The United States is a country with an increasingly diverse populace. People from just about every part of the world abound in this country. Community colleges have to cater to the needs of extremely diverse student groups. Variations are observed in the levels of English fluency, ethnic and social backgrounds and personal and work responsibilities. These colleges must introduce programs that can fully cater to the needs of every student seeking an education.
A large number of students go to community colleges to attend one or two remedial courses. It is difficult and costly for community colleges to cater to the needs of these students and provide education in varied disciplines. Remediation is affecting a number of college programs and incentives that include transfer options, continuing education programs and adult literacy programs.
Student outcome assessment aims to improve the quality of educational services delivered to students. Owing to the diverse student body in community colleges, assessment of learning outcomes becomes difficult and is mostly limited to key educational areas, such as adult education programs and transfer options.
The purpose of transfer outcome assessment is to understand the usefulness of education in helping students complete bachelor degree programs. Currently, there are three different transfer indicators that provide very limited insight about the students transferring from community colleges, high schools and four-year programs.
Vocational programs of community colleges account for majority of the skilled workforce. Nearly half of all students attending community colleges sign up for vocational programs. Currently, the vocational programs aren't fully meeting the federal vocational legislative requirements announced in 1990s. Specifically, problems arise in merging academic studies with vocational training.
Given the increase in number of students attending community colleges, an alarming shortage of teaching staff can be predicted. Fresh graduates cannot fully deliver to the professional needs of students in community colleges, making it even more difficult to address this shortage.