Why More Students are Choosing Community Colleges over Traditional Four-Year Schools

In Iowa, more and more high school students are graduating with a significant number of community college credits under their belts. The reason began nearly two decades ago when the state passed legislation that requires high schools to pay for the students that take the courses. Money for tuition ultimately comes from the state, with a portion going to community college tuition and the rest going to high school. The idea behind the legislation, according to the Green Field Reporter, was to provide additional opportunities to advanced high school students without taxing already tight school budgets.

As a result of the new law, more Iowa students began seizing the opportunity to get a leg up on their post-secondary education. According to the Des Moines Register, more than 38,200 high school students across the state earned community college credits before their high school graduation. Those numbers showed a 50 percent increase over a period of five years, according to the Iowa Department of Education. Students who received this credit ahead of time made up more than one-quarter of all the community college students in the state.

The Study Begins

This year, as Iowa’s 15 community colleges are gearing up for accreditation through the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnership, a study has been launched to determine the quality of college courses taught at the nearby high schools. This study will provide information on just how valuable community courses during high school can be,

Community colleges have historically provided a much different environment than the traditional four-year university. One of the biggest differences between the two is that students at community colleges do not tend to live in a single community on or near the college campus. However, many community colleges across the country are tuning in to the advantages on-campus housing can provide to students of all ages. This article will explore the new trend of living on a community college campus and some of the schools around the country that are adopting this model for a richer, more community-oriented academic environment.

Benefits of Living On Campus

Community colleges are now realizing some of the benefits of living on campus that four-year colleges have known for generations, including:

• Better proximity to college resources like the library and recreation center
• Exposure to international lifestyles that comes from living near fellow students from around the globe
• The ability to fully immerse oneself in the college experience by remaining in the environment after classes are finished for the day
• Ease of meeting other students and building relationships with those in a similar season of life
• Apartments or dormitories that are often fully furnished and affordable, providing an economic housing option to cash-strapped students

Today, many community college students are beginning to enjoy these benefits as their school campuses are adding housing to the mix. We will take a look at some of the specific colleges that allow students to live on campus or are adding housing options

The Skills for America's Future program was introduced by the current administration as a way to match up community college training with fields in need of qualified workers. The idea behind the initiative was to make community college graduates more competitive and marketable in the real world after school and provide industries with highly qualified workers. This month, President Obama announced that Skills for America's Future will expand further, ensuring more community college students get the training they need to find successful, lucrative jobs once their college training is complete.

What is the Skills for America's Future Program?

Last year, President Obama launched an ambitious initiative along with the Aspen Institute, designed to bring companies together with community colleges to produce future workers that would be highly qualified and able to compete in a global market. The movement was dubbed Skills for America's Future, and it began with partnerships between industries and academia that would coordinate the training and build the skills of a qualified workforce in the United States. According to the Aspen Institute website, the initiative would serve as a broad umbrella under which labor unions, corporations, and community colleges could coordinate their efforts to train a new generation of American workers.

From its inception, Skills for America's Future began signing on a number of key players to help the initiative achieve its goals. Some of the leaders that have worked with the Skills for America's Future program since the beginning include

President Obama announced an ambitious plan to graduate an additional 5 million community college students by 2020. To achieve this end, the President has raised awareness about the benefits of community colleges and issued grants and other funding to increase enrollment levels across the country. However, getting more students into college is only the first part of the battle.

Low Completion Rates a National Problem

Graduation rates for community colleges are currently dismal at best, with less than one-quarter who enroll in a college graduating from a degree or certificate program within three years, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle. That figure varies throughout the country, with some states seeing even lower graduation rates. For example, Texas faces a community college graduation rate of just 12 percent within three years, although that number goes up to 30 percent within six years. Still, if community colleges are to raise a workforce that can compete in the global economy, they must do much better than the status quo.

The worst numbers appear to come from low-income students, who enter community college to bring themselves to a higher earning level. However, most of these students never complete their degree or certificate program, which reduces their chances of a decent-paying job or transfer to a four-year institution. In a community college summit last fall, President Obama told the Christian Science Monitor, "In the coming years, jobs requiring at