the schoolprovides the necessary skills tobecome carpenters and work inother trades. At the same time, theschool has reached back into theeducational pipeline to provide dualeducation, enabling students to earncredits for both high school andcommunity college simultaneously.

“This allows the student thevocational training to go directly intothe work force or to go on to highereducation, from an MA to an M.D.,”Campos explains. “We have oneyoung woman, who, as a singlemother, went through this programthen went on to complete both herBA and MBA.”

Given this large portion of theimmigrant and migrant populationfor whom Spanish is the primarylanguage, English as a second lan-guage (ESL) is also given a specialfocus. “Students receive an educa-tion in the most understandableway,” says Campos. “They are taughtthe subject in Spanish so they canlearn it quicker, then learn how totranslate it as they become moreproficient in English. Add a bilingualeducation to affordable tuition andyou create opportunities for youthwhich were nonexistent before.”

Campos adds that these pro-grams dovetail into the controversyof so many immigrants beingdeemed “illegal,” being deported back to Mexico, their children who wereborn here having their families wrenched from them. “Once young peopleare introduced to a program they can comprehend, to see that they cantake care of their own housing, transportation and educational needs, they

are motivated to work hard to send money to their families in Mexicoand/or bring them back here.”

Campos started out in the restaurant business with his father. He beganhis career in education as a teacher and counselor for migrant students,went on to complete his education, became an accomplished educator and

administrator, published numerousarticles in various journals, becamea leader in many community organi-zations, was elected mayor and thenstate senator for 22 years. “If wedidn’t have this presidential supportand federal concentration of funds,the country would not recognize theimportance of community collegesand our ability to get both youngpeople and adults educated and intothe work force in the shortestamount of time,” Campos says.

To move from a small rural areato a major city, Chancellor CherylHyman, City Colleges of Chicago,reports that, against the backgroundof a 26 percent Hispanic populationin Chicago, the seven colleges of herinstitution across the city are madeup of 38 percent Hispanics out ofthe overall student enrollment of120,000 students.

Hyman repeats the high praisethe others have accorded Obama forhis ongoing support of communitycolleges, noting that “the presidenthas promised over the next fouryears to cut tuition in half and addtwo million workers from commu-nity colleges to the work force.”

Hyman adds, however, thatthough much remains to be done,much already has been done, but“an amazingly high number of peo-ple aren’t aware of the jobs that are

available out there, and many leaders are not taking advantage of that.Most every day, someone tells me he can’t find a job because no one ishiring. But there is a lot of hiring going on in key fields, and it is up toinstitutions like ours not only to prepare students for the job market, but


The Impact of the Second Obama Administrationon Community Colleges by Michael J. Major

Pete Campos, Ed.D., president, Luna Community College (N.M.)

also to get the word out that there are jobs out there and the opportunitywill continue to grow.”

To this end, Hyman has worked with Mayor Rahm Emanuel on a num-ber of innovative programs. For instance, says Hyman, “In December2011, Mayor Emanuel and I identified six major industries where 80 per-cent of the jobs will come from, nationally, but especially in our region. Weat City Colleges are working to align our courses so what we train our stu-dents in will be reflective of the demand.”

Also, says Hyman, the institution is realigning its curriculum so thatadult education students will be trained to meet the demands. The reasonis that adult education students comprise about 32 percent of the Hispanicstudent body, and most of them require ESL instruction.

Added to this is the College to Career (C2C) program, which will focusindividual colleges in specific areas: health care; transportation, distribu-tion and logistics; business professional services and entrepreneurial lead-ership; information technology; advanced manufacturing; and culinary andhospitality services.

“In order for all of this to succeed, we have to work as a communitycollege to strengthen the pipeline all the way from K-12, with dual enroll-ment and credit for both high school and college courses, with the oppor-

tunity then to immediately join the work force or move up higher on theeducational ladder.”

Hyman, an African-American, grew up on Chicago’s west side, receivedher associate degree at a City College, got a BS in computer technologyfrom the Illinois Institute of Technology, then two master’s degrees, thefirst in government from North Park University, and an MBA from Kelloggat Northwestern University. She worked for 14 years as vice president ofstrategy at Commonwealth Edison before coming to her present position.

“We are working closely with both local and national organizations,”says Hyman. “Our goal is to create more than 500,000 new jobs in theChicago area over the next decade.”

Obama’s initiatives even have a significant benefit in a town with a rela-tively small number of Hispanics.

At North Idaho College, Manuelita (Lita) Burns, Ph.D., vice presidentfor instruction, reports that of the school’s 6,500 students, just 5 percentare Hispanic. Its demographics, including small numbers of African-Americans, Asian-Americans and Native Americans, are reflective of north-ern Idaho in general.

Many of the Hispanic students in the surrounding rural area are fromimmigrant or migrant families. Burns cites three main ways in whichObama’s policies are opening doors for those students that otherwisewould be shut.

“A key way is through the expansion of the American Opportunity TaxCut, which allows many Americans, especially first-generation Americans,access to affordable college education in their living area,” Burns says.“We’ve used the Hope Scholarship tax credit more often, which is moredirected at community colleges.”

Burns also refers to the Reinvestment Act as very supportive of theirwork. “For example,” she says, “we’ve received and used funding from thisact to establish outreach centers to provide access to technology for stu-dents in rural Idaho, many areas of which have only dial-up Internet. Withthis technology, they can take online classes when their work preventsthem from coming to classes on campus.”

Finally, Burns notes the Trade Adjustment Community College andCareer Training Act, from which, she says, “We’ve received a couple ofgrants which will actually assist people in getting back to work.” Burnsexplains that Idaho is, overall, a financially stressed state, trying to makeup in tourism what it has lost in its traditional fields of timber, mining and,to some degree, even agriculture. “Aerospace is big, of course, in westernWashington, but has moved to eastern Washington, so it will only be a mat-ter of time before it reaches Idaho. So we’ll have students trained to get inon the ground floor of this industry.”

Burns, a native of Wyoming, received her BS in nursing at the Universityof Wyoming, an MS in nursing from the University of Colorado, and herPh.D. in leadership studies at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash. Shespent her career as a nurse, then nurse educator, working her way up todean. She started her present position in August 2012.

In summation, the impact of Obama’s second administration on com-munity colleges in general, and in the Hispanic population in particular(not to mention the economy as a whole), promises to be a continuationof his first four years, but even better.


Cheryl Hyman, chancellor, City Colleges of Chicago (Ill.)

Community Collegesby the Numbers

Theeconomy of industrializednations depends upon eachother. The global nature of trade

is fueling this economy, which has an insatiableappetite for a skilled and educated work force.The majority of new jobs that will be created by2014 will require some postsecondary educa-tion. And that’s where community colleges comeinto play. Without community colleges, millionsof students and adult learners would not be ableto access the education they need to be pre-pared for further education or the workplace.Consequently, employers are depending on stu-dents in demographics that have traditionally notpursued higher education in great numbers.Community colleges are best equipped to dealwith changing demographics of the work force.Community colleges have become the accesspoint for education in a community and a realcatalyst for fiscal development.

But community colleges are only knownlocally. Their reputations don’t cross state bor-ders like prestigious four-year Ivy Leagueschools do. They perform as the firewall andbackbone of higher education – especially in apoor global economy. According to the latest sta-tistics gathered by the American Association ofCommunity Colleges (AACC), two-year collegesare everywhere. They exist in every part of thecountry – more than 1,100 of them – drivinglocal economies, preparing students for careersor to pursue advanced degrees. They are a bar-gain, costwise, compared to four-year schools.The vast majority of them are public facilities(986), 115 are independent, and 31 are tribalschools. Those schools enrolled 13 million stu-dents in the fall of 2009, and that numberincreased by 2.9 percent by the fall of 2011.More than 60 percent of those students arethere for credit, and about seven and a half mil-lion attend community colleges part time.

More women than men attend communitycolleges (57 percent to 43 percent). And despitehow economic feasibility of attending theseschools seems to favor minority and Hispanicfirst-generation students, Whites still representmore than half of students in community col-leges (54 percent), Hispanics are 16 percent ofthe community college populations, and Black

students represent 14 percent of those students.Community colleges are gateways for stu-

dents who might not otherwise experience high-er education in their lives. Forty-two percent ofstudents at two-year schools are the first genera-tion in their families to attend college. In a signof changing times, 13 percent are single parents,6 percent are non-U.S. citizens, 3 percent areveterans, and 12 percent are those students withdisabilities. Of all undergraduates in colleges, 44percent are in community colleges, and 43 per-cent are first-time freshmen. Hispanic communi-ty college students represent 51 percent of theunderground segment in the United States. Inaddition, 44 percent of all first-time freshmen goto community colleges.

The costs to attain a postsecondary degree areon the rise. As a result, increasing numbers of stu-dents at community colleges (and four-year institu-tions) are looking to the federal financial aid pro-grams to help offset or finance the costs of theireducation. Almost half of the students attendingcommunity college receive some form of financialaid to help finance their studies. In 2005, morethan two million community college studentsreceived Pell Grant dollars. However, in recentyears, there has been a shift in government policiesaway from grants toward student loans. Because ofthe low costs to attend community college, theamounts borrowed are lower for community col-lege students than they are for their counterparts atfour-year institutions (public and private).

Community colleges receive their financingand revenue through tuition and fees; federal,state and local appropriations; and grants, giftsand contracts with local business and industry.The proportion from each source depends onthe college’s location. They don’t have the lux-ury of relying on local tax appropriations.These are not used as a form of support for allstates. On average, public community collegesreceive almost two-fifths of their revenuesfrom states and one-fifth each from localitiesand tuition dollars.

Students attending community college aretraditionally hard workers who have to jugglestudies with work to succeed in school. In 2007-08, 59 percent of full-time students wereemployed part time. Twenty-one percent were

employed full time while taking classes. Thatcompares to 47 percent of part-time studentswho were employed part time and 40 percent ofpart-time students who were employed full time.And despite working full time or part time, 59percent of community college students appliedfor some kind of aid and 42 percent applied forfederal aid. And what happens to these applica-tions? Forty-six percent of community collegestudents receive some form of financial aid, 21percent receive federal grants, 10 percent getfederal loans, 13 percent receive state aid, and11 percent get aid from the schools they attend.

Community colleges are in the midst of a tran-sition brought about by the numerous retirementsof administrators and faculty members. The rateof retirements has both negative and positive con-sequences. The retirement of such large numberswill result in a significant brain drain on campus-es as the collective wisdom of these retireesgained through many years of experience is takenaway from the college when that person leaves.This might represent one of the greatest threats toan educated work force. If there are not enoughleaders in the pipeline, what quality of educationcan incoming students expect if these individualsare not adequately replaced?

Still, when it comes to career preparation,community colleges continue to provide themost bang for the buck. The average annualtuition and fees for AY 2011-12 in public com-munity colleges was $2,943. In comparison, theaverage for four-year public state colleges was$8,244. And in 2009, 630,000 associatedegrees and 425,000 certificates were awardedin the U.S.

COMMUNITY COLLEGES/RANKINGS


by Mary Ann Cooper


TOTALRANK INSTITUTION STATE ENROLLMENT TOTAL MEN WOMEN %

1. El Paso Community College TX 30,723 26,178 11,027 15,151 85%2. East Los Angeles College CA 37,057 24,009 10,518 13,491 65%3. Houston Community College TX 63,015 18,912 7,807 11,105 30%4. Lone Star College System TX 63,029 18,800 7,516 11,284 30%5. Mt. San Antonio College CA 28,388 15,035 6,931 8,104 53%6. Santa Ana College CA 30,289 13,616 7,095 6,521 45%7. San Antonio College TX 25,567 13,528 5,532 7,996 53%8. Pima Community College AZ 36,969 13,071 5,766 7,305 35%9. Rio Hondo College CA 17,862 13,048 6,513 6,535 73%10. Austin Community College District TX 45,100 12,327 5,297 7,030 27%11. San Jacinto Community College TX 29,392 11,847 4,986 6,861 40%12. Cerritos College CA 21,335 11,741 5,173 6,568 55%13. Tarrant County College District TX 50,062 11,683 4,728 6,955 23%14. Central New Mexico Community College NM 27,677 11,632 4,918 6,714 42%15. Southwestern College CA 20,409 11,594 5,244 6,350 57%16. Long Beach City College CA 25,782 11,056 5,216 5,840 43%17. Pasadena City College CA 26,057 10,669 4,828 5,841 41%18. Santa Monica College CA 29,971 10,055 4,447 5,608 34%19. El Camino Community College District CA 24,463 9,939 4,623 5,316 41%20. CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community Coll. NY 24,463 9,800 4,059 5,741 40%21. Laredo Community College TX 10,076 9,651 4,232 5,419 96%22. Chaffey College CA 18,597 9,620 3,871 5,749 52%23. Bakersfield College CA 17,619 9,376 3,918 5,458 53%24. Los Angeles City College CA 21,028 9,310 4,052 5,258 44%25. Fresno City College CA 20,135 9,154 4,193 4,961 45%26. Riverside City College CA 18,395 8,852 3,816 5,036 48%27. Northwest Vista College TX 16,067 8,760 3,836 4,924 55%28. United Education Institute-Huntington Park CA 12,317 8,401 2,520 5,881 68%29. Northern Virginia Community College VA 50,044 8,385 3,793 4,592 17%30. Palomar College CA 25,427 8,382 4,329 4,053 33%31. Los Angeles Valley College CA 18,789 8,207 3,481 4,726 44%32. Los Angeles Trade Technical College CA 15,516 8,080 4,311 3,769 52%33. Los Angeles Pierce College CA 20,506 8,053 3,508 4,545 39%34. Fullerton College CA 18,827 7,790 3,622 4,168 41%35. Los Angeles Mission College CA 10,300 7,432 2,788 4,644 72%36. San Diego City College CA 17,728 7,408 3,279 4,129 42%37. CUNY LaGuardia Community College NY 18,623 7,335 2,958 4,377 39%38. Reedley College CA 14,057 7,281 2,995 4,286 52%39. City College of San Francisco CA 34,558 7,215 3,425 3,790 21%40. San Bernardino Valley College CA 12,380 7,064 3,032 4,032 57%41. CUNY Bronx Community College NY 11,450 6,987 2,882 4,105 61%42. Imperial Valley College CA 7,853 6,982 3,052 3,930 89%43. San Diego Mesa College CA 25,504 6,960 3,209 3,751 27%44. San Joaquin Delta College CA 19,495 6,871 2,860 4,011 35%45. Hillsborough Community College FL 28,329 6,798 2,805 3,993 24%46. New Mexico State University-Dona Ana NM 9,803 6,743 2,862 3,881 69%47. Ventura College CA 13,758 6,657 2,889 3,768 48%48. Del Mar College TX 12,071 6,637 2,754 3,883 55%49. Citrus College CA 12,113 6,584 2,900 3,684 54%50. Santa Barbara City College CA 19,672 6,520 2,966 3,554 33%

