UCLA Community College Review: community education in the community college.

This article begins by reviewing the development of community education in two-year colleges. It focuses on the five major types of community education programs: adult education, continuing education, lifelong learning, community services, and especially community-based education. The article concludes by discussing the challenges community education programs face due to the conflicting missions of the community college, and it provides suggestions for research and practice.

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Historically, community colleges have provided various programs and services to people who otherwise would not have had an opportunity to pursue higher education (Cohen & Brawer, 2003). Due to their grassroots origin, policy on open admissions, geographic proximity, and financial affordability, community colleges have been regarded as a "most effective democratizing agent in higher education" (Dougherty, 1994, p. 6). The programs and services that community colleges provide are often created out of local community interests and demands and, by offering community education programs, colleges demonstrate to the community that they are aware of the community' s needs and are willing to collaborate with them in educational endeavors (Gleazer, 1974b; Harlacher, 1969; Harlacher & Gollattscheck, 1978; McGuire, 1988; Phinney, Schoen, & Hause, 2002). Thus, the relationship between the community college and its community is critical.

Among the community college's three primary missions--transfer or collegiate education, occupational or vocational training, and community education--community education is the broadest (Cohen & Brawer, 2003; Vaughan, 2000). A community education program can be defined as one that "focuses on college-community interaction, utilizes the community as a learning laboratory and resource, helps to create an environment in which the community educates itself, and evaluates its success by citizen successes that are recognized as significant by the community itself" (McGuire, 1988, p. 9). Community education programs come in many forms, including adult education, continuing education, lifelong learning, community services, and community-based education (Baker, 1994; Bogart, 1994; Cohen & Brawer, 2003; Fields, 1962; Gleazer, 1974b; McGuire, 1988). Community education programs, unlike other core programs offered by community colleges, are less bounded by institutional regulations and are able to respond quickly to community needs.

However, community education is also viewed as the most complicated of the core community college programs (Baker, 1994; Bergquist, 1998; Cohen & Brawer, 2003). Community education programs cover multiple areas, such as adult ESL classes and summer youth programs. It is also common to see community programs overlap with vocational education, as most community residents benefit from economic development. Due to the multifaceted definition and nature of community education, however, program delivery may face limited effectiveness. Furthermore, because of financial and human resource constraints, some community colleges have reduced their emphasis on community education as part of their core mission. Given the breadth of community education, as well as the challenges it faces from budget constraints and funding priorities, it is important to raise questions concerning how community colleges can organize and position themselves better to utilize community resources and to build meaningful relationships with community organizations. After briefly discussing the development of community education in two-year colleges, this article illustrates the five major types of community education programs, focusing in particular on community-based education. The article then discusses the challenges community education programs face due to the multiple and often conflicting missions of the community college, and it ends with suggestions for research and practice.

Development of Community Education

Many writers (Cohen & Brawer, 2003; Commission on the Future of Community Colleges, 1988; Gleazer, 1974b; Harlacher, 1969; McGuire, 1988) have suggested that community education transformed the American community college from a single-purpose entity into a multipurpose postsecondary educational institution. This transition is reflected in President Truman's 1947 Commission on Higher Education report: "Whatever form the community college takes, its purpose is educational service to the entire community, and this purpose requires of it a variety of functions and programs" (cited in Bogart, 1994, p. 62). It is also reflected in the American Association of Community Colleges' (AACC) statement in 1974 that its mission was to "provide an organization for national leadership of community-based performance-oriented postsecondary education" (McGuire, 1988, p. 15). Responding in part to these two statements, community colleges created a new model of education committed to the needs of its community members and the kinds of education that community members want and need (Gleazer, 1974a; Harlacher, 1969; McGuire, 1998). This commitment was reaffirmed in 2000 in AACC's renewed mission statement, which asserted that it will "forg[e] community development and renewal by working to ensure access to lifelong learning to benefit individuals, communities and society in general" (American Association of Community Colleges, 2004a).

Community Education Today

Hiemstra (1993) defines community education as an educational philosophy that advocates learning as a continuous process that is facilitated by an educational organization where community resources and agencies are used to supplement learning experiences. The three key components of community education are lifelong learning, community involvement, and efficient use of community resources (National Community Education Association, n.d.). Further, community education is viewed as grassroots programs that create "public spaces" (Boyte & Kari, 1995) for community members to discuss what they believe is best for them and other members of the community.

