Community College

The American people have always paid great importance to public education.

This fine tradition dates back more than 150 years. Inspired by a demand for literacy(i.e., learning how to read and write from two different beliefs, one described in the Bible, the other in the Declaration of Independence, the American system of education grew to be an essential element in their faith that their nation was uniquely the land of opportunity. In addition, Community College is a special one education system of all college education.

1.The Nature of the Community College

Community colleges are two-year post-secondary institutions that offer certificate programs, Associate of Arts degree, Associate of Sciences degree, plus many other programs. There are 1,186 community colleges in the United States. Community colleges are centers of educational opportunity, embodying Thomas Jefferson’s belief education should be practical as well as liberal. They are an American invention that put publicly funded higher education at close-to-home facilities, beginning nearly 100years age with Joliet Junior College. Since then, they have been inclusive institutions that welcome all who desire to learn, regardless of wealth, heritage, or previous academic experience. The process of making higher education available to maximum number of people continues to develop at 1,186 public and independent community colleges. When the branch campuses of community colleges are included, the number totals about 1.600.

2.Categories Of The Community College

Public institutions – 986, Independent institutions – 171 Tribal institutions – 29 TOTAL: 1,186

3.Historical Information about Community College

Great challenges faced the United States in the early 20th century, including global economic competition. National and local leaders realized that a more skilled workforce was key to country’s continued economic strength—a need that called for a dramatic increase in college attendance—yet three-quarters of high school graduates were choosing

not to further their education, in part because they were reluctant to leave home for a distant college.

During the same period, the country’s rapidly growing public high schools were seeking new ways to serve their communities. It was common for them to add a teacher institute, manual learning(vocational education) division or citizenship school to the diploma program. The high school-based community college, as first developed at Central High School in Joliet,Ⅲ.was the most successful type of addition. Meanwhile, small, private colleges such as Indiana’s Vincennes University had fashioned an effective model of higher education grounded o the principles of small classes, close student-faculty relations and a program that included both academics and extracurricular activities.

From the combination of these traditions emerged the earliest community colleges, roughly balanced in number between private and public control but united in their commitment to meet local needs. The typical early community college was small, rarely enrolling more than 150 students. It nevertheless offered a program of solid academics as well as a variety of student activities. Fort Scott Junior College in Kansas, for example, not only fielded several athletic teams but also supported a student newspaper, government, thespian society and orchestra.

A distinctive feature of the institutions was their accessibility to women, attributable to the leading role the colleges played in preparing grammar school teachers. In such states as Missouri, Which did not yet require K-8 teacher to have a bachelor’s degree, it was common for more than 60%of community college students to be women, virtually all of them preparing to be teachers.

4. A Look At The Future Of The Community College

Historically, there has been little lag time between an economic change or population shift and its impact at community colleges. During their first century, community colleges responded adroitly to the demands of the times. When World WarⅡ veterans using the GI Bill packed campuses at the same time industries needed skilled workers to convert from armaments to consumer goods, community colleges were built to accommodate new students.

Technological advances make it possible for people to live longer. As the overall population increases, community college enrollment is expected to grow, and the colleges will likely confer more associate degrees.

Technological innovations in the workplace are expected to continue to fuel enrollment by people seeking training or skills upgrades. Demographers predict that the maturation of the post- WW2 baby boomers’ children will send a new influx of traditional college-age students to community colleges in the next decade.

Distance learning technology also may increase community colleges’ capacity without massive new building projects. Technology also may help accommodate enrollment growth, but it is not the total solution. Technology is expensive. A bad choice in software or hardware means a college is left behind. As a college waits for the technology to stabilize, it risks losing students to other higher education providers.

During the few years of its widespread use, the Internet has intensified competition in higher education by erasing the geographic boundaries that historically defined public community colleges’ domains. Electronic delivery of courses has also generated faculty compensation issues and questions about intellectual property rights.

Technology increases the potential for people who live in remote areas to advance their education, but it also carries the risk of cutting out the low-income populations community colleges serve, because accessing the Internet requires a personal computer of fairly recent vintage. Owning a computer is beyond the means of many community college students.

Because of technological advances in communication and transportation, foreign trade is growing. Consequently, more businesses are looking for people with an understanding of international issues. Many community colleges offer international programs. While such programs a re not available at every college, pressure is increasing for community colleges to foster an awareness of foreign cultures and the inter connected nature of the world economy.

Constraints on public funds show no signs of abating, as more legislatures predicate budget increases upon performance whose instruction and services should be delivered at the time, location, and pace of the students’ choosing. In turn, emphasis on student learning

is growing as employers and society expects students to demonstrate competence in what they have been taught.