Community Colleges by Hispanic Full-Time Enrollment

Community Colleges by Hispanic Full-Time Enrollment

Source: NCES – IPEDS 2011

HISPANIC ENROLLMENTHISPANIC

ENROLLMENTRANK INSTITUTION STATE TOTAL TOTAL MEN WOMEN %

1. El Paso Community College TX 2,945 2,549 882 1,667 87%2. CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community Coll. NY 3,180 924 317 607 29%3. Central New Mexico Community College NM 2,051 862 279 583 42%4. Houston Community College TX 3,606 845 289 556 23%5. San Joaquin Delta College CA 2,920 844 253 591 29%6. East Los Angeles College CA 1,191 831 247 584 70%7. Santa Ana College CA 1,449 786 319 467 54%8. Mt. San Antonio College CA 1,775 751 303 448 42%9. Riverside City College CA 1,877 733 223 510 39%

Lone Star College System TX 3,320 733 224 509 22%10. Laredo Community College TX 742 707 250 457 95%11. Pima Community College AZ 2,283 673 255 418 29%12. CUNY LaGuardia Community College NY 2,021 663 232 431 33%13. Hillsborough Community College FL 2,951 662 263 399 22%14. Tarrant County College District TX 3,298 650 228 422 20%15. CUNY Bronx Community College NY 1,120 604 211 393 54%16. Northern Virginia Community College VA 4,695 584 210 374 12%17. Del Mar College TX 1,122 582 218 364 52%18. New Mexico State University-Dona Ana NM 896 578 202 376 65%19. Southwestern College CA 995 572 221 351 57%20. Cerritos College CA 1,157 560 188 372 48%21. Chaffey College CA 1,240 550 186 364 44%22. Imperial Valley College CA 548 513 191 322 94%23. Citrus College CA 1,126 490 206 284 44%24. Palomar College CA 1,761 480 184 296 27%25. Bergen Community College NJ 1,953 479 187 292 25%26. Fresno City College CA 1,259 473 161 312 38%27. Technical Career Institutes NY 1,168 465 272 193 40%28. College of the Sequoias CA 998 464 165 299 46%29. Rio Hondo College CA 683 461 175 286 67%30. Fullerton College CA 1,270 459 190 269 36%

ASA Institute of Business and Computer Tech. NY 1,279 459 118 341 36%31. Ventura College CA 979 457 129 328 47%32. El Camino Community College District CA 1,373 453 164 289 33%33. Central Texas College TX 2,746 448 248 200 16%34. Mt. San Jacinto Community College District CA 1,479 432 124 308 29%35. Pasadena City College CA 1,607 429 160 269 27%

San Antonio College TX 1,030 429 162 267 42%36. Suffolk County Community College NY 3,159 424 171 253 13%37. Southwest Texas Junior College TX 489 415 132 283 85%38. Santa Barbara City College CA 1,625 410 135 275 25%39. Hudson County Community College NJ 739 400 151 249 54%40. Bakersfield College CA 914 399 151 248 44%41. Allan Hancock College CA 1,018 397 133 264 39%42. United Education Institute-Huntington Park CA 540 390 81 309 72%

CUNY Hostos Community College NY 676 390 84 306 58%43. San Joaquin Valley College-Visalia CA 703 376 82 294 53%44. Austin Community College District TX 1,507 358 159 199 24%45. Nassau Community College NY 2,557 355 137 218 14%46. Oxnard College CA 511 354 103 251 69%47. Universal Technical Institute of Arizona Inc AZ 1,589 346 338 8 22%48. Modesto Junior College CA 1,270 346 139 207 27%49. Mountain View College TX 584 340 120 220 58%50. CUNY Kingsborough Community College NY 2,476 337 129 208 14%


RANK INSTITUTION STATE TOTAL TOTAL MEN WOMEN %

1. El Paso Community College TX 2,945 2,549 882 1,667 87%2. CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community Coll. NY 3,180 924 317 607 29%3. Central New Mexico Community College NM 2,051 862 279 583 42%4. Houston Community College TX 3,606 845 289 556 23%5. San Joaquin Delta College CA 2,920 844 253 591 29%6. East Los Angeles College CA 1,191 831 247 584 70%7. Santa Ana College CA 1,449 786 319 467 54%8. Mt. San Antonio College CA 1,775 751 303 448 42%9. Riverside City College CA 1,877 733 223 510 39%

Lone Star College System TX 3,320 733 224 509 22%10. Laredo Community College TX 742 707 250 457 95%11. Pima Community College AZ 2,283 673 255 418 29%12. CUNY LaGuardia Community College NY 2,021 663 232 431 33%13. Hillsborough Community College FL 2,951 662 263 399 22%14. Tarrant County College District TX 3,298 650 228 422 20%15. CUNY Bronx Community College NY 1,120 604 211 393 54%16. Northern Virginia Community College VA 4,695 584 210 374 12%17. Del Mar College TX 1,122 582 218 364 52%18. New Mexico State University-Dona Ana NM 896 578 202 376 65%19. Southwestern College CA 995 572 221 351 57%20. Cerritos College CA 1,157 560 188 372 48%21. Chaffey College CA 1,240 550 186 364 44%22. Imperial Valley College CA 548 513 191 322 94%23. Citrus College CA 1,126 490 206 284 44%24. Palomar College CA 1,761 480 184 296 27%25. Bergen Community College NJ 1,953 479 187 292 25%26. Fresno City College CA 1,259 473 161 312 38%27. Technical Career Institutes NY 1,168 465 272 193 40%28. College of the Sequoias CA 998 464 165 299 46%29. Rio Hondo College CA 683 461 175 286 67%30. Fullerton College CA 1,270 459 190 269 36%

ASA Institute of Business and Computer Tech. NY 1,279 459 118 341 36%31. Ventura College CA 979 457 129 328 47%32. El Camino Community College District CA 1,373 453 164 289 33%33. Central Texas College TX 2,746 448 248 200 16%34. Mt. San Jacinto Community College District CA 1,479 432 124 308 29%35. Pasadena City College CA 1,607 429 160 269 27%

San Antonio College TX 1,030 429 162 267 42%36. Suffolk County Community College NY 3,159 424 171 253 13%37. Southwest Texas Junior College TX 489 415 132 283 85%38. Santa Barbara City College CA 1,625 410 135 275 25%39. Hudson County Community College NJ 739 400 151 249 54%40. Bakersfield College CA 914 399 151 248 44%41. Allan Hancock College CA 1,018 397 133 264 39%42. United Education Institute-Huntington Park CA 540 390 81 309 72%

CUNY Hostos Community College NY 676 390 84 306 58%43. San Joaquin Valley College-Visalia CA 703 376 82 294 53%44. Austin Community College District TX 1,507 358 159 199 24%45. Nassau Community College NY 2,557 355 137 218 14%46. Oxnard College CA 511 354 103 251 69%47. Universal Technical Institute of Arizona Inc AZ 1,589 346 338 8 22%48. Modesto Junior College CA 1,270 346 139 207 27%49. Mountain View College TX 584 340 120 220 58%50. CUNY Kingsborough Community College NY 2,476 337 129 208 14%

Community Colleges for Hispanics Awarding Associate Degrees

(2-Year Schools)

Community Colleges for Hispanics Awarding Associate Degrees

(2-Year Schools)


HISPANICHISPANIC


RANK INSTITUTION STATE TOTAL TOTAL MEN WOMEN %1. Miami Dade College FL 9,445 6,335 2,451 3,884 67%2. South Texas College TX 2,077 1,943 708 1,235 94%3. Valencia College FL 6,627 1,674 671 1,003 25%4. Broward College FL 4,881 1,471 623 848 30%5. Keiser University-Ft Lauderdale FL 3,635 891 245 646 25%6. Palm Beach State College FL 3,664 752 290 462 21%

The University of Texas at Brownsville TX 823 752 212 540 91%7. Monroe College-Main Campus NY 1,040 536 145 391 52%8. College of Southern Nevada NV 2,030 391 147 244 19%9. Edison State College FL 2,073 367 126 241 18%10. FIDM/Fashion Inst. of Design & Merchandising CA 1,892 358 45 313 19%11. Seminole State College of Florida FL 2,126 325 126 199 15%12. Santa Fe College FL 2,569 323 159 164 13%13. Florida National College-Main Campus FL 349 317 99 218 91%14. CUNY New York City College of Technology NY 1,168 282 137 145 24%15. Indian River State College FL 2,132 280 101 179 13%16. Florida State College at Jacksonville FL 5,409 271 114 157 5%17. Fashion Institute of Technology NY 2,029 238 47 191 12%18. Robert Morris University Illinois IL 886 235 90 145 27%19. Daytona State College FL 2,698 232 78 154 9%20. Colorado Technical University-Online CO 4,649 230 67 163 5%Source: NCES – IPEDS 2011

HISPANICHISPANIC

RANK INSTITUTION STATE TOTAL TOTAL MEN WOMEN %1. El Paso Community College TX 1,673 978 542 436 58%2. San Antonio College TX 1,286 370 182 188 29%3. Houston Community College TX 3,590 353 190 163 10%4. Lone Star College System TX 4,219 296 139 157 7%5. Laredo Community College TX 315 237 125 112 75%6. Del Mar College TX 831 233 111 122 28%7. Austin Community College District TX 1,972 232 119 113 12%8. Northwest Vista College TX 723 219 122 97 30%9. Southwestern College CA 976 205 88 117 21%10. East Los Angeles College CA 862 198 112 86 23%11. Central New Mexico Community College NM 1,046 189 93 96 18%12. St Philip’s College TX 605 187 104 83 31%13. Pima Community College AZ 1,495 183 78 105 12%14. Mt. San Antonio College CA 1,191 181 80 101 15%

Santa Ana College CA 791 181 88 93 23%15. United Education Institute-Huntington Park CA 349 173 49 124 50%16. Central Texas College TX 2,218 169 98 71 8%17. City College of San Francisco CA 1,810 158 82 76 9%

Palo Alto College TX 446 158 79 79 35%18. Pasadena City College CA 1,077 156 83 73 14%19. Cerritos College CA 750 152 67 85 20%

Imperial Valley College CA 325 152 77 75 47%Tarrant County College District TX 1,861 152 79 73 8%

20. Rio Hondo College CA 551 144 69 75 26%San Bernardino Valley College CA 559 144 70 74 26%

TOP 20 Community Colleges by Hispanic FacultyTOP 20 Community Colleges by Hispanic Faculty

TOP Associate Degree Producers for HispanicsAlso Offering 4-Year Degrees

TOP Associate Degree Producers for HispanicsAlso Offering 4-Year Degrees


HISPANIC FACULTYHISPANIC FACULTY

Community Colleges Take the Lead inTraining the Nuclear Energy Work Forceby Marilyn Gilroy

Experts predict the nuclear energy industry will have thousands of jobsto fill in the next five years due to the combination of retirements inthe current work force and plans to expand nuclear facilities. Training

those workers, including technicians, inspectors, nuclear welders and oth-ers who monitor nuclear safety and quality control, is the goal of theNuclear Energy Institute (NEI) and a group of 37 academic partners, most-ly community colleges.

“We expect 39 percent retirement in the nuclear work force by 2016, sothat would mean replacing about 25,000 workers,” said Elizabeth McAndrew-Benavides, NEI’s senior manager for work force policy and programs. “Wetook the lead about five years ago in order to revitalize the pipeline for entry-level workers coming out of the community college sector. Our goal was tocreate a degree program that was sustainable and transferable.”

Working with the colleges, NEI developed the Nuclear UniformCurriculum Program (NUCP), a framework for educating and developingoperators and technicians for nuclear power plants.

