MSVCC ENG1123 Essay: Revamping Community Colleges for Graduation

This essay explores the challenges and potential solutions to improve graduation rates in community colleges. It references the work of Alina Tugend, highlighting the need for structural changes and increased support for students. The essay discusses factors such as financial constraints, inadequate academic preparation, and the traditional "cafeteria-style" structure of many colleges as barriers to student success. The author advocates for a "guided pathways" model with clear programs and advising, along with motivational programs to keep students on track. The essay emphasizes the importance of addressing structural barriers and considering the socio-economic profiles of students to enhance overall performance and improve completion rates. The essay concludes by recommending the implementation of guided pathways and motivation programs to increase the success rates for community college students.

Running head: COMMUNITY COLLEGES 1
Community Colleges
Name
Institution

COMMUNITY COLLEGES 2
Community Colleges
Introduction
Community colleges indeed have to do more to help produce more college graduates. In
the United States, Community colleges can provide learners with feasible pathways into good
jobs. Nevertheless, many learners who enroll in most of the community colleges do not finish a
degree or certificate. Particularly, fewer than forty percentages of community college learners
earn degrees or certificates within 6years of enrolment. To assist more learners graduate, the
government ought to revamp community colleges or institutions into a more structured
environment mainly by including fewer courses and employing more advisers to help guide the
students to finish their degrees. This paper supports the work of Alina Tugend entitled
‘revamping community colleges to enhance graduation rates.' The article is relevant for
policymakers, community colleges seeking to offer learners with the appropriate route to well-
paying jobs.
There are indeed various factors that can hamper the completion rates. These factors
include financial constraints and inadequate academic preparation. To add to all these factors, it
is true that addressing financial and educational barriers is fundamentally essential to enhancing
community college completion among students. Many researchers argue that gaps in completion
of college persist between high and low income learners. These disparities are due to lack of
enough resources to fund their studies. It is true that most of the colleges require tuition fees and
other learning services such as books and all these require the use of money. So, financial
constraints can hamper the learning process in most of the community colleges.
Indeed, the traditional structure of colleges (community colleges) can hamper the
progress of students toward completing a degree or credential (Tugend, 2016). Many researchers
argue that the traditional structure of most of the community colleges is one of the main reasons

COMMUNITY COLLEGES 3
why most of the students drop out of schools. It is true that most of the students face a lot of
problems in cafeteria-style colleges that need to be address to help improve the environment of
learning. These problems that are in the cafeteria-style colleges exist due to the design and
structure features of most colleges, not to staff, faculty, as well as other people who work smart
on behalf of learners. Also, in the model of the cafeteria, it is usually hard for learners to detect a
clear pathway more so from enrollment to acquiring a degree or credential. This is because
program options and requirements often remain unclear, and learners have insufficient support
and guidance to make an informed decision. Most researchers argue that learners remain left to
navigate and find solutions to their problems on their own. This is how most of the people
connect the structure of community colleges to dropping out. Also, lack of motivation programs
can indeed act as a barrier for learners because having a goal to achieve can help learners to stay
on track in institutions. Motivation is so essential because it allows most students to see the value
of education, thus making them stay focus on their studies.
Indeed, Revamping community colleges or institutions is not the only factor that can
improve graduation rates. By concentrating on this factor, alone may hinder the government and
the institutions from considering other essential elements, for example, the socio-economic
profile of the learners at individual colleges. If the goal of the colleges remains to increase
productivity, with specific attention to improving learner’s achievement among the entire
population, then the government has to consider other external factors that can enhance the
performance of the students.
Conclusion
Addressing the structural barrier indeed needs improving the community institutions or
colleges to the frustration and confusion that leads to low rates of completion. Therefore, I prefer

COMMUNITY COLLEGES 4
that the guided pathways model should be used instead of the cafeteria model. This is because
guided pathways models have clear, structured programs as well as extensive advising support.
Also, community colleges should try to motivate students as this will reduce the rate of drop out.

COMMUNITY COLLEGES 5
References
Tugend, A. (2016). Revamping community college to improve graduation rates. The New York
Times. Retrieved from www. nytimes. com/2016/06/23/education/revamping-community-
colleges-toimprove-graduation-rates. html.