Community education programs offered by two-year colleges are often community based (Commission on the Future of Community Colleges, 1988; Gleazer, 1974b; McGuire, 1988; Vaughan, 2000), meaning that people from the community initiate the creation of these learning environments. Unlike transfer and vocational programs that are primarily designed by community college administrators or faculty, community education enables learners to become active participants in negotiating their interests and needs and in shaping their education. In other words, community education allows under-served people to initiate curriculum that they believe is beneficial for them or that helps to solve their personal and community problems.

Participants in community education programs tend to be older than college-age students, and their prior learning experiences and school achievement are more diverse (Merriam & Cunningham, 1989). In addition, rather than seeking a degree or certificate, these students usually have short-term goals and attend courses or activities on a part-time basis (Cohen & Brawer, 2003).

Although broadly defined, community education is prevalent in many if not most community colleges across the nation, and it is often considered integral to the community college mission. In 2001, the American Association of Community Colleges conducted a national survey to identify the scope of community-based programs in two-year colleges (Phinney et al., 2002). Besides eliciting information about community programs and services outside academic courses or contract training, the survey asked colleges if they had any successful or unique community programs. Survey responses demonstrated a strong level of community college engagement in a wide variety of programs and services designed to reflect the diverse needs of local communities and a commitment to improving the quality of life in those communities.

Specifically, more than 82% of responding colleges identified community programs and services as part of their mission statement. In addition, 66% sponsored community events, and 68% facilitated community meetings on local issues. This study also indicated that many colleges sought partnerships with other local and regional organizations to expand resources in order to serve their broad constituency better. Responding community colleges reported partnerships with local service organizations (35%), healthcare programs (34%), local businesses (33%), local governments (31%), and state governments (18%). Considering the wide range of community programs reported in this national survey, the authors concluded that community colleges play an important role in encouraging community development and lifelong learning.

While this study provided rich descriptive data regarding the kinds of community education programs that are offered throughout the country, the authors did not look at how a college decides, prioritizes, or assesses community needs or how and why it delivers community programs. These issues, however, are critical to community college administrators who are attempting to adapt innovative community-based programs. More research is needed that explores how and why a community college makes sense of community education.

Types of Community Education Programs

The types of community education programs that community colleges can offer are adult education, continuing education, lifelong learning, community services, and community-based education (Baker, 1994; Bogart, 1994; Cohen & Brawer, 2003; Fields, 1962; Gleazer, 1974b; McGuire, 1988). These programs share many characteristics such as open access, multiple entry points in time and place, continuous or lifelong service to the learner, values and priorities based on the needs of the people, and flexibility to respond quickly to community needs (McGuire, 1988).

Although this article breaks out the five types of community education--adult education, continuing education, lifelong education, community services, and community-based education--it is often very difficult to make clear distinctions among the different types of community education programs as each program is highly dependent on the individual college's institutional context, needs, and resources.

Adult Education

Community college adult education courses are primarily tailored for adults who wish to improve their skills in writing, reading, and math. Many adult education courses are developmental in nature, for example, assisting students in preparing to take the GED. As well, given the growing number of adult immigrants entering community colleges, adult English as a Second Language (ESL) classes have also become popular choices (Blumenthal, 2002).

For example, in partnership with the Chicago Public Library, Chicago Public Schools, area churches, and several community-based organizations, Kennedy-King College in Chicago provides adult literacy, adult basic education, and GED and ESL programs to serve those over 18 years old (Kennedy-King College, 2004). Like Kennedy-King College's programs, Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona, also offers a variety of adult courses including citizenship classes for immigrants; educational and life skills classes for homeless or in-transition adults; classes in literacy, math, computer skills, and creative movements for adults with developmental disabilities; and language training for refugees (Pima Community College, n.d.).

Continuing Education

Continuing education programs are designed for people who regard learning as a means of further developing their competency in a particular subject (Cohen & Brawer, 2003). Continuing education programs in two-year colleges frequently have a vocational focus to help community residents retain their knowledge and update their skills. For instance, Massasoit Community College in Massachusetts provides reaccreditation courses for teachers and health recertification courses for medical professionals (Massasoit Community College, 2004).