The NUCP certificate is not specific to any regional company such as theTennessee Valley Authority, Florida Power and Light, or other well-knownnuclear energy providers. Instead it affirms the graduate is ready to join anyelectric utility’s training program for plant operators, technicians and main-tenance personnel. The program requires a common curriculum on plantequipment and systems plus science and mathematics in the first year. Inthe second year, students take technical electives in their chosen focus area.The industry-recognized NUCP certificates go to students who receive agrade of B or better in all core courses of the curriculum. Certificates aregiven along with diplomas from the two-year college programs.

“Making the certificate fully transferable has increased the marketabili-ty of the degree and simplified hiring for utilities,” said McAndrew-Benavides, who manages the NUCP program. “It’s a situation that has bene-fited the new hires, utilities and the industry at large.”

The program has been yielding an increasing number of certified grad-uates. McAndrew-Benavides said that in 2012 there were 387 graduateswith NUCP credentials. Of those, 75 percent got jobs in the nuclear indus-try and 5 percent went on to four-year colleges. According to NEI data,those who were hired started at salaries ranging from $60,000 to 80,000.

“Jobs in nuclear power generally pay 36 percent higher than otherindustries, and these workers are eligible to earn even more through over-time,” said McAndrew-Benavides.

Expanding Programs and FacilitiesMany of the colleges partnering with NEI also work with nuclear power

firms and government organizations that provide funding to help meet futurework force needs. Estrella Mountain Community College (EMCC), aHispanic-Serving Institution, is leading a consortium of five Arizona commu-nity colleges that received a $13.5 million grant from the U.S. Department ofLabor to develop programs to fulfill the state’s energy industry work forceneeds. The consortium will work with Arizona Public Service, which sup-ports student internships at its Palo Verde nuclear power facility.

Indian River State College (IRSC), the lead institution in NEI’s Southeast

region, received a $3.1 million National Science Foundation AdvancedTechnological Education grant in 2011 to establish the nation’s firstRegional Center for Nuclear Education and Training (RCNET). IRSC offersmore than 130 associate degrees and technical certificate programs aswell as bachelor’s degrees in more than 20 areas of study.

One of the goals of RCNET is to develop a model that can be utilized at thenational level to benefit utilities and colleges providing nuclear energy training.To meet this goal, the center acts as a resource for providing curriculum,training for faculty and staff and facilitating communication and collaborationacross the nuclear industry as well as other colleges and universities.

“RCNET focuses on building learning materials and training resourcesby combining best-in-class traditional materials with 21st-century learningmodalities, such as simulations, active learning, and hands-on labs,” saidJosé Farinos, dean of advanced technology at IRSC.

COMMUNITY COLLEGES/INNOVATIONS/PROGRAMS


Elizabeth McAndrew-Benavides, senior manager for work force policy and programs, Nuclear Energy Institute

Instruction is enhanced by state-of-the-art technology in the college’sBrown Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (BCIE), which is amultipurpose facility that houses the Power Plant Technology Institute(PPTI) developed in 2006 by IRSC and Florida Power & Light (FPL) tosupport the growing need for maintenance technicians at the FPL St. LucieNuclear Power Plant. Students gain experience with a technologicallyadvanced flow loop replicating the functions of a nuclear power plant.

“The flow loop is a structure simulating the processes of a powerplant,” said Farinos. “It provides a safe, controlled learning environmentwhere subject matter experts can have students replicate activities they willencounter in the power plant.”

The PPTI contains all the compo-nents of a power plant except theheat source, including two levels ofpipes, pumps, valves, controllers,heat exchangers, scaffolding, riggingand lifting equipment. Students cansimulate a variety of potential equip-ment and system faults, and workindividually or as a team on resolv-ing them under the supervision offaculty and trainers in a safe, colle-giate, industrial space.

For example, says Farinos, simu-lated radioactive die can be injectedinto the pipes and contaminateequipment. Students would thenhave to isolate the contamination,re-route the water, and then safelyremove the simulated contaminationby cleaning components contaminat-ed by the die.

PPTI has achieved an impressivesuccess record. Since its inceptionin 1996, the institute has graduated136 students, with a completion rateof 95.77 percent and a placementrate of over 90 percent employed inthe nuclear energy field. Farinos saysthere are 72 students in the pipeline,enrolled in maintenance and radia-tion protection tracks.

“What makes this partnershipsuccessful is FPL’s commitment tohiring graduates from this program,the availability of paid internshipsduring the summer and the facilitating contextual learning and real-life jobexperience,” he said.

But Farinos also credits the role of each partner in producing well-trained graduates. He says that students are taught by nuclear energyemployees, members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers(IBEW) with a wealth of knowledge and experience.

“IBEW’s subject matter experts providing core subject training and theshared responsibilities between IRSC, FPL and IBEW contribute to theoverall oversight of the quality of the program,” he said. “The active roleeach partner plays in the education and training of our graduates guaran-tees the sustainability of this relationship.”

In South Carolina, two NEI partners have been expanding their nuclearenergy programs and graduating students with NUCP certification. Lastyear, Aiken Technical College (ATC) received a $2 million grant from theUnited States Economic Development Administration toward the construc-tion of a $6.1 million Center for Energy and Advanced Manufacturing. Thecollege has mounted a capital campaign to fund the center, which will sup-port academic programs in manufacturing, nuclear and alternative energysectors throughout the central Savannah River area.

ATC’s radiation protection technology, nuclear quality systems, weldingand mechatronics programs will all be housed in the new center. The pro-grams in welding and quality control have been developed with additional

support from a U.S. Department ofEnergy grant and with curriculumplanning input from local nuclearemployers. According to industry offi-cials, welding technology is critical tonuclear safety because welds are usedto seal nuclear components such asreactors and steam generators. Theschool received $400,000 worth ofcomputer software to train students inthe nuclear welding program that wasdonated by Savannah River NuclearSolutions and one of its parent com-panies, Newport News Shipbuilding.

In addition to the associatedegree in radiation protection tech-nology, ATC offers certificates inbasic radiation protection technolo-gy and radiological control technol-ogy. Last fall, four of the college’sradiation protection technology pro-gram graduates received NUCP certi-fication. The college expects to certi-fy more graduates each year.

Overall, the college graduated100 students in its radiation protec-tion program last spring, and nearlyall were hired right out of school,said college officials.

Midlands Technical College(MTC), located in Columbia, S.C.,offers a nuclear systems technologyprogram that teaches the fundamen-tals of nuclear power systems includ-ing nuclear plant components, radio-

logical protection, reactor theory and nuclear plant chemistry. Graduates ofthe two-year program receive an associate in occupational technologydegree in mechanical technology with a specialization in nuclear systems.

MTC’s nuclear systems technology program was created, in part, at therequest of South Carolina Electric & Gas Company to supply the company’sexpansion of the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station with qualified nuclear tech-nicians. The plant, located within the college’s service area in FairfieldCounty, is scheduled to go on line with a new reactor in 2016, with anadditional reactor scheduled to start up in 2019.

The expansion of the V.C. Summer facility is expected to require 20 newnuclear technicians per year.


José Farinos, dean of advanced technology, Indian River State College

The Changing Face of the Nuclear IndustryOne of the goals for training a new generation of nuclear energy work-

ers is to hire more women and minorities.“Improving the diversity of the work force is a priority,” said

McAndrew-Benavides.IRSC’s Power Plant Institute enrollment is 17 percent minority, includ-

ing African-Americans, Hispanics, Asian Pacifics and American Indians. Todate, 6.7 percent of students have been females.

“Supporting our efforts to recruit minorities and females, the NuclearRegulatory Commission awarded IRSC a grant to provide tuition supportfor economically disadvantaged students, with emphasis in increasingdiversification and leadership potential in this industry,” said Farinos. “Thegrant allowed us to offer 14 scholarships, including one from the IRSCFoundation, to deserving minority, females and students with potential topursue career advancement opportunities within the nuclear energy field.”

Salem Community College (SCC) in southern New Jersey has beenworking with PSEG Nuclear, which operates two generating stations in thearea, in an effort to meet the demand for a qualified, diverse work force.Backed by a federal grant in 2009, the college developed its nuclear ener-gy technology (NET) program and is recruiting and training new nuclearindustry employees.

As a result, SCC has seen an increase in enrollment for its NETAssociate in Applied Science degree. There are currently 62 students in theprogram. Last year, 30 students received degrees including four womenwho were the first SCC females to graduate from the NET program.

Industry experts say they hope this is part of the changing face of thenuclear industry.

“These first female graduates represent the changes we are seeing inthe nuclear industry,” said PSEG spokesperson Joseph Delmar. “More andmore women are considering nuclear careers, including technical andengineering positions.”

All four women earned instrument and control maintenance techniciancertification – and one student, Sandra Gannon, gained electrical techni-cian certification – from the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations’National Academy of Nuclear Training. Another of the SCC graduates,Angela Schweibinz, is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in radiation protectionat Thomas Edison State College in New Jersey.

Both Gannon and Schweibinz said they were not concerned aboutbeing in a male-dominated field.

“The thought was a little intimidating at first,” said Gannon. “But Iquickly found out through my internship and outage work at PSEG Nuclearthat it does not present any major issues.”

Schweibinz agreed and said that demographics did not play a part inher decision.

“When I was searching for careers, it did not dawn on me that thenuclear field was male-dominated,” she said. “I never felt overwhelmed bythe male-female ratio; it was never an issue.”


For more than five years, the Nuclear Energy Institute hasbeen working with community colleges to educate and

develop operators and technicians for nuclear power plants.

CCaann aa TTwwoo--YYeeaarr DDeeggrreeee BBee MMoorree VVaalluuaabbllee tthhaann aa FFoouurr--YYeeaarr DDeeggrreeee??by Michelle Adam

Asa nation, we have long held the belief that the more education wereceive, the greater the payoff in the marketplace. But is this true?In the face of huge unpaid student debts, rising tuition rates and a

struggling economy, Mark Schneider, president of College Measures – apartnership between the American Institutes for Research and MatrixKnowledge Group focused on using data to drive improvement in highereducation outcomes in the United States – set out to determine exactly this.During the past year and into the present, he has worked with numerousstates that are asking themselves the same question, and he has come upwith preliminary answers that are now available to the general public.

One consistent discovery that took Schneider by surprise was that first-year wage earnings for those with associate degrees in technical trainingwere often higher than those of bachelor’s degree recipients.

“I never expected that. I have taught in a research university for most ofmy life, and all of my friends have advanced degrees, so I never got the impor-tance of community colleges. I thought of them as junior colleges you went tobecause you couldn’t get into other schools, and then you transferred later,”he said. “But then all of a sudden people were talking about these programsbeing valuable. And when our data came out, it was consistent with what peo-ple were saying. The community colleges that are producing technical trainingare producing valuable skills being rewarded in the marketplace. A technicalcareer with two-year degrees leads to good starting salaries.”

This is an important message for all to hear during hard economic timesbut especially for Hispanics who make up a large percentage of communitycolleges, according to Schneider. “The two-year degree in technical fields isa lot cheaper than bachelor’s degrees, a lot faster to earn, and can produce apretty good salary. There are plenty of adults stuck in service jobs today whoare going back to community colleges to get technical training now,” he said.“The importance of getting jobs and managing debt were all around whenunemployment was at 4 percent, but it wasn’t as important as it is now withstudents borrowing too much money and not finding jobs. The discussion ofmoving out of your mother’s basement is an essential one.”

In order to produce reports for states on first-year wage earnings forgraduates from two- and four-year programs, College Measures gatheredinformation already available in state coffers. “States have already linkedstudent data with unemployment insurance records, but few have madethis data public. Half of the states say they have this data, but it is buried inthe data warehouse. Others have published reports on it that nobody couldread,” explained Schneider. “There is also a limitation in the data. Thereare some graduates who work out of state, in the military or in missions,and are self-employed or have gone onto a Ph.D. So we only have informa-tion on half of the students who have graduated.”

The first state that asked College Measures to take its data, interpret itand make it accessible to the public was Tennessee. The resulting work,The Earning Power of Graduates from Tennessee’s Colleges andUniversities, was published last fall and was made available online.

The report revealed that the average first-year earnings of associate degreegraduates was over $1,000 more than the average first-year earnings of bach-

elor’s degree graduates (with variations in areas of study). In addition, theaverage earnings of individuals with certificates was often close to the averageearnings of associate degree holders in the most popular fields of study.

More specifically, community college degree recipients earned, onaverage, $38,948 in first-year wages while bachelor’s degree graduatesearned $37,567. Of course, these numbers varied depending on thedegrees obtained. For example, bachelor’s degree graduates in health-related programs earned $51,095 their first year out of college, comparedto $46,606 for two-year students in the same career track. In business,management, marketing and related programs, bachelor’s degree recipi-ents earned $37,688; and associate recipients, $35,026.

These report discrepancies point out the importance of looking specifi-cally at degrees to determine wage outcomes. But in general, graduates withbachelor’s degrees in health, business and engineering earned more thangraduates with liberal arts degrees. Interestingly enough, though, even withinthese majors, first-year earnings varied depending on the school attended.For example, graduates in the health professions programs at the Universityof Tennessee (UT)-Martin earned nearly $60,000 in their first year in thework force while graduates from health professions programs at TennesseeState University earned $46,000. Ironically, UT-Martin graduates in historywere among the lowest earners of all bachelor’s degree holders in the state,compared to Tennessee State University’s $37,000 for history graduates.

