Less Choice, More Structure for Students: In a Tennessee System, It Works

Autor/in	Gonzalez, Jennifer
Titel	Less Choice, More Structure for Students: In a Tennessee System, It Works
Quelle	In: Chronicle of Higher Education, (2012) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0009-5982
Schlagwörter	Academic Achievement; Educational Environment; Technical Institutes; Community Colleges; Labor Force Development; Graduation Rate; Job Placement; Low Income; Student Diversity; Attendance; Program Descriptions; Program Effectiveness; Remedial Instruction; Scheduling; Tennessee + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Schulleistung; Lernumgebung; Pädagogische Umwelt; Schulumwelt; Technische Fakultät; Community college; Community College; Arbeitskräftebestand; Employment service; Employment services; Arbeitsvermittlung; Niedriglohn; Anwesenheit; Förderkurs; Disposition
Abstract	The Tennessee Technology Center system has become something of a darling among college-completion advocates. Comprising 27 locations across the state, the system boasts graduation and job-placement rates that many colleges only dream of: 75 percent and 83 percent, respectively. Such achievements are even more noteworthy given the population the system serves: racially and ethnically diverse, low-income adults--students who tend to struggle in college. The system's success has caught the attention of two-year colleges, a sector in which less than a third of students earn degrees in four years, although about a fifth of them transfer to four-year colleges during that time. Administrators from community colleges around the country--the City Colleges of Chicago; the Ivy Tech Community College system, in Indiana; and the Texas State Technical College system, for example--are trekking to Tennessee to observe the centers' rigid academic structure. Nobody thinks community colleges should turn into technical colleges. They have a broader mission, which includes preparing students for transfer and providing enrichment classes to the community. Still, the Tennessee system's model seems to help meet two pressing needs: (1) to increase graduation rates, in accordance with national goals; and (2) to better prepare students for the work force, as jobs demand more education than ever before. The system's highly structured academic environment, not unlike that of a high school, is key to its success. Rather than choose individual courses, students enroll--the majority full time--in programs with predetermined schedules. Classes meet every day for about six hours and last from several weeks to more than a year, depending on the program. Attendance is taken. Remediation is embedded in coursework. Though grouped together, students move through programs at their own pace. The structure is foreign to most traditional colleges, where students design their own schedules. While an increasing number of community colleges have taken notice of the technology-center system, some are incorporating only "bits and pieces" of the model. But a piecemeal approach to adapting the technical-system model is problematic because the synergy of several strategies is what makes it work. Without that, institutions are not going to get the results they are looking for. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Chronicle of Higher Education. 1255 23rd Street NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037. Tel: 800-728-2803; Tel: 202-466-1000; Fax: 202-452-1033; e-mail: circulation@chronicle.com; Web site: http://chronicle.com
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10