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1
Introduction
Picture a first-generation new community college student named Josie,
said Becky Wai-Ling Packard, professor of psychology and education at
Mount Holyoke College, in her presentation at the summit Community
Colleges in the Evolving STEM Education Landscape. Josie became inter-
ested in environmental issues in high school when she became aware of
the extent to which they affected her community, so she decided to go to
college to learn more about environmental policy.
First she had to fill out financial aid paperwork, but much of it was
hard to decipher. She had to figure out which courses to take, but she was
not sure about the difference between a one-year certificate and an associ-
ate’s degree, and her parents were not able to help her. She had questions
about how much time the degree was going to take her. Given her family’s
financial status, she could not afford any missteps.
Imagine, several years in the future, that Josie is one of the few first-
generation college students and students of color who has earned an
associate’s degree in a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
(STEM) field and has transferred to a four-year university. At her new
school, she felt lost once again. No advisor met with her. She did all of
her scheduling online. Peer study groups had already formed. The hours
of the academic resource center conflicted with her job. Faculty assumed
that she was incompetent when her experiences did not align with their
expectations. Summer research sounded like a critical experience, but it
required 40 hours a week, and she had to work at a conventional job to
1
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2 COMMUNITY COLLEGES IN THE EVOLVING STEM EDUCATION LANDSCAPE
earn money for school. Furthermore, as a transfer student, she did not
know any professors well enough to ask for a letter of recommendation.
Many thousands of students are like Josie, said Packard—indeed,
they are the most typical students in higher education today. The skills of
the future workforce will depend to a critical degree on how well com-
munity colleges meet the needs of these students.
THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY COLLEGES1
Community colleges are an often overlooked but essential component
in the U.S. STEM education system. About 1,200 community colleges in
the United States enroll more than 8 million students annually, including
43 percent of U.S. undergraduates (American Association of Community
Colleges, 2011; Mullin and Phillippe, 2011). Community colleges provide
not only general education but also many of the essential technical skills
on which economic development and innovation are based. Almost one-
half of the Americans who receive bachelor’s degrees in science and engi-
neering attended community college at some point during their educa-
tion, and almost one-third of recipients of science or engineering master’s
degree did so (Tsapogas, 2004). About 40 percent of the nation’s teachers,
including teachers of science and mathematics, completed some of their
mathematics or science courses at community colleges (Shkodriani, 2004).
Community colleges provide professional development programs for
teachers, offer alternative teacher certification programs for people who
have a degree in another field, and in some states award baccalaureate
degrees in teacher education and other disciplines.
Community colleges provide the most diverse student body in the
history of the United States with access to higher education. Community
colleges serve people of color, women, older students, veterans, inter-
national students, first-generation college goers, and working parents.
In particular, minorities who are underrepresented in STEM fields are
disproportionately enrolled in community colleges. Fifty-two percent of
Hispanic students, 44 percent of African American students, 55 percent of
Native American students, and 45 percent of Asian-Pacific Islander stu-
dents attend community colleges (American Association of Community
Colleges, 2011).
1The remainder of this chapter is based on the introductory remarks made at the sum -
mit by George Boggs, president emeritus, American Association of Community Colleges;
Barbara Olds, acting deputy director, Directorate for Education and Human Resources,
National Science Foundation; Jane Oates, assistant secretary, Employment Training Ad -
ministration, U.S. Department of Labor; and Toby Horn, co-director, Carnegie Academy for
Science Education.
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3
INTRODUCTION
Community colleges are more affordable as well as more accessible
than four-year institutions. Average tuition and fees at a community col -
lege are about $3,000 per year, compared with an average of $8,200 per
year for in-state four-year institutions, $21,000 per year for out-of-state
students at state institutions, and $29,000 per year at private institutions
(College Board, 2011). Indeed, it is this large difference between the cost of
attending community colleges versus even the least expensive four-year
institutions, especially during difficult economic times, that serves as an
impetus for many more students to begin their college careers at two-year
institutions.
Community colleges also focus on teaching in an era when teaching
in higher education is receiving particular scrutiny and calls for account-
ability. And community colleges are becoming an increasing focus of
educational researchers as their contributions to education—and to STEM
education in particular—are more widely recognized.
RATIONALE FOR THE SUMMIT
Given the increasing importance of community colleges in the U.S.
STEM education system, the National Research Council of the National
Academies and the Carnegie Academy for Science Education of the Carn-
egie Institution for Science hosted the Summit on Community Colleges
in the Evolving STEM Education Landscape on December 15, 2011.2 The
event was hosted by the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington,
DC, with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The importance of community colleges, especially in emerging areas
of STEM and preparation of the STEM workforce, has been recognized
for at least 20 years, e.g., through the establishment of the Advanced
Technological Education Program at the National Science Foundation.