Being able to explain these differences can be a challenge, since itrequires further investigation of the data and of each school. For instance,one program might produce greater outcomes in wage earnings because itsschool is located near a better job market for that degree. Or graduates fromthat degree might have received higher earnings than reported but were nota part of the report because they moved out of state or were in careers thatdidn’t report to or partake in unemployment insurance records. Of course, italso might indicate the strength of one program over another.

While Tennessee’s report provided more detailed information on eachindividual school and its programs, it also offered readers input on collegeearnings in relationship to expenditures. For example, the University ofMemphis had the highest first-year earnings for bachelor’s degree recipi-ents at $40,401 with an annual price tag of $20,574 for in-state studentsliving on campus and $10,062 for students with financial aid. In compari-son, the University of Tennessee had earnings of $36,732 and a price tag of$22,061 and $13,186, respectively.

Price and earnings comparisons were clearly very different for commu-nity college students. Jackson State Community College had the highestaverage earnings results for all graduates at $42,995, and Nashville StateUniversity had students in construction trades graduating into an averagefirst-year salary of $66,444. While the report did not publish institutioncosts, it is public knowledge that community colleges tend to cost signifi-cantly less than four-year institutions.

In comparing two- to four-year institutions, students at the University ofMemphis pay more than $80,000 for their education (including campusliving), compared to two-year programs, which would cost far less due to


COMMUNITY COLLEGES/REPORTS

lower price tags and a shorter duration in school.“In harsh economic times, students need to know what is going to hap-

pen to them when they go to a school. Are they going to get a job after-wards, will they make money, and do they need to borrow for theirdegree?” said Schneider. “Borrowing money is fine to pay for your highereducation, but if you are going to major in a program where you expect toearn a $25,000 salary the first year out, don’t borrow $40,000. All youborrow should not exceed your first year’s earnings.”

The Tennessee report was the first of a series that have and will contin-ue to come out of College Measures’s partnerships with states across thecountry. Prior to writing this article, Virginia had also released its studyfindings in a report titled The Earning Power of Recent Graduates fromVirginia’s College and Universities.

That report revealed similar find-ings to the one produced byTennessee. They were as follows:Graduates of occupational/technicalassociate degree programs, with anaverage salary of just under $40,000,out-earned not just nonoccupationalassociate degree graduates by about$6,000 but even bachelor’s degreegraduates by almost $2,500 statewide.

Among many of Virginia’s com-munity colleges, earnings of gradu-ates with a technical associate degreecould exceed $10,000 more thanthose with a bachelor’s credit-orient-ed associate degree; in three commu-nity colleges, the difference wasgreater than $12,000. In addition, thehighest-earning bachelor’s degreegraduates came from two career-ori-ented programs at the University ofRichmond where graduates in infor-mation sciences and in humanresources management averagedmore than $69,000 per year. And stu-dents with degrees in nursing andbusiness-related programs (includingfinance, accounting and economics)earned more than other graduates.

Since the time of the Virginiastudy, College Measures has workedwith Arkansas, Colorado, Texas,Nevada and Florida to produce simi-lar reports (and possibly more statessince then).

“Increasingly, states are beingrequired by law to make this data pub-lic. Many require middle school andhigh school students receive this infor-mation,” said Schneider. “On a national level, Sens. Ron Wyden, Marco Rubioand Mattie Hunter are trying to pass national legislation, the Student Right toKnow Before You Go Act, that would have all states do this nationwide.” (Thislegislation might have passed by the time this article is published.)

This seems to be merely the beginning of a nationwide trend of report-ing earnings of college graduates. “I am passionate about this because Ifeel students need to know this data. Right now, given the economy andstudent debt, the need right now is to know this data. The consequences ofnot knowing it are so real,” said Schneider. “Ninety percent of studentsnow say that they go to college for a good job and career advancement. Butwhen I was in school, many decades ago, the economy was easy and every-

one got a job and it was assumed you got a bachelor’s degree. Today peo-ple need jobs and a salary and can’t assume any longer that going to col-lege is going to get them these things. It’s a whole new world.”

While institutions have accused Schneider of “hating the liberal arts” andfailing to honor students’ wishes to earn degrees that prepare them for servicein their communities, he’s more concerned about students knowing the pricetag they will pay for not knowing the potential wage outcomes for degrees pur-sued. “Fine, I say, if our students are committed to low-paying service jobs, butdon’t let them borrow $100,000 to do this. Right now, you can’t get rid of stu-dent loans in bankruptcy courts, and the Parents PLUS Loan is not discharge-able either,” he said. “We have seen stories of parents whose kids can’t findjobs and now the collector is telling them that they now own their house.”

Although his recent state wage reports provide students with some insightinto possible earnings associatedwith different schools and degrees,Schneider also admits that this ismerely the first step in a longer jour-ney. The reports can be misleading,given the fact that some studentsfrom top-level schools might obtainemployment out of state after gradu-ating (the studies only show thosewho stayed in the state in certain pro-fessions) or pursue higher degreesor aren’t reported for some otherreason. In addition, looking at first-year earnings limits information toone year right after graduation anddoesn’t help the public see potentialfuture earnings for degrees.

“Just getting this data out was animportant first step, but now we aregoing back to the states and areworking with them to look at whathappens 10 years out from adegree,” explained Schneider.

Looking with more depth at statefindings and eventually understand-ing the nuances that might makeone program or school perform bet-ter than another in wage outcomeswill be the next steps to take as well.But for now, Schneider is focusedon finding effective ways to get thisinformation out to students so theycan be more educated consumers.

As more states require publicationof wage earnings for higher educationdegrees, it opens up a door to alterna-tive funding practices for higher edu-cation as a whole. Currently, state edu-cation budgets are based on factory

measures, on how many students come in and out of a school, explainedSchneider. It would be equivalent to determining how much money a companygets based on how many items they produced and not whether they actually soldany of these products – whether students earned actual wages for their degrees.

“I think people are starting to think about degrees in terms of thedegree of labor success they achieve, but we’re not there yet,” said theCollege Measures president. “It is going to be an interesting process.”

For now, Schneider is busy flying from one state to another, helpingeach unveil data on degree wage earnings to make accessible for studentsand the general public. It’s the first step in a longer journey of holdinghigher education accountable to the true success of all students.


Mark Schneider, president of College Measures


Vargas Becomes New HSFPresident and CEO

In December, the Hispanic ScholarshipFund (HSF) announced the selection of FidelA. Vargas as presidentand CEO of HSF andits wholly owned sub-sidiary, the HispanicScholarship FundInstitute. Vargas, amember of the HSFBoard of Directors forthe past two years,assumed the role onJan. 2. He took over the helm at HSF after anoutstanding career in the public and privatesectors. Most recently, he was a foundingpartner with Centinela Capital Partners, aminority-owned alternative asset managementfirm that invested and managed nearly $1 bil-lion. His many achievements included beingappointed by President Bill Clinton to serveon the Social Security Advisory Committeeand by President George W. Bush to serve onthe Commission to Strengthen Social Securityand the Presidential Scholars Commission.Vargas has both a bachelor’s and master’sdegree in business administration fromHarvard University.

Arredondo Named Head of ChicagoSchool of ProfessionalPsychology’s Chicago Campus

Dr. Patricia Arredondo recently becamethe new president of The Chicago Schoolof Professional Psy-chology’s (TCSPP)largest campus, locat-ed in Chicago, Ill. Sheis the first Latina toserve in that role atTCSPP, a nonprofitgraduate school devot-ed exclusively to psy-chology and relatedbehavioral and health sciences. Arredondo, alicensed psychologist bilingual in English andSpanish, was formerly with the University ofWisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) where she wasassociate vice chancellor, interim dean for theSchool of Continuing Education and professorof educational psychology. Arredondo hasreceived the “Living Legend” award from theAmerican Counseling Association, an hon-orary degree from the University of San Diegobecause of her multicultural scholarship, andholds fellow status with the AmericanPsychological Association. She has a doctor-ate in counseling psychology from BostonUniversity.

Pérez Uncovers America’s HiddenHispanic Heritage

Miguel Pérez, chair of Lehman College’s(N.Y.) Journalism, Communications, andTheatre Departmentand an award-winningjournalist, columnistand TV analyst, recent-ly launched a newbilingual websitedevoted to rediscover-ing and uncovering theHispanic roots of theUnited States. “ManyAmericans simply don’t know that Latinoshave a very long history of planting languageand cultural roots in what is now U.S. territo-ry,” he writes on the website, www.hiddenhis-panicheritage.com. Pérez has been coveringthe issues and concerns of America’s bur-geoning Latino population for over 35 years.He is a syndicated columnist with CreatorsSyndicate and a political analyst forTelemundo 47. He has been a reporter forThe Tampa Times, The Miami Herald, theNew York Daily News and The Record ofHackensack, N.J.

CSUN’s Campos Creates AnnualScholarship for Classmates

With a $1,000 gift to California StateUniversity-Northridge (CSUN), Alan Campos,an undergraduate stu-dent majoring in man-agement, has estab-lished the AlanCampos Dream BigScholarship, an annualaward for a fellowCSUN student. Toensure that the schol-arship fund continuesto grow, Campos has promised to donate $5for every cracked screen he repairs at SCViRepair, a successful small business that heowns in the Santa Clarita Valley that offersrepair services for iPhones, iPods and othermobile Apple products. For more informationabout the Alan Campos Dream BigScholarship or to contribute, contact Jerry DeFelice, director of development for studentaffairs, at (818) 677-3935 or [email protected].

HHIISSPPAANNIICCSS OONN TTHHEE MMOOVVEEHHIISSPPAANNIICCSS OONN TTHHEE MMOOVVEE

Campus Head Librarian

Suffolk County Community College seeks highly qualified candidates for the role of Campus HeadLibrarian on the Eastern Campus in Riverhead, New York. The Campus Head Librarian providesstrategic leadership, administrative supervision, and day-to-day management of the Eastern CampusLibrary, which is located in the Montaukett Learning Resource Center, a new nationally-recognizedlibrary facility. The Campus Head Librarian collaborates with faculty to assess evolving user needs;plan and develop methods to enhance and support the curriculum and information literacy; and providefor the information needs of the students and faculty. For the full position profile, please go to:

http://www.sunysuffolk.edu/About/Employment.asp?id=526

http://www.sunysuffolk.edu

Re-evaluatingAP Courses

by Frank DiMaria

Onthe surface, high school Advanced Placement (AP) coursesmight seem to be a no-brainer for those high-performinghigh school students searching for a challenging academic

environment and a fulfilling experience while earning college credits at afraction of the cost of what they would pay when enrolled in college. TheAP program, which is administered by the College Board, offers morethan 30 courses and corresponding exams across multiple subject areasthat are modeled on comparable college courses and align with college-level standards.

A challenging academic environment, college courses for a fraction ofthe cost, academic fulfillment? It almost sounds too good to be true. Well,to some, it is.

Many independent researchers – those not affiliated with the CollegeBoard – have been roundly critical of AP courses over the years. JohnTierney is one of those critics, but with a unique perspective. As a formercollege professor and high school teacher, Tierney is one of only a fewindividuals in the country who’s been involved in AP at both the collegeand high school level. As a professor at Boston College, he sat on a com-mittee that designed and wrote an AP American Government test. Later inhis career, he actually taught that exact AP course at a high school inMassachusetts.

Despite its many critics, the College Board’s AP program is one of thefastest-growing in the U.S. Participation has more than doubled since2001. In 2003-04, 1.1 million high school students participated in AP, tak-ing 1.8 million exams. Just four years later, 1.6 million high schoolers par-ticipated, sitting for 2.7 million exams. This rapid expansion, Tierney feels,has led to a decline in the quality of AP courses. As the program grows, APteachers move more slowly through each course, covering material moresuperficially.

There are two significant reasons for the program’s rapid expansion.School districts encourage their students to enroll in AP courses becausehaving large numbers of AP students looks good on paper. Today it’s notjust America’s colleges that are ranked, so too are America’s high schools.Some years ago, education writer Jay Matthews at Newsweek started theChallenge Index. Using a simple formula, this index ranks America’s highschools. Newsweek takes the total number of AP, InternationalBaccalaureate or Cambridge (AICE) tests administered at a school eachyear and divides that by the number of seniors graduating. Newsweekranks the school solely on this number.

“In my opinion, this is just an absurd exercise. I don’t know how any-body can presume to rank order America’s high schools in terms of quali-

ty,” says Tierney. “But high schools want to increase their standing in therankings, so they push more kids to take AP classes.”

Like their schools, students also want a high ranking. Taking AP cours-es is one way students appear academically attractive to colleges. In 2009,the Thomas B. Fordham Institute surveyed about 1,025 high school APteachers. Ninety percent believed that their students were taking AP cours-es to improve their chances of being accepted by a selective college.

As more students use this tactic, AP enrollment numbers surge. Tierneysays in the Northeast, Middle Atlantic states and in America’s wealthier sub-urban schools and private schools, students are manic about getting intocompetitive colleges. “These kids all think that the only way they are goingto succeed and be happy in life is if they get into only a small handful ofschools. They know their chances of securing admission in those schoolsgo up the more AP course they have on their record,” says Tierney.