In conclusion, the flexibility of community colleges will be tested in the future as never before. Time will tell whether the pressure upon community colleges transform them in fundamental ways or elicit adjustments. Community colleges’ history makes them strong contenders for the 21st century.

5. Compare With Chinese Vocation College

If we are talking about the community education of the United States, then we have to mention the resemble education in China that is Vocation Education. Vocation Education is belonging to the education that is pay more attention to every students’ skills in the work. It’s said according to the theory communicate with fact. Work is demanded every student can familiar to finish their professional knowledge. Vocation education is not very popular in China. Because many people think it’s not difficult to enter the college. Vocation education without high scores then you can attend. The reason may lead to people want to attend to university instead of college.

Oppositely society requires many people take jobs with a lot of experience. But university is more attention in diverse lessons with context knowledge rather than work experience in fact. Vocation college is earlier than university in China. Its function is more useful than other education. Because of vocational college and vocational education, rapid economy that you can see in China today. Compare with community college in the United States, Vocation college has public college and private college at the same time. Public college that is much lower fee to compare with private college. But most of private colleges are cooperate with some private company. So many students when they graduated, that will have a good condition to enter the private company directly. Vocation is ordinary three years at college.

6.The others views of community college.

In the United States, the term university refers to multipurpose institutions of higher education, but the term college can describe different institutions of higher education. A college may form one major division of a university. It may also be independent of a

university, offering four-years programs if general education as well as a number of graduate programs, but most colleges only provide undergraduate education.

In recent years , a new kind of colleges, known as the community college, has become popular. Most community colleges are nonprofit ad public education or vocation education. Many students in community colleges complete the first two years of general education and then transfer the credits to a four-year college or university. Other community college students pursue vocational, technical, and other pre-professional programs. Community colleges typically have lower tuition rates than four-year colleges and universities.

REFERENCES

1. ZhaoQi. A Survey of English-Speaking. Peking University Press.2008. 2. Lai Anfang. British and American Studies. Fudang University Press. 2008. 3. 赵起 英语国家概况 北京大学出版社 2009 4. 来安方 英美文化与国家概况 复旦大学出版社 2009 5. www.baidu.com/knowledge/education/communitycollege

Abstract

Community colleges are two-year post-secondary institutions that offer certificate programs, associates of arts degree , associate of sciences degrees, plus many other programs. There are thousands of community colleges in the US. Community colleges are center of educational opportunity, embodying Tomas Jefferson’s belief that an education should be practical as well as

liberal. They are an American invention that put publicly funded higher education at close-to-home facilities, beginning nearly 100 years ago with Joliet Junior College. Since then, they have been inclusive institutions that welcome all who desire to learn, regardless of wealth, heritage, or previous academic experience. The process of making higher education available to the maximum number of people continues to develop at 1,186 public and in dependent community colleges. When the branch campuses of community colleges are included , the number totals about 1,600.

The article mainly introduce the community college about its history information, categories, and further look and so on. Through the article can help you can learn known more about American college， education and culture.

Key words: community college, American education, vocation education.

内容摘要

社区大学是一个两年制的教育教学机构，毕业后给予办法毕业证书，其中包括了文学学位，理科学位，还有其他的一些学位。在美国，有上千所的社区大学。社区大学是一个教育机会的中心，具体的体现了汤玛斯。杰弗森的信念就是“教育应该注重自由实践”他们是美国的一项发明，而且把公益基金用于比较注重家庭职能的高等教育上，最早的要算是距今有100年的朱丽特青年学院。从那时起，他们就囊括了一些机构包括给那些像那些想获得知识的人，看淡金钱或者有超前学识经验的。这一举措，使高等

教育人数得到增加，同时也发展到了1，186所公立或者私立的社区大学，加上一些附属的社区学院的话，总共包括了大学1600所。

本文章主要介绍了社区大学的及其历史信息，种类和前景等等。通过这篇文章来帮助大家更过的了解美国的那些大学和美国的教育，还有美国文化。

关键词：社区大学，美国教育，职业教育。

Contents

Ⅰ. Introduction of American education………………………. Ⅱ. The Nature of the community College…………………. Ⅲ. Categories of the Community College…………………………. Ⅳ. Historical Information about Community College……………… Ⅴ. A Look at the future of the Community College………………… Ⅵ. Compare with Chinese Vocation College………………………. Ⅶ. The other views of Community College……………………….. Reference……………………………………………………………