Contract training has become a significant continuing education program in community colleges (Cohen & Brawer, 2003; Dougherty & Bakia, 1999). Contract training programs are designed for specific occupational purposes and are not typically part of a credit or degree program. For instance, Barton County Community College in Kansas provides customized training programs for business and industry in areas of computer applications, customer services, and Spanish language (Barton County Community College, n.d.). Southeastern Community College in West Burlington, Iowa, has also made great efforts to launch custom-designed training programs to help ensure that the local workforce has the knowledge and skills needed to remain competitive in the marketplace (Southeastern Community College, n.d.).

Lifelong Learning

Lifelong learning has been defined as intermittent education undertaken in various settings throughout one's lifetime (Cohen & Brawer, 2003). The goal of such programs is to create a learning community that provides all members of the community with the opportunity to learn from childhood through adulthood. Addressing many community members' desire for a continuous, pragmatic, and learner-centered curriculum, community colleges often provide diverse lifelong learning courses in subjects such as finance, fitness, home improvement, art, photography, and such.

Community Services

The category of community services is very broad and refers to any programs or services a community college provides that are available to members of the local community (Cohen & Brawer, 2003). These services are often undertaken in cooperation with other community groups or agencies, and they address personal and community educational needs not met by formal schooling or certificate programs. The most common forms of community services are facilities sharing, campus arts and cultural events, community summits, community health screenings, and youth and community leadership training (Phinney et al., 2002).

Northwest State Community College (NSCC) in Ohio offers many different types of community services. For example, NSCC supports the local arts by providing a community-based art council with free office space, telephones, secretarial assistance, and facilities for performances and craft fairs (Phinney et al., 2002). Similarly, Seminole Community College in Florida provides a state-required parenting course for divorcing parents in Florida (Seminole Community College, 2004).

Community-Based Education

Community-based education programs are designed by local citizens for the good of the community (Cohen & Brawer, 2003). These programs operate on the assumption that communities have the potential to solve many of their own problems by utilizing their own resources and by empowering community members to reach resolutions. Typically community-based education is directly related to specific community issues such as environmental concerns, unemployment, ethnic culture and history, and civic engagement (Merriam and Cunningham, 1989).

Community-based education programs provide a unique opportunity for citizens to reinvest themselves in their community. As Harlacher and Gollattscheck (1978) state, the community college is a "vital participant in the total renewal process of the community" (p. 7). The assumption is that community members will begin to assume a responsibility to the larger society through community involvement stimulated by two-year colleges. In other words, by providing community-based education programs, community colleges become one of the mediators that strengthen individuals' ties to the community in which they reside.

Boone and Vaughan (1993) discuss a model of community-based programming which suggests that community colleges must reposition themselves to be catalysts, leaders, conveners, or participants in order to address community concerns as they arise. This model provides community college leaders a way to fulfill their mission of being a community-based institution more effectively (Boone, 1992; Boone & Associates, 1997). Boone and Associates (1997) define this community-based programming model as "a process involving a series of interconnected tasks in which the community college functions as a leader and catalyst in affecting collaboration among the people, their leaders, and other community agencies and organizations in identifying and seeking resolution of community issues" (p. 3).

Boone's model positions community colleges as the progenitors for facilitating collaboration among diverse community members, in identifying critical issues, and in developing collective efforts to resolve them. This community-based programming model involves 15 clearly defined and orderly tasks leading to understanding the missions of community colleges, identifying issues influencing the lives of the community members, building coalitions with various stakeholders, and developing and implementing action plans along with their outcomes.

One of the more successful implementations of the community-based programming model was the Academy for Community College Leadership Advancement, Innovation and Modeling (ACCLAIM) project (Holub, 1996). ACCLAIM, operated by North Carolina State University, worked with several state systems of community colleges to develop and implement a process that positions the community college to play a major role in resolving community issues. After completing a training program hosted by ACCLAIM, James Sprunt Community College in North Carolina used a community-based programming model as a means to improve literacy and economic development (Holub, 1996). Another successful example from the ACCLAIM project was Paul D. Camp Community College in Virginia, which utilized a community-based programming model to deal with a community issue related to substance abuse (Cohen & Brawer, 2003).

Another unique method of community-based education is the community forum. Community forums bring various constituencies together for serious discussion and consensus-building in order to find a common ground to respond to critical community issues (LeCroy, 1993). LeCroy and Tedrow (1993) describe community forums organized by Delta College in Michigan in order to elaborate on how a college can help to create a public arena in which residents from all walks of life can gather and find a solution to a major community problem. In this example, unemployment resulting from an economic downturn was a major problem in the community surrounding Delta College. Collaborating with local organizations, Delta College organized a community forum to help community members brainstorm a solution to the problem. The community forum successfully attracted many community residents, educating local residents about the economic downturn and identifying strategies not only to deal with unemployment and career-related issues but also to promote the community's economic development.