The expansion in AP courses is also driven by state mandates.California, for example, mandates state colleges and universities to auto-matically bump students’ GPAs up one point for an AP course, 3.0sbecome 4.0s on students’ transcripts. “I make the argument that one of thethings wrong with the whole AP frenzy is that students who are in the knowcan game the system by packing their high school record with six, seven,eight AP courses knowing they are going to inflate their GPAs and makethem look better for college admissions,” says Tierney.

Through mandates, some states even pay the $89 fee the College Boardcharges for an AP exam. “For some, [this fee] may be a hurdle to takingan AP course,” says Tierney. In those states in which the student is respon-sible for the exam fee, some of the neediest high school students might beprecluded from taking AP courses. Despite rapidly growing AP enrollment,large percentages of minorities are essentially left out of the AP game. As aresult, they find themselves at a competitive disadvantage in the collegeadmissions process.

Although the College Board definitively reports that about two and ahalf million students take AP exams each year, it does not report the num-ber of minority students who take AP courses. It does, however, track andreport the number of students who do not take AP courses but are acade-mically qualified to do so based on their PSAT scores. “What they are find-ing is that there are about half a million high school students being left outof AP classes for which they were deemed capable by their performance onthe PSAT. Minority students are disproportionately affected,” says Tierney.

In general, participation in AP courses and honors-level courses aresharply skewed along socioeconomic and racial economic lines. Evenwithin the same school, low-income and underrepresented minority stu-



dents tend to be tracked into noncollege-prep classes and end up enrollingin AP courses at a much lower rate. Many inner-city schools don’t evenoffer a single AP course.

About 70 percent of Hispanics and 80 percent of African-Americanswho could have performed well in an AP course based on their PSATscores never had the chance to enroll in AP. “They lacked the opportunity,the encouragement, the motivation to participate,” says Tierney.

On a positive note, Hispanics have been outpacing all other minoritygroups in AP participation. They now represent about 16 percent of highschool graduates, but they represent 15 percent of all AP exam takers. Bycontrast, African-Americans represent around 14 percent of high schoolgraduates in America, but they represent only about 8 percent of AP examtakers. “So if you look at which minority students are taking AP courses,Hispanics are second only to Asians,” says Tierney.

He warns that although Hispanics are enrolling in AP courses at higherrates and their collective performance on the exams is strong, these num-bers might be deceiving. The absolute number of students enrolling in APcourses is rising, so the percentage of Hispanic students relative to thetotal is not necessarily improving.

Tierney’s biggest criticism of the AP program is the courses themselves.He says they provide only a broad survey of a subject area rather than thein-depth view a student gets in an actual college classroom. Tierney calls APcourses a forced march through a preordained subject, leaving no time forhigh school teachers to take students down some path of mutual interest.The College Board’s broad outlines of AP courses, according to Tierney, area mile wide and an inch deep. “In my AP class, which I taught for 10 years,I covered virtually every topic connected to American government and poli-tics, what you would find in your typical American government college text-book. I covered every single topic in there,” says Tierney. The reason? Hewanted to be certain to cover all the material that would likely be on the APexam, an approach he would never take at the college level.

In each of his 25 years as a professor of American history, he taught acourse that was essentially an introduction to American government.During those 25 years, he never tried to cover everything about Americangovernment in that one course. Instead he would cover the salient topicswhile offering his students the clearest and best conceptual understandingof how politics works, how the government operates and how the differentparts of the system connect. “I would take several days’ worth of lecturesto make sure they understood key concepts that lead to a deeper under-standing of political conflict, the framing of issues and that sort of thing,”says Tierney.

Although seat hours for a high school AP course far exceed those of acollege course, the high school environment did not allow Tierney to teachin the same manner. He says there is not enough time in a high school set-ting to offer in-depth analysis in a high school AP course.

Another criticism of the AP program is the necessary diversion ofresources to offer such a program. School districts must prepare theirteachers for AP courses; some give their AP teachers a course remission.Some AP courses are small compared to general college-prep classes. Forevery AP course a school offers, it must divert resources from anotherclass, possibly putting other students’ academic futures in jeopardy. Oftenthe students who are losing out by this diversion of resources are minoritystudents who, for whatever reason, are not enrolled in AP courses. Tierneysuggests that high schools tone down their enthusiasm for AP courses andimprove all their courses. “One of the things that is insidious about APcourses is that they set up a two-tier system in a high school where the APstudents think of themselves as academic elites and look down their noses


“One of the things wrongwith the whole AP frenzy is

that students who are in theknow can game the systemby packing their high schoolrecord with six, seven, eight

AP courses knowing they aregoing to inflate their GPAs.”

John Tierney, a former college professorand high school teacher

at everybody else. The other kids are conversely left thinking that somehowthey are not up to snuff. In the scheme of things, I’d like to see schoolsmake all their classes better,” says Tierney.

The majority of students grappling with AP courses care far less abouttaking rigorous courses than they do about collecting college credits toshorten their stay in college. A good strategy, but it does not always work.Colleges are not accepting AP credits at the rate they used to. When theCollege Board first established the AP program in the 1950s, its goal was tooffer high school students a more challenging experience with the addedbenefit of allowing them to bring college credits with them to a college oruniversity. “You have students who have taken five AP courses – basicallythey have knocked off a semester of college tuition. That’s a considerablebenefit. I’ve known students who have taken 10 AP courses. If they go to acollege that accepts those courses in exchange for credits, they can knocka whole year off, if they choose to,” says Tierney.

As students shave off semesters of college through AP courses, they alsoshave profit from the school’s bottom line. From a business model stand-point, says Tierney, it doesn’t make sense for schools to continue to givecollege credits in exchange for AP courses. Schools are just not willing togive incoming freshmen credit and lose that revenue. Rather than offeringstudents credit for AP courses, they are now only allowing students to optout of an introductory course. “So if you took AP U.S. History in highschool, when you get to college you don’t have to take the introductoryAmerican history class. You can move right into upper-division Americanhistory electives,” says Tierney.

Some of the more selective schools are not even allowing this. Many

find high school AP courses far less rigorous than advertised and ineffec-tive at preparing students for upper-division courses. “The financial argu-ment or the leg up advantage argument for taking AP courses is diminish-ing over time,” says Tierney.

As fewer colleges offer credit for completed AP courses, more studentsare losing the financial advantage that AP courses originally offered. TheCollege Board, in contrast, is still reaping the financial benefits of adminis-tering the program, earning the majority of its revenue from its AP courses.“It’s easy to identify the cost bearers. They are the students and parentswho pay for their own exam fees and the states who pick up the exam feesfor everybody [in states that mandate this]. In some cases, the CollegeBoard will reduce or subsidize a fee for students who can show they havefinancial need,” says Tierney.

Although critical of the College Board, Tierney will give credit where it’sdue. In the past two years, he says, the College Board has revised its cur-riculum and expectation for its AP Biology course, a course notorious forits broad range of content. It’s new course curriculum offers teachersmore flexibility within the course and encourages them to devote time tolabs and other teaching methods that engage students in a deeper under-standing of the material. The next course the College Board will revamp isits U.S. History course. These are steps in the right direction, says Tierney.

Every year AP expands, the program grows increasingly rigid as moreteachers become wed to the curriculum they have taught for years.“Changing it is going to be a challenge,” says Tierney.


We o�er all this and much more on our historic landmark campus.

BRONX COMMUNITY COLLEGEDe�ning what matters

to aspiring students for 55 years

BCC celebrates the designation of its campus as a National Historic Landmark.

http://www.bcc.cuny.edu

Year Up Program Helping to

Close the Opportunity Divideby Gary M. Stern

Year Up, a New York-based nonprofit organization, reports that 70percent of low-income high school graduates don’t have a pathtoward a livable wage or postsecondary education. Year Up is trying

to fill that void. Its one-year intensive program consists of technical train-ing and a corporate internship that can lead to jobs at companies such asGeneral Electric and Bank of America, starting at $30,000 or more a year.The program also connects with community colleges and provides collegecredits for its course work.

The mission of Year Up is to “close the opportunity divide,” explainedKailey Cartwright, deputy chief of staff of Year Up’s office in Boston, Mass.Year Up provides the “access and skills to move up in the business worldor advance in college,” she said. Providing minority urban young adultswith the right training and guidance from supportive adults enables partici-pants to become successful. “All these young people need is a boost up,not a handout,” said Cartwright.

Gerald Chertavian, a Harvard Business School graduate, sold ConduitCommunication, the software company that he co-founded, for multimil-lions in 1999 and launched Year Up in 2000. Chertavian had participatedin the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. His fondness for his little brotherDavid Heredia, who lived in the projects in Lower Manhattan, inspiredhim to start Year Up, of which he is now CEO. He saw that Heredia wasintelligent and talented but needed some structure and a better networkto succeed.

Starting slowly in 2001, Year Up helped 22 students. By 2011, it

involved 1,500 students annually and had offices in nine cities includingChicago, Washington, D.C., and Seattle. In the next five years, it’s looking toexpand to training 2,500 students. Of its 2012 and 2013 graduating class-es, 61 percent of its students were African-American; 19 percent, Hispanic;5 percent, White; 5 percent, Asian-American; and 10 percent, other. Theaverage age of a student was 21 years old, and 58 percent were male, and42 percent were female.

Four month after graduating the program, 84 percent of its studentsnationally have full-time or part-time jobs or are pursuing full-time post-secondary education. Corporate sponsors too have been satisfied since 90percent recommend it.

In the Boston office in 2012, 600 students applied for Year Up and 160were accepted for the first cycle (students are accepted quarterly).Because students must enroll in community college programs to receivecredit, all applicants must possess a high school diploma or GED.

Year Up is seeking students who are motivated and have some directiontoward a career. Students must write an essay, submit a résumé and fill outan application. Applicants are interviewed initially by a Year Up recruiterand then participate in a group interview, where they’re screened for howthey interact with a group. They also take an academic test to ensure thatthey have basic skills since Year Up doesn’t provide remedial courses.

“The ideal Year Up student is ready to push themselves outside of theircomfort zone. They should have clear goals in mind that they want to enterthe financial industry or work in a tech department,” Cartwright said.



Once the program begins, Year Up participants are paid $570 a monthfor the first six months of training, and during their internship when theirhours increase, payment rises to $600.

But to earn that money and stay enrolled in the program, participantssign a contract agreeing to operate within the guidelines. For example, stu-dents must be on time, dress professionally and stay off their cell phonesduring class. Students are given an overall score of 200 points, whichamounts to $200, and then points are deducted and money withdrawnfrom their salaries for any infraction. If a student is late to class and letsthe teacher know, he or she loses 15 points or $15. If the lateness is unan-nounced, it will mean 25 points or $25. If a student’s score hits 100points, the student and advisor agree on an amendment plan to change thestudent’s behavior and address the problems. If a student’s score hits zero,it’s the equivalent of opting out of the program or being fired.

During the first six months of the programs, students studyIntroduction to Technology, which covers a variety of computer programssuch as Microsoft Office Suite, Outlook and PowerPoint. Students also takebusiness communication, which includes writing skills, drafting a résumé,performing an elevator pitch, dressing professionally and making a pre-sentation.

But training goes beyond textbook or technical learning. Masteringtime management, how to organize one’s time, is critical to succeeding atmost jobs and careers.

“Students are trained how to look a person in the eye, give a firm hand-shake when meeting someone. That can make a huge difference in thebusiness world,” Cartwright said.

Year Up students are also encouraged to collaborate with a profession-al mentor at companies such as State Street or Bank of America, whichprovides invaluable learning. It also connects students having academicproblems with tutors.

After the first cycle of classes, students opt for one of two tracks: infor-mation technology, which trains student for help desk jobs, or financialoperations, which leads them to internships at financial service companiesin jobs such as fund accountants or client support.

Students spend six months at their internships but return to Year Up forclasses one day on Professional Education Planning. During that class, theydiscuss any issues arising at their internship and plan their next careermove. About 20 percent to 30 percent of students are hired for a full-timeposition at their internship, so most must plan their next career move.

For the most part, obtaining a job is based on the student’s self-ini-tiative; Year Up can’t do it for them. “We get the ball rolling, have a listof employers who hire and help students update their résumé,”Cartwright said.

Every student who is enrolled at Year Up is also accepted by a partici-pating college, mostly community colleges, though some are four-year. InBoston, it was Cambridge College, a private two-year community college.And in the future, students will study at Bunker Hill Community College,which is public. Students earn from 18 to 23 credits at Community Collegeof Rhode Island and City Colleges of Chicago. Year Up students have accessto all the community college’s facilities.

For example, Year Up’s alliance with Northern Virginia CommunityCollege in Springfield, Va., is in its fourth year, said college presidentRobert Templin. “We refer to this initiative as a boundary-crossing strategy.We can’t do a job with the population we’re targeting unless we work withother organizations that do a better job than we do,” he said.

Northern Virginia’s deans and faculty review Year Up’s programs toensure it meets academic requirements. Year Up’s trainers are considered

adjunct faculty. The college offers certificates in IT technical support andnetwork administration, which mirrors Year Up’s curriculum.