However, given the attention that both community colleges and STEM
education have received in recent years, combined with new ways of
viewing the roles of community colleges in the nation’s education system
(e.g., dual enrollment for high school students, bi-directional pathways
between community colleges and four-year institutions, and pre-service
education for teachers), a thorough re-examination of the status, prom -
ise, and opportunities of community colleges and their contributions to
STEM education is long overdue. Community college will be essential to
accommodate growing numbers of students, especially given the Obama
2Planning for this summit was a collaborative effort of the Board on Higher Education
and Workforce, the Board on Life Sciences, the Board on Science Education, and the Teacher
Advisory Council of the National Research Council, and the Engineering Education Program
Office of the National Academy of Engineering.
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4 COMMUNITY COLLEGES IN THE EVOLVING STEM EDUCATION LANDSCAPE
Administration’s goals of increasing the number of college graduates
by 5 million over 10 years, 3 million of whom would be educated by
community colleges. Many have ongoing relationships with local com -
munity organizations, governments, and businesses that allow them to
respond quickly to community needs. Community colleges retrain dis -
placed workers in skills needed by local businesses and open gateways
to individuals who would otherwise lack the preparation or financial
resources to receive a college education. They prepare students for STEM
occupations that require a certificate or associate’s degree as well as for
transfer to four-year institutions. They serve as models of excellence for
STEM education in an increasingly global economy and in educating a
highly prepared technical workforce.
To organize the summit, a planning committee was appointed by the
chair of the National Research Council and charged with a Statement of
Task (see Box 1-1).
The planning committee for the summit decided to focus the event
on three critical areas:
1. Outreach and partnerships between community colleges and four-
year institutions
2. Subjects that can serve as gateways or barriers to college completion,
with college-level mathematics as an exemplar
3. Transfer issues for students from two-year to four-year colleges
and universities
ORGANIZATION OF THIS REPORT
This report has been prepared by the workshop rapporteur as a fac-
tual summary of what occurred during the summit. Because the event
was limited to one day, many topics that might have been discussed in
the context of the summit’s goals and objectives had to be omitted. How -
ever, the summit did raise a number of important additional questions
(see reports of general discussions as well as comments from breakout
sessions) that deserve additional attention in future convenings and as
part of a future research agenda. In addition, the three commissioned
papers that are provided in Appendixes B-D provide additional research
evidence as well as questions and suggestions from the authors of those
papers about a series of related questions and issues.
The planning committee’s role was limited to planning and conven -
ing the workshop. The views contained in the report are those of indi -
vidual workshop participants and do not necessarily represent the views
of all workshop participants, the planning committee, or the National
Research Council/Institute of Medicine.
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5
INTRODUCTION
BOX 1-1
Committee Statement of Task
An ad hoc committee will plan and conduct a summit that will feature invited
presentations and discussions on science, technology, engineering, and math-
ematics (STEM) education in two-year higher education institutions and how the
changing dynamics between two-year and four-year institutions of higher educa-
tion might offer new educational opportunities for students, institutions, and the
nation’s workforce. The summit will include leaders from community colleges, four-
year postsecondary institutions, business and industry, and state and federal poli-
cymakers, and researchers with expertise in community colleges, student learning,
and teaching. The summit will allow these stakeholders to engage in discussions
of critical issues in two-year and four-year STEM education. Experts will be com-
missioned to summarize the evidence available in several commissioned papers,
which will be available prior to the planning meeting and summit. The presentations
and discussions from the summit will be synthesized in an individually authored
workshop summary.
The project will commence with a planning meeting in spring of 2011 to plan
the summit and to discuss how program units of the National Academies, both
individually and collectively, can best contribute to federal initiatives on community
colleges in the future.
This activity will be conducted as a collaboration among the Board on Higher
Education and Workforce, the Board on Life Sciences, the Board on Science
Education, and the Teacher Advisory Council of the National Research Coun-
cil, and the Engineering Education Program Office of the National Academy of
Engineering.
Because many of the issues were discussed throughout the one-day
summit, this summary provides a narrative rather than a chronological
overview of the presentations and the rich discussions that permeated
the event.
After this introductory chapter, Chapter 2 examines ways to expand
the participation of underrepresented minorities in STEM fields, while
Chapter 3 describes a study of why students who enter college intending
to major in a STEM field switch to other majors.
As noted above, three commissioned papers were produced before
the summit and posted on the summit’s website prior to it.3 The main
points drawn from these papers and the discussions they provoked are
discussed in Chapters 4 through 6 of this report, respectively.
Boxes at the beginning of Chapters 2-6 summarize the important
points made in those chapters, and these boxes could be read as a quick
3The website is available at http://nas-sites.org/communitycollegessummit/.
