I believe that two main issues in community college are closely related, and they are: bad college reputation and low retention rates.
Low retention rates are a problem number one for most community colleges in the country. Graduation rate in community colleges is only about 18-20 %. (New York Times, 2015). Despite the increased focus on excellence that we see, community colleges are still struggling to graduate students. Even though the number of students who attend community colleges increase every year, graduation rate is dropping. U.S. community colleges have been dropout mills. So the goal today should be to increase the graduation rate all over the country. Last year President Obama proposed to make first two years of community college
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Many people still have this stereotype that community college serves only low-income and low-class families, people in need, less gifted students for whom community college can be the last chance to get a higher education, those who for some reason can’t afford going to four-years university. There are plenty of myths surrounding community colleges around the country and these myths should be destroyed. They have very little to do with the reality. It’s unfortunate that community college suffer from such poor public image, when in fact plenty of people with Bachelor’s degree would be just better off going to community college. The reason for that is that so many students at community colleges nowadays already have their bachelors in a field they were not able to find a job in; so they are back to school again pursuing more valuable associate’s degree. Not to mention, how much money a student saves by going to two year school instead of going straight to University. If student decides to change major –which happens pretty often- he/she can do it very smoothly at a community college and with minimum money and time loss. Community colleges today offer great academic programs, excellent variety of degrees and certificates, great flexibility with classes, high-end technology on campuses, experienced full and part-time professors as teachers. Bad reputation often comes from low retention rate. But it has a lot to do with poor student’s readiness; community colleges do not have high requirements for student to get admitted, which make community colleges admission friendly and open to the