Templin said initially about 20 percent of Year Up students advanced toearn associate degrees. But now the college has designated a counselor towork with Year Up students, and Templin expects that number to rise to 50percent in the future. “Year Up helps kids who had no future, lifts them outof poverty and gives them marketable skills. But they need an associatedegree to move on,” he said.

Students who pass classes at Year Up in the Boston office receive 15credits for the first six months of courses and three credits for their intern-ship – 18 credits total. That provides them with a head start in obtaining

“[Year Up] helped me reachmy potential that I didn’teven know I had. Nowpeople look up to me.”

Flor Valencia, Year Up program graduate


their associate degree and continuing their postsecondary education.Founder Chertavian described community colleges as “the mechanism thatcreates pathways to get young people into the economy.”

Since most Year Up graduates attend community colleges part timewhile working, it takes them a minimum of three years to earn their asso-ciate degree. Of its alumni polled in 2011, 67 percent of them pursuedpostsecondary education, but only 2 percent have earned associatedegrees, and only 3 percent have earned four-year degrees. Cartwright saysthose numbers will rise, and Year Up is making a concerted effort to helpstudents graduate with a degree. But most students concentrate on earningmoney and starting their career.

Angeila Hughes, a supervisor at BNY Mellon, an investment manage-ment firm in Boston, has worked with Year Up interns since 2003. Year Up“provides us a chance to train and get to know potential employees beforemaking a decision to hire them,” she said. Interns provide client supportfor automated global and domestic security trades, foreign exchange andcash transfers. “My experience has been very positive. Sometimes I don’thave an available position to offer a student who is a perfect fit for theteam,” she said.

Year Up operates on a $50 million annual budget, and it costs about$25,000 to train each student. Its $50 million budget stems from compa-nies paying internship fees, 37 percent; from individual donations, 25 per-cent; from foundation, 23 percent; and the remainder from public andcorporate funding.

But that money invested is transforming the lives of young people likeFlor Valencia, native of El Salvador who graduated from East Boston High

School in 2010. She wanted to attend college but didn’t qualify for finan-cial aid and was languishing in a sales job at PCX clothing store, coming towork in sweatpants. When her sister who graduated from Year Up told herthe program paid her and didn’t require financial aid, she applied.

After she was accepted and signed the Year Up contract, Valenciaadmitted that she didn’t know if she was capable of living up to the creed.“Everything was new such as dressing professionally. It seemed so hard,”she said. But the staff encouraged and guided her, particularly her mentorSue Meehan who is chief operating officer of Year Up.

The business class taught her how to write e-mails, handle business eti-quette and improve her writing. In her technical class, she learned how toreconfigure a computer and solve desktop problems. During her intern-ship at Wellington Management, a financial services company, she providedcomputer desk support. She was hired by the city of Boston as a help desktechnician. She started as an independent contractor but was named a full-time employee in 2012.

Valencia helps Boston’s employees log on when they’re having problemsand deal with error messages. She reconfigures their computer if somethingis awry. Most of all, she enjoys “helping people solve problems.”

At night, she’s studying for an associate degree in information technolo-gy at Bunker Hill Community College. She needs only 18 credits to earnher degree and then plans to apply to the University of Massachusetts-Boston. Her goal is to become a help desk manager.

“Year Up,” she said, “has changed my life completely. It helped mereach my potential that I didn’t even know I had. Now people look up tome,” she said.


http://www.msjc.edu


It’sclear that this was a difficult book towrite because of the complexity of thesubject matter. The ideal of diversity

in education is a sacred concept that people pointto as proof that society has evolved. It’s a symbolof the ideal of color blindness in our schools.Author Antonia Randolph pushes back on theseinstitutional standards by pointing out what shesays are uncomfortable truths about the lack ofprogress certain minorities have made under theguise of diversity.

The author opens the book with a comparison to the 1950s. At thattime, White teachers viewed multiculturalism as a problem to be solved.The mindset then was that students needed to adapt and assimilate to cre-ate a more homogeneous classroom and atmosphere. During that sametime, Black teachers who operated in primarily minority schools celebrat-ed the Black identity, considering it a sacred trust and duty to teach in amostly racially segregated school.

Flash forward to the 21st century. White teachers in multiracial schoolsnow consider diversity a plus in the classroom. Having different culturesrepresented in the school makes for a better school environment, they say.The Black teacher, at a primarily Black school, now sees the lack of diver-sity as a burden, a problem that needs to be addressed, she says. On thesurface, that seems to be moving the public conversation in a positivedirection, but what the author points out is that lip service to the idea ofdiversity does little to address how to treat different races and ethnicgroups in the classroom. And worse, the term “diversity” is used as apanacea to “paper over” still-existent barriers and problems minoritiesexperience in schools. She calls it the unintended consequences of a kindof “colorblind multiculturalism.”

Randolph, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociologyand Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware, conducted interviewswith school officials and personnel in a “large Midwestern district” abouthow multiculturalism has impacted their schools. What she says shelearned was that there is a trend to favor certain poor immigrant minori-ties to the exclusion of their school’s poor Black students. In addition, shesays she discovered how some teachers distinguish their support for cer-tain forms of student diversity from curriculum diversity, such as accom-modating bilingual education. Social justice and equity have been brushedaside, she asserts, in favor of being proudly cloaked in diversity. Teachers,she explains, see diversity as a “good” thing as long as it doesn’t inconve-nience them or lower their schools’ scores on standardized tests. She alsonotes that some immigrant children receive favorable treatment sanc-tioned by multicultural ideology and practice while many African-American students and schools suffer racial penalties for being “thewrong kind of different.”

While the topics and arguments are provocative, the authorhas presented them in a thoughtful way and deservescredit for bringing them to light – whether youagree or disagree with her conclusions.

Reviewed by Mary Ann Cooper

The Wrong Kind of Different: Challenging theMeaning of Diversity in American Classroomsby Antonia Randolph2012. 144 pgs. ISBN: 978-0-8077-5384-2. $34.95, paper. TeachersCollege Press, New York, NY, www.tcpress.com. 800-575 6566.

IInntteerreessttiinngg RReeaaddss

Americans By Heart: Undocumented Latino Studentsand the Promise of Higher Education

By William Pérez

This book examines the plight of undocumented Latinostudents as they navigate the educational and legal chal-lenges presented by their immigration status. Many of thesestudents are accepted to attend some of our best collegesand universities but cannot afford the tuition to do sobecause they are not eligible for financial aid or employ-

ment. This account brings to light the hard work and perseverance ofthese students and their families, their commitment to education andcivic participation, and their deep sense of uncertainty and marginality.

2011. 208 pgs. ISBN: 978-0807752838 $32.95 paper. TeachersCollege Press, New York, N.Y., 800-575-6566. www.tcpress.org

New Narratives: Stories and Storytelling in theDigital Age

Ruth Page (Editor), Bronwen Thomas (Editor)

New electronic modes of storytelling have demanded arapid and radical rethinking of narrative theory. This volumeconsiders the relationship between digital technology andnarrative theory in the face of the changing landscape ofcomputer-mediated communication. New Narratives reflectsthe diversity of its subject by bringing together some of the

foremost practitioners and theorists of digital narratives. New Narrativesfocuses on how the tools provided by new technologies might be har-nessed to provide new ways of both producing and theorizing narrative.

2011. 296 pgs. ISBN: 978-0803217867. $40.00, paper. University ofNebraska Press. (402) - 472-3581. www.nebraskapress.unl.edu.

Space of Detention: The Making of a TransnationalGang Crisis Between Los Angeles and San Salvador

By Elana Zilberg

The author follows Salvadoran immigrants raised in LosAngeles, who identify as – or are alleged to be – gangmembers and who are deported back to El Salvador aftertheir incarceration in the United States. Analyzing zero-tol-erance gang-abatement strategies in both countries, Zilbergshows that these measures help to produce the very

transnational violence and undocumented migration that they are intend-ed to suppress. She argues that the contemporary fixation with Latinoimmigrant and Salvadoran street gangs must also be understood in rela-tion to the longer history of U.S. involvement in Central America.

2011. 360 pgs. ISBN: 978-0822347309. $24.95, paper. DukeUniversity Press Books, (919) 688-5134. www.dukeupress.edu.

http://www.tcpress.org

http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu

http://www.dukeupress.edu

http://www.tcpress.com

Community College

Certificates

Community College

Certificatesby Gustavo A. Mellander

Inthe early 1900s, William Rainey Harper was president of theUniversity of Chicago. By all accounts, he was a brilliant administra-tor who helped lead the university to many academic achievements.

He was determined and quite outspoken on a variety of topics, andalthough I dislike the term, he was truly an “innovator.”

In a strange sort of way, he became the father of the nation’s modern com-munity colleges. He wasn’t an admiring father. In fact, he was disdainful. Hefelt and publicly stated numerous times that his university faculty were wastingtheir time teaching and dealing with freshmen and sophomore students.

If he could only get “those students” off his campus, he could fashionhis university to reach its highest academic potential. With them gone, hecould provide superior upper-level courses and graduate education. Letothers teach the yet-to-be-washed and undisciplined hoi polloi.

So thanks to Harper’s unfailing encouragement and efforts, the nation’sfirst junior college was established in 1901 in Joliet, Ill. It started with sixstudents, and today it serves over 35,000.

It really was a junior college for it only offered the first two years ofcollege work with the intention that its graduates would transfer upongraduation. There were no public service courses, no developmental class-es and most assuredly no vocational education. Junior colleges would notserve the local community; their role was to prepare students to transfer tosenior colleges and universities.

The experiment worked, and similar institutions sprung up. After WorldWar II, their numbers and mission expanded dramatically. Today there aresome 1,200 community colleges nationwide.

They are a far cry from the early junior colleges. Most of them still offer thefirst two years of transfer college-level courses. But they now are community-oriented service institutions offering a dizzying variety of programs and courses.

Many of today’s university graduates began their academic careers attheir local community college. They include hundreds of thousands ofmedical doctors, nurses, Ph.D.s, lawyers, teachers, architects, engineers,professors and virtually every other professional one can imagine.Thousands of them are nationally prominent.

Hispanics and Community CollegesThese institutions have been by far the most utilized pathway for

Hispanics to enter higher education. They are invariably situated close toresidences or workplaces. They are reasonably priced, well-equipped tomeet the needs of emerging students and staffed by competent and caringfaculty and administrators.

As mentioned, most of the 1,200 community colleges still offer transfercurricula now dubbed Associate in Arts and Associate in Science programs.Most four-year colleges now accept those transfer students. But at the begin-ning, many four-year institutions were reluctant to grant transferees full cred-it for all their courses. It was a bit ludicrous at times, but in the fullness oftime, the “senior” institutions embraced community college students.

Many reasons exist for the change of heart. First, the transferees didwell. In fact, at many institutions, they were more successful as juniors

than students who had started at the university as freshmen. Secondly, asuniversity administrators found their freshman and sophomore classesdecimated, they needed a way to secure more juniors and seniors to fill theclassrooms and make up the lost revenue. Bluntly put, there were econom-ic advantages to accepting community college graduates.

Accommodations and relationships have been developed by suchavenues as shared and jointly created curricula, parental and institutionaladvocacy, joint faculty appointments and the fostering of personal interac-tions. But in many states, it took legislative action to legitimize, not to sayforce, the acceptance of community college education.

So the road was a bumpy one. Universities were quick to feel and, worseyet, act smugly superior. Virtually every innovation, and there were many,devised by community colleges were scorned and ridiculed, even though uni-versities had similar programs. An example being that while Ivy League col-leges openly offered “Bone Head” English classes for those students needingassistance, they sneered at the remedial, later dubbed developmental, coursescreated at community colleges. Community colleges early on trained a cadreof student-oriented counselors to help students, usually the first in their fami-lies to go to college, to adjust to and succeed in college. That idea wasscorned by universities who held on to their “swim or sink” mentality.

If I were to write 10 columns, I still couldn’t begin to describe all theother new higher education ideas developed by community colleges.Suffice to say, most of them succeeded. And in the last 20 years, we haveseen many of them widely adopted by universities.

Certificate ProgramsOne of the innovations that community colleges pioneered is certificate

programs. They were at first ridiculed by many in higher education. Somestill do. But recently, a prestigious university studied certificates and pub-lished a booklet lauding them.

Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce issued a68-page study, Certificates: Gateway to Gainful Employment and CollegeDegrees by Anthony P. Carnevale, Stephen J. Rose and Andrew R. Hanson.

What are certificates, and do they fill a postsecondary need?

TARGETING HIGHER EDUCATION


As the authors explained in their introduction, they undertook thisreport to help advance the discussion and understanding of certificates andtheir value. We believe that certificates will continue to grow in our nation’shigher education system in the coming years. Because of the controversysurrounding certificates and the institutions that award them, we believethat efforts to contribute to transparency about their effects are essential.

What and Why?Certificates are earned by completing a course of study in a specific

field. They exist mainly in public, two-year schools, although they can alsobe found in other institutions. They are invariably vocationally oriented andspecifically created to train students to qualify for particular positions.

Certificates differ from other kinds of labor market credentials and arenot industry-based certifications. The essential difference between a certifi-cate and industry-based certification is that the college certificates areearned through classroom-based education while industry-based certifica-tions are awarded based on performance on a test, irrespective of wherethe learning might have occurred.