Community Education in Conflict with Other College Missions

After decades of developing diverse and multifaceted types of community education programs, community colleges have evolved from an isolated entity to one seeking full partnership with the community (Cohen & Brawer, 2003). While continuing to provide transfer and vocational education to its students, the community college has also expanded course offerings that are regarded as nontraditional in terms of clientele, delivery of instruction, and location. The community college is indeed an important entity that is capable of responding to the changing needs of the community by providing educational programs or training opportunities that are requested by its constituents. However, although the comprehensive nature of community college programs enables them to design curriculum and services for their diverse students, Deegan, Tillery, and Associates (1985) posit that it also adds confusion to the missions of the colleges. As well, budget cutbacks and funding priorities often result in tensions among the missions of the community colleges. As a result, community education programs can become market-driven, leading many state and college leaders to neglect or even remove community education from the core mission of the college.

Emphasizing vocational or technical education is a market-driven response to the needs of business and industry as well as the continual need for on-demand skill advancement (Levin, 2000; Orr, 2001). Indeed, since the 1990s, community colleges' commitment to community demands has often resulted in a growing connection with business and industry, particularly in the form of contract training programs (Cohen & Brawer, 2003). This is nothing new; however, community colleges have long aligned themselves with business sectors to generate revenue and to fuel local economic development by producing a better-trained workforce (Ratcliff, 1994).

Although community college missions and the function of community education may sometimes conflict, the desire to meet community needs is still prominent among community college administrators. In a national survey conducted by Amey, Van Der Linden, and Brown (2002), community college administrators were asked to rate the importance of meeting community needs. Eighty-eight percent of respondents rated meeting community needs as important or very important. In addition, in an open-ended question, respondents indicated that addressing community needs--both through workforce and economic development and through building cooperative relationships with local organizations--was one of the primary areas of emphasis within their institutional mission statements. Although meeting community needs was not the central focus of this national survey, it is clear that delivering educational programs with a strong community emphasis is very important to community college administrators.

This research, in addition to Phinney et al. (2002), demonstrates that despite potential mission conflict, community education is still very important to community college administrators. However, while these studies provide rich descriptive data regarding the kinds of community education programs that are offered throughout the country and the importance of community education to college administrators, neither of the studies examined the details associated with the process of delivering community programs or how a college prioritizes or assesses community needs.

Observations and Recommendations

With open-door admissions and lower tuition than most four-year institutions, community colleges in the United States have been said to be "centers of educational opportunity open to all seekers" (American Association of Community Colleges, 2004b, para. 7), and they have gained a historical reputation as the "people's college" (Commission on the Future of Community Colleges, 1988). These two definitions display a strong connection between community colleges and the communities in which they are located, as well as a strong commitment to their constituents. Unfortunately, the ways in which community colleges perceive these connections remain largely unexamined, especially in recent decades.

Community college leaders and administrators seem to accept their institutional mission of meeting community needs without critical reflection upon its meaning or delivery. In particular, when budget crunches increasingly force community colleges to turn away students, how these "people's colleges" keep their commitment to the mission of community-oriented education becomes incredibly uncertain.

Because community colleges are inherently community based, community college leaders and administrators must ensure that the educational needs of the community members are consistent with their practice. Following the centennial celebration of the creation of community colleges, a revisit of the two-year college's institutional commitment and mission to serve community needs is timely. However, due to the lack of organized conversations taking place in policy circles regarding the contemporary practice of community education programs, dialogue should also be initiated among community college practitioners and scholars. This dialogue could lead to a systematic understanding of how community education programs could be more properly utilized and implemented by the nation's two-year colleges.

The multifaceted and often conflicting missions of the community college should not change its core commitment to community education. To sustain good relationships with the community, community colleges must determine the needs of the public they serve, utilize input and feedback about services from users, and be adaptive to change. To improve institutional competence and to offer better services, community colleges also need to recognize the need for cooperation with other community and regional agencies such as local high schools, other community colleges, and universities. If community college leaders still believe that their institution's role is to serve the community, they must position their institutions in ways that allow them to execute this role effectively.

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Wei-ni Wang is a doctoral candidate in the Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education (HALE) program at Michigan State University. [e-mail]