Taking top honors: honors colleges and other special programs at two-year schools educate the brightest students while improving transfer rates.(COMMUNITY COLLEGES)

Publication: University Business

Publication Date: 01-SEP-06

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The spotlight of attention has swung right toward community colleges in recent years, thanks in part to high-level public mentions. Yet as more people look to community colleges to churn out students--particularly those from low-income and minority backgrounds--some logistics need to be ironed out, including how to improve transfer rates between two-year schools and elite four-year institutions.

A study sponsored by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and conducted by researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and the University of Southern California found that less than 1 percent of incoming students at the nation's private elite four-year schools transferred from community colleges in 2002. Another project, Equity for All, also explores transfer rates. Of more than 400 under-represented minority students eligible for transfer at one California community college, less than 20 percent did so.

Improving transfer rates remains in the interest of two-year and four-year institutions: Community college leaders see helping students obtain degrees as part of their mission; administrators at four-year institutions want to increase the numbers of low-income and under-represented minority students at their schools. Talented community college students provide the perfect pool...

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