College certificates resemble degrees and are typically classified by theamount of time a program is designed to complete.

ExplosionThe number of certificates awarded has increased more than 800 per-

cent over the past 30 years. “In 1984, less than 2 percent of adults 18 andolder had a certificate as their highest educational attainment; by 2009, thepercentage had grown to almost 12 percent. ...”• 24 percent of all 23- to 65-year-old workers have attended a vocational,technical, trade or business program beyond high school at some point• 75 percent of those who attended these schools earned a certificate

Overall, 18 percent of prime-age workers have earned certificates, and ofthose, 12 percent have certificates as their highest educational attainment.

It is encouraging to note that on the average, certificate holders earn20 percent more than high school graduates without any postsecondaryeducation. So the effort invested in earning a certificate has a rapid andsubstantial benefit.

Of course, economic returns vary according to the certificate’s field ofstudy and whether the certificate holder works in the field for which theytrained. And as usual, such factors as the certificate holder’s sex, race andethnicity are important determinants as well.

The Georgetown University study notes that 44 percent of certificate hold-ers work in field and earn 37 percent more than those who work out of field.

Clearly selecting employment in the field for which you were trainedhas definite tangible benefits. Interestingly, on average, a certificate holderwho works in field earns nearly as much as the median associate degreeholder, only 4 percent less.

On the other hand, the median certificate holder who works out of fieldearns only 1 percent more than a high school-educated worker.

What does this tell us?Two obvious points jump out. First, certificate attainment is most useful

when certificate holders are able to work “in field” (in the field for whichthey trained).

Second, it is advisable for institutions to foster good in-field placementcontacts for their graduates. It will positively affect their graduates’ successin securing gainful employment.

The issue also raises the continuing conundrum – are colleges trainingpeople for jobs that do not exist? For years, many have contended thatgraduate schools are certainly doing that. Further, does that practice existat all levels of higher education?

An Intriguing TwistThe study also states that among engaged policymakers and practition-

ers, a growing consensus has emerged that certificates requiring less thanone year of study have little economic value. The fact that they have takenthe time to study this issue is refreshing and perhaps should be emulatedby others in higher education.

The authors of this report are very thorough and balanced. Having justmade that assertion, they challenge it. They state that the evidence and conclu-sions reached about “less-than-a-year” certificates might be skewed if notoverstated. They point out that low earnings returns from short-term certifi-cates come about largely because of the prevalence of health care certificates.Further the relatively low earnings returns are highly concentrated amongwomen in heath care professions – which have historically been dubbed “pinkcollar” workers. That group has long been underpaid and marginalized.

Many Hispanic women enter short-term allied health certificate pro-grams. They could easily fall into low-paying positions and thus should becounseled accordingly.

Back to certificates, if we remove health care positions, the relationshipbetween length of program and earnings largely evaporates.

Sex and occupational-field variables seem to explain better the differ-ences in earnings among certificate holders. Many other short-term certifi-cates, such as police and protective services as well as computer and infor-mation services, have average earnings.

Clearly, a certificate holder’s field of study influences earnings. It’s high-er if they work in the occupation for which they were trained and lower ifthey don’t.

So which fields pay the most?Years ago, I was a college president in Silicon Valley. It was at the

beginning of the computer revolution that has since morphed into diversevariations and other areas. Career opportunities continue to grow, and theyare well-paid.

Today men with certificates in computer and information services canearn $72,498 per year, which is more than 72 percent of what men with anassociate degree earn and 54 percent of what men with a bachelor’sdegree earn.

Women with certificates in this field can earn $56,664 annually, whichis greater than 75 percent of what women with an associate degree and 64percent of what women with a bachelor’s degree earn.

In electronics, men earn $64,700, more than 65 percent of what menwith an associate degree and 48 percent of what men with a bachelor’sdegree earn.

In business and office management, women earn $38,204, which ismore than 54 percent of what women with an associate degree and 41 per-cent of what women with a bachelor’s degree earn.

Finally and quite interestingly, one-third of certificate holders also earnedassociate, bachelor’s or graduate degrees. For some, certificates were theirfirst ventures into postsecondary education. For others, some seek certifi-cates after earning academic degrees to enhance their employment opportu-nities. In fact, underemployed Ph.D.s have enrolled in community colleges toearn certificates to secure better employment opportunities.

Thus those counseling Hispanic high school students who are not able togo directly to college might help them by suggesting they pursue a certificateprogram first, thereby qualifying for a good-paying job. They can then continuetheir education in the evening. It is yet another pathway to higher education.

Dr. Mellander was a university dean for 15 years and a collegepresident for another 15.


by Angela Provitera McGlynn

Community College Research Center (CCRC) recently published NotJust Math and English: Courses That Pose Obstacles to CommunityCollege Completion (CCRC Working Paper No. 52, November 2012).

The authors of the paper, Mathew Zeidenberg and Davis Jenkins fromCCRC and Marc A. Scott from New York University, have added to ourknowledge of gatekeeper courses and helped to explain why so many com-munity college students don’t complete their degrees.

For quite some time, research has shown that college-level math andEnglish courses have been obstacles in the way of community college stu-dent success. Since these courses are required for graduation and theyhave high failure rates, it is no wonder there has been an emphasis onremediation in these disciplines, and rightly so.

The basic finding of this new CCRC paper is that there is a much broad-er range of courses that also serve as gatekeepers that interfere with acad-emic success, retention and degree completion. The researchers suggestmethods colleges could use to identify these courses and then measure theextent each of them poses to college completion if students fail to passthem. Zeidenberg et al. compared student performance in certain coursesand then analyzed data showing which students successfully completed adegree and which ones did not.

Another interesting finding is that GPA, grade point average, is astronger predictor of college completion than performance in any one par-ticular course. The implications of this finding are particularly relevant forimproving retention and completion for community college students.Colleges should monitor students’ overall academic performance to identi-fy those at risk for noncompletion. Once those high-risk students havebeen identified, community colleges should design academic and nonacad-emic interventions to promote their retention and eventual academic suc-cess.

Another implication of the GPA data is that colleges should also keeptrack of students who did well in the gatekeeper courses but still droppedout of college. Again, intrusive advisement comes into play – collegesshould track those students after they have left, discover their reasons forleaving, and encourage them to come back to college.

The finding that there are additional gatekeeper courses beyond mathe-matics and English suggests that college remediation should go beyondoffering developmental courses only in those subjects and broaden sup-port services in other disciplines where students struggle.

As the authors point out, “... because completing college requiresmuch more than simply completing developmental instruction and passingcollege-level math and English, a focus on these courses is necessary butnot sufficient. There are a wide variety of courses that a student must suc-cessfully complete in order to earn a credential. Some of these are intro-ductory courses in particular fields such as business, nursing or science.

As with entry-level math and English, such introductory courses tend toenroll large numbers of students. Failure rates in many of these coursesare high, suggesting that they too may serve as significant obstacles to com-pletion.”

In the tradition of implementing completion strategies based on data-driven evidence, the authors of this paper offer methods colleges can useto identify and assess courses that often serve as the obstacles keepingcommunity college students from earning their degrees. Colleges wouldthen be able to allocate resources to promote student success in theseother gatekeeper courses.

The goal would be to use such information about student performanceto provide assistance to those struggling students before they leave college.Since these courses appear to be important milestones towards degreecompletion, the authors suggest that colleges may be able to improve theiroverall graduation rates by helping students overcome the impedimentsthat stand in their way of academic success.

Although the data presented in this paper shows that completers ofcommunity college degrees generally have higher grades and GPAs thanthose students who leave college, there are substantial numbers of non-completers who have good grades and yet they drop out. Colleges couldimprove their outreach to such students to get them back into college andon the path to a credential or degree. In addition to improving outreach tostudents who have left, colleges could improve both their academic andnonacademic services such as tutoring and counseling, thus reducing thenumbers of students who leave without earning a degree.

Prior research concentrated on math and English solely as predictorsof college completion. Various reviews of the literature from 2006 on(including McClenney and Marti’s 2006 study showing the relationshipbetween student engagement and community college completion) rely onmath and English data.

Dougherty, Hare and Natow (2009) reviewed accountability systemsused by states to measure college outcomes and performance improve-ment models. They, too, noted that completion of developmental coursesand college-level math and English courses were often used as bench-marks; broader measures of student learning were not often taken intoaccount.

The Achieving the Dream (ACD) initiative is a national nonprofit orga-nization dedicated to helping more community college students succeed,particularly low-income and minority students. The ACD initiative mea-sures student progress in order to engage in a continuous improvementprocess at community colleges. The ACD initiative also encourages collegesto use student performance in gatekeeper math and English as one of theprimary metrics of improvement and of student progress on their journeytowards a degree.


Courses in the Way of

Community College Completion

Courses in the Way of

Community College Completion

COMMUNITY COLLEGES/REPORTS

The focus on these math and English gatekeeper courses has led to anumber of suggestions on how to improve student retention and comple-tion. Here are some of the findings to improve student performance:• Address students’ fear of failure• Require students to enroll in college-level gatekeeper math and Englishwhile still in high school• To improve math performance, ensure precollege preparation, peerculture, classroom culture, and instructional methodology and style• Use contextualization, that is, teach math and English in the context ofother subjects such as nursing or business so that students are moreengaged and interested in application

Zeidenberg and his co-authors believe that these and similar ideas couldbe used to address other courses apart from math and English that preventstudents from earning a degree. Their study contributes to the retentionresearch by using differences in grades between students who complete fre-quently taken courses and noncompleters so as to identify courses thatserve as barriers to degree completion, which they refer to as “obstaclecourses,” that go beyond math and English “gatekeeper” courses.

The researchers used a sophisticated methodology involving:• Comparing course performance of completers and noncompleters inorder to identify obstacle courses overall and in several popular degreeprograms among community college students in a given state• Conducting a series of analyses of grades in obstacle courses to deter-mine how much better completers do in those courses than do noncom-pleters• Comparing the relationships between earning a credential or commu-nity college degree and the grades in pairs of courses, where one of thecourses is a gatekeeper math or English class and the other is anotherobstacle course. The purpose of this assessment is to see which coursesoutside of math and English are obstacles to completion relative to mathand English• Using propensity score models to analyze the relationship betweenfirst-semester performance in particular obstacle courses and earning acommunity college degree or credential• Examining the correlation between student GPA and community collegecompletion – it stands to reason that GPA is more strongly correlated withcollege completion than any other factor since higher GPAs mean that stu-dents are able to do well in multiple courses at the same time and is thus asignificant predictor of college success

The implication of the GPA finding is clear: community colleges – facul-ty, staff and administration – need to monitor students’ GPAs in their earlysemesters, especially given that most students who don’t complete degreesleave college during the first year.

Zeidenberg et al. have found that math and English are not the onlyobstacles for community college students journeying towards a degree,and in fact, they present no greater impediment to completion than theother obstacle courses they identified in their research. Although varyingsomewhat by program, other introductory college-level courses also serveto keep students from reaching their completion goals.

This paper does not examine the question of whether or not math andEnglish courses are somehow more fundamental to success in other collegecourses as some have argued. What their findings do show is that while thecorrelation between success in introductory math and English and collegecompletion is a strong one, it is no stronger than the relationship betweencompletion and the other obstacle courses this paper identified.

The CCRC report, Not Just Math and English, notes that their findingsmake sense because a particular student’s grades in various courses tendto be correlated with one another. The researchers make an important

point: “... Grade differences between students are not the ultimate cause ofsuccess; rather, grades are simply reflections of student attributes andbehavior. A grade in any given course, whether it be math, English, psy-chology, biology or history, is likely to reflect a student’s motivation,amount of time he or she invests in school, mastery of learning strategies,ability to multitask, overall time management skills, and his or her level ofprior learning, among other attributes. In a sense, the grade in any givencourse may be a proxy for these other things, which may be more funda-mental to success than the acquisition of knowledge and skills. It is there-fore not surprising that we found overall GPA to be an even better predic-tor of completion than grades earned in individual courses, since it mea-sures a student’s ability to apply these qualities and skills in multiplecourses.”

The recommendations aimed at improving degree and credential com-pletion that follow from the findings of this report summarized in a nut-shell are that community colleges should do the following:

1) Monitor student performance in a broader set of courses beyondmath and English. Colleges can use the report’s methods to identify obstaclecourses, track the students who are struggling in them, and offer support tohelp get them back on the completion path before they leave the college.

2) Monitor performance of students in obstacle courses who did welland yet dropped out anyway. Reach out to these students to try to get themback to the institution and on the path to completion. These students havealready proven they can do college-level work. They are a group that needsspecial attention to increase graduation rates.

3) Widen the focus of college remedial/developmental instructionbeyond math and English.

4) Implement more student success courses that promote both acade-mic and nonacademic skills.

5) Broaden student services in both nonacademic and academic sup-port arenas such as counseling and tutoring.

The CCRC Report is a valuable contribution to our understanding ofretention and graduation rates issues at the community college level. Formore information on the report, please consult: http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?UID=1155.

Angela Provitera McGlynn, professor emeritus of psychology, is aninternational consultant/presenter on teaching, learning and diversityissues and the author of several related books.



Our numbers say it all...Enrollment Facts:

• Miami Dade College (MDC) enrolls more Hispanic students than any other college or university.

• More than 100,000 Hispanic students each year enroll at MDC.

• 71% of MDC’s student body is Hispanic.

• 52% of the Hispanic graduates from Miami-Dade County public high schools enroll at MDC immediately after graduation.

• Retention rates are highest for Hispanic students at MDC – 67% of new Hispanic students return the following fall term.

Graduation Facts:

• MDC is #1 in the nation in awarding associate degrees to Hispanic students.

• Almost 8,000 Hispanic students earned a degree or certificate from MDC in the last academic year.

www.mdc.edu305-237-8888

Miami Dade College

More than 174,000 students | Nearly 2 million alumni | 8 campuses | More than 300 academic programs | Numerous baccalaureate degrees

887-8305-23.mdc.eduwwwwww.mdc.edu

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William Paterson University invites applications for the position of Associate Professor or Professor and Chair, Department of Secondary and Middle School Education, effective September 1, 2013. This position is a tenure track faculty position with some teaching obligations and with the responsibility to provide academic and administrative leadership for the department. Reporting to the Dean of the College of Education, the Chair provides appropriate leadership for the advancement of academic excellence and the effective functioning of the department, which includes the implementation of university, college and department policies and plans. Department chairpersons are appointed to serve three-year terms and may be reappointed based on the recommendation of the faculty to the President or his/her designee. This is a 10-month faculty appointment, with additional compensation for summer department chair responsibilities.Candidates must hold a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction or a related area of expertise and must meet requirements for appointment at the rank of associate professor or professor. Teaching experience in higher education is required, and K-12 teaching experience is highly desirable. Candidates should have a demonstrated commitment to excellence in teaching and the ability to teach in subject-field content methods courses for preparation of teachers in middle or secondary education. The successful candidate must be committed to a leadership style that is inclusive, creative, and collaborative.Additional required qualifications include: administrative experience at the level of department chair, program director, or coordinator and experience with NCATE or TEAC accreditation.The Chair retains all the rights and privileges of a faculty member as contained in the statewide collective bargaining agreement. Rank and salary are dependent upon education and experience. For further details on the roles and responsibilities for this position, please see the following link: http://www.wpunj.edu/human-resources/faculty-and-professional-staff-handbook/roles-and-responsibilities-department-chairperson.dotCandidates should send a letter of application, current curriculum vitae and contact information for at least three professional references to Dorothy Feola, Associate Dean, College of Education at [email protected] (electronic submission preferred) or via mail to William Paterson University, 300 Pompton Road, Wayne, NJ 07470.William Paterson University of New Jersey is a comprehensive public institution of higher learning. The university offers more than 250 undergraduate and graduate academic programs which range from liberal arts and sciences to pre-professional and professional programs. It enrolls over 11,500 students from across the country and from over 40 nations. It is situated on a beautiful suburban campus in Wayne, New Jersey, twenty miles west of New York City. For further information please see the following link: http://www.wpunj.edu.

William Paterson University is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity. Women, minorities, and members of under-represented groups are encouraged to apply.

William Paterson University Wayne, New Jersey

Associate Professor or Professor and Chair Department of Secondary and Middle School Education

EmploymentOpportunity Postings

Tel. 201-587-8800ext. 102/106

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Thaddeus Stevens College of Technologyannounces a Fall 2013 opening for a full-time,tenure track, nine month faculty position inElectrical Technology. Faculty work loadincludes teaching 22 contact hours per week,holding three office hours per week, andparticipating in college professional activities.

Minimum requirements include an associatedegree in Electrical Technology (or a closelyrelated field), with an obligation to complete anappropriate baccalaureate degree within fiveyears of employment. The candidate must alsopossess a minimum of five current years ofcommercial/industrial electrical work experience,a solid understanding of the modern industrialelectrical industry, and be familiar with themission of Thaddeus Stevens College ofTechnology.

Application materials must include a cover letter,a current resume, and academic transcripts. Sendapplications to Sue Emswiler, HR Department,Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, 750East King Street, Lancaster, PA 17602. For bestconsideration, materials should be submitted byApril 1, 2013.

Assistant Professor - Tenure Track

The Family and Child Development Program atTexas State University seeks applications for atenure track position. Applicants should hold anearned Ph.D. in FCD or a closely related field.Teaching experience at the college level; ability towork with a diverse student population; a record ofor the potential for research and publication in thetop journals in the discipline are requiredqualifications. For the full announcement, go to:www.hr.txstate.edu

Application ProceduresReview of applications will begin on March 15,2013 and will continue until the position is filled.Interested applicants should submit a facultyemployment application, cover letter, curriculumvitae, a letter of intent describing experience and fitwith the position, and three references includingphone numbers and email addresses. Applicationmaterials can be sent either electronicallyaddressed to the: Chair - FCD Search Committee [email protected] or by mail to:

Chair - FCD Search CommitteeFamily and Child Development ProgramSchool of Family & Consumer SciencesTexas State University-San Marcos

601 University DriveSan Marcos, TX 78666

http://www.hr.txstate.edu

http://www.cornell.edu


College Associate Dean for Planning and Institutional EffectivenessSuffolk County Community College seeks highly qualified candidates for the role of CollegeAssociate Dean for Planning and Institutional Effectiveness. The College Associate Dean providescollege-wide leadership within the areas of functional responsibility outlined in the positiondescription and communicates, as a college administrative team member, with a wide range ofacademic and student affairs personnel. The College Associate Dean has managerial, supervisory andevaluative responsibilities for respective personnel of the Planning and Institutional Effectivenessfunction. Annual performance review of College Associate Dean will be conducted by the VicePresident for Planning and Institutional Effectiveness on or before June 30 of each year. For the fullposition profile, please go to:




College Director of Development - Alumni Affairs

Suffolk County Community College seeks highly qualified candidates for the role of CollegeDirector of Development - Alumni Affairs. The College Director of Development - AlumniAffairs will implement and promote alumni and retiree programs that support the College andFoundation's strategic and development plan, as well as the goals of any major gift campaign,in collaboration with colleagues within the Foundation, the President's Office and throughoutthe campuses. For the full position profile, please go to:


https://jobs.socccd.edu



TheUniversity of South Florida System is a high-impact,global research system dedicated to student success. TheUSF System includes three institutions: USF Tampa;

USF St. Petersburg; and USF Sarasota-Manatee. The institutions areseparately accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the SouthernAssociation of Colleges and Schools. All institutions have distinct missionsand strategic plans. Serving more than 47,000 students, the USF System hasan annual budget of $1.5 billion and an annual economic impact of $3.7billion. USF is a member of the Big East Athletic Conference.

Administrative and Executive Positions:Director of Development (Advancement)

Sr. Director of Development-COB (Advancement)Director of Quality Enhancement-Academic Success (St. Petersburg Campus)

Director (Associate Director-Alumni) AdvancementSr. Director of Development (Advancement)Regional Chancellor (St. Petersburg Campus)

Director of Clinical Affairs (College of Medicine)

Faculty Positions:College of Arts and Sciences College of EducationAssistant Professor (10) Dean (1)Assistant/Associate Professor (3)Assistant/Associate/Full Professor (2)Associate Professor/Professor (1)

College of Business College of EngineeringAssistant Professor (1) Open Rank (Full Professor) (2)

Assistant Professor (1)Open Rank (Full/Associate/Assistant) (2)

College of Arts St. Petersburg CampusAssistant Professor (2) Assistant Professor (5)Director & Professor (1)

College of Public Health Sarasota CampusAssistant Professor (2) Assistant Professor (2)

College of Medicine College of NursingAssistant/Associate Professor (10) Nursing Faculty (2)Assistant Professor (11) Assistant/AssociateProfessor (1)Assistant/Associate/Full Professor (5)

Mental Health Law & Policy Coll. of Behavioral and Comm. SciencesAssistant Professor (2) Professor (1)Professor (1) Assistant Professor (2)

Associate/Full Professor (1)

Behavioral SciencesAssistant Dean (1)

For a job description on the above listed positions including department,disciple and deadline dates: (1) visit our Careers@USF Web site athttps://employment.usf.edu/applicants/ jsp/shared/Welcome_css.jsp; or(2) contact TheOffice of Diversity and Equal Opportunity, (813) 974-4373; or(3) call USF job line at 813.974.2879.

USF is an equal opportunity/equal access/affirmative action institution,committed to excellence through diversity in education and employment.

www.usf.edu • 4202 E. Fowler Ave,Tampa, FL 33620

http://www.virignia.edu/evphasearch

http://www.usf.edu


POSITIONSCALIFORNIACalifornia State University, Long Beach 39California State University, San Bernardino 33South Orange County Community College District 37DELAWAREUniversity of Delaware 39FLORIDAUniversity of South Florida 38NEW JERSEYRutgers, The State University of New Jersey 36William Paterson University 34NEW YORKCornell University 35SUNY/Suffolk County Community College 20; 36; 37PENNSYLVANIAThaddeus Stevens College of Technology 35TEXASTexas State University, San Marcos 35VIRGINIANorthern Virginia Community College 2University of Virginia 38

INSTITUTIONALBronx Community College/CUNY NY 23Del Mar College TX 34El Paso Community College TX 34Mt. San Jacinto College CA 26Miami Dade College FL 32Rio Hondo College CA 34Salisbury University MD 33Southwestern College CA 4

*To see all our “Employment and other Opportunities,”including all Web Postings, visit our website at www.HispanicOutlook.com

A D V E R T I S I N G I N D E X

http://www.udel.edu

http://www.csulb.edu


H I S P A N I C O U T L O O K • 0 3 / 1 8 / 2 0 1 3

P.O. Box 68 Paramus, NJ 07652-0068

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

Beyond the typical reasons Latino teens should not drink alcohol(getting arrested, driving while intoxicated, developing diabetes oralcohol dependence and using other illegal drugs) is another, less

common consideration. The point at which a Latino youth becomesdependent upon alcohol is the point at which they will typically remainfixated socially and emotionally – until the drinking stops and the alco-holism is treated. No wonder the rowdy prankster in high school who istoo often drunk on the bus, in the cafeteria, during class or throughoutsports practice is the same one who, years later, still behaves like a rau-cous teen despite the decades that have passed. The quiet, introvertedLatino adolescent who drinks alone, to excess, might not show up to a10-year reunion, but chances are he will still be struggling with alcohol.

The implications for drinking among Latino youth are huge: highereducation is geared towards adults. Latino students who drink excessive-ly are not socially or emotionally prepared to handle the demands andstressors of higher education. Given the national climate on many cam-puses, many students feel pressured to drink to fit in or be accepted.The perfect storm of adolescent drinking history, peer pressure toimbibe, personal desire to fit in, the availability of alcohol, the pressuresof multiple lifestyle changes and minimal supervision result in continuedalcohol abuse by Latinos in college.

Alcohol abuse also stymies a young Hispanic student’s ability to fullybenefit from the education they are offered. Essentially, they may squanderthe resources available to them on campus not because they willfully shunopportunities for advancement, but because they are too immature andunable to look ahead and judge soundly what is best. Social complications(like legal problems due to public intoxication, violence and sexualassault) from too much alcohol abound, too. Besides an occasional tran-sitory feel-good experience, drinking is hardly worth it for Hispanic youth.

How can the tide of alcohol abuse among Latino teens be curbed?First, consider why young Hispanics drink. The primary developmen-

tal task Latino adolescents face is developing self-identity, largelythrough friendships and social networks. If those friendships are weakor nonexistent and if the pain of loneliness persists during high school,

the chances of alcohol abuseincreases. Add the acculturativepressures Latino students face leav-ing their family home and confronting different values, lifestyles, behav-iors and choices – many contradicting those with which they are raised– and the ante for coping (and the chances of drinking) are raised.

Latino families are considered the primary protective factor againstyouthful drinking. The closer children are to their parents and the moreparents abstain from drinking alcohol and spend time talking with theirchildren, the better the outlook for moderate, controlled or no drinkingbehavior by their children. If families remain the safe place where teenageand young adult children land for comfort and support, these young Latinoswill be less likely to find consolation in a bottle. Latino parents must setclear expectations and limits during their children’s early school years,encouraging other appropriate outlets for energy and helping them developalternative, productive ways of coping with academic and social pressures.

Research has determined that acculturation pressures faced byLatino students also influence alcohol consumption. When a youngLatino faces multiple changes in college and is physically or emotionallyisolated from others, alcohol can be a source of comfort and escape.Institutional and community support for Hispanic students facing thechallenges of many lifestyle, gender role and generational changes; timeaway from family; and fewer established networks with which to copeare all essential to assuage the pressure without drinking. The campusenvironment will greatly influence how Latino students cope.

Changing the image of the college experience from a marathon partyto a healthier, well-rounded life on campus is crucial to stemming thetide of excessive drinking by college students. Administrators, profes-sors, leaders, policymakers and the students themselves can set a newstandard for healthy, sober living with appropriate social support at theuniversity, including and apart from Greek life. Students – includingLatinos – will rise to meet social expectations that include sobriety andhealthy living if those are set by the leadership and across the board,reinforced and supported consistently.

ALCOHOL ABUSE AMONGLATINO STUDENTS

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Miquela Rivera, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist withyears of clinical, early childhood and consultativeexperience. She lives in Albuquerque, N.M.

Documents

03/18/2013 Community College Front and Center