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6 COMMUNITY COLLEGES IN THE EVOLVING STEM EDUCATION LANDSCAPE
Ongoing Initiatives
Many organizations have become interested in the role of community colleges
in the U.S. education system, including the Business Higher Education Forum, the
Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land Grant
Universities, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute, the Lumina Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and the
College Board, all of which sent representatives to the summit. In addition, numer-
ous federal agencies, and divisions within federal agencies, are supporting initia-
tives in community colleges. For example, the Advanced Technology Education
Program at NSF has made a strong and long-standing contribution to community
colleges. Other programs at NSF, both in the Education and Human Resources
directorate and in other directorates, also fund community college work, facilitate
transitions for students among educational institutions, and support research in-
volving community colleges.
At the summit, Jane Oates, assistant secretary of the Employment Training
Administration at the U.S. Department of Labor, described the department’s inter-
est in community colleges. The Department of Labor has a particular concern
with students who did not make it through high school and with adults who need
to go back to school because they have lost employment. Many people who walk
onto a community college campus would not feel comfortable going to a four-year
public or private college, said Oates. They may be people who have worked in a
single industry like the auto industry or general manufacturing for many years, no
longer have a job, and are eligible for training. “The people I work with every day
need a job as soon as possible, and they need a job where they can continue their
education on a career pathway,” said Oates.
Before 2009, the Department of Labor did not insist that the training it funded
lead to an industry-recognized credential or a pathway to a degree. The depart-
ment also limited community colleges’ use of federal funds for equipment, though
equipment is essential in many educational fields. Finally, the department did not
require rigorous evaluations.
Beginning in 2009, the department has been addressing those weaknesses,
said Oates. Under the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Ca-
introduction to the discussions summarized in Chapter 7. Chapter 7 of
this report gathers comments made by summit participants on a variety
of issues affecting the future of community colleges.
BUILDING ON THE INTEREST IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES
A meeting planned for 60 to 75 participants quickly grew to more
than 100. In addition, more than 150 people registered to watch a webcast
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7
INTRODUCTION
reer Training Grant Program,a it has begun awarding what will be a total of $4 bil-
lion over two years to help prepare students for successful careers in growing and
emerging industries. It also began rigorous evaluation of grants and formula funds.
In the first round of capacity-building grants, consortia of institutions received about
60 percent of the $500 million distributed in 2011. These consortia mostly formed
around needs of particular sectors such as advanced manufacturing, healthcare,
and engineering. They not only developed new curricula based on the needs of
employers but looked at new methods of delivering educational content, such as
online learning. Community colleges have not been in the forefront of online edu-
cational innovations, said Oates, but they are the point of entry for many people
who could benefit from such learning.
The Department of Labor has been supporting the development of other elec-
tronic tools. A web-based tool called My Skills My Future,b which received more
than 2.5 million hits over 14 months, allows people to see jobs that are currently
available. Similarly, a tool called My Next Movec allows dislocated workers to
search by zip code for jobs that they have held before in their local area or to match
jobs with additional skills that they have. My Next Move for Veteransd allows ex-
military personnel to crosswalk their military job codes with civilian job titles. All of
these sites draw heavily on the Labor Department’s partnerships with community
colleges to find matches with education and with jobs.
Finally, the Workforce Innovation Fund,e in partnership with the U.S. Depart-
ment of Education, is highlighting the innovations and partnerships between the
workforce and community colleges. “The time is right for us to talk about the rigor
and the wonder and the innovation that are going on in community colleges,” said
Oates. “We have for too long seen them as a stepchild, and they can do amazing
things.”
aFor additional information, see http://www.doleta.gov/taaccct/.
bAvailable at http://www.myskillsmyfuture.org/.
cAvailable at http://www.mynextmove.org/.
dAvailable at http://www.mynextmove.org/vets/.
eAvailable at http://www.doleta.gov/workforce_innovation/.
of the meeting.4 Attendees included representatives of the White House
Office of Science and Technology Policy, NSF, the U.S. Department of
Education, the U.S. Department of Labor, state education agencies, pri -
vate foundations, businesses, higher education organizations, faculty and
administrators from two-year and four-year colleges and universities,
several students from local community colleges, and K-12 teachers. It was
a diverse, energetic, and enthusiastic group.
4Video archives of the presentations are available through a link on the summit’s website
(see http://nas-sites.org/communitycollegessummit/).
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8 COMMUNITY COLLEGES IN THE EVOLVING STEM EDUCATION LANDSCAPE
Responses to a Pre-Summit Survey:
Challenges in STEM Education and Careers
As part of the registration process to attend the National Academies’ Summit
on Community Colleges in an Evolving STEM Education Landscape, invited par-
ticipants were asked two questions:
1. What is the greatest challenge or issue you are facing in your work on two-
year or four-year STEM education and careers?
2. What is the one big idea or insight you have about increasing the potential
of community colleges in STEM education and careers that you will bring
to the summit?
Participants’ big ideas and insights are summarized in Chapter 7. The chal-
lenges or issues they listed most frequently are the following:
1. Overcoming students’ inadequate academic preparation for STEM study.
Students interested in pursuing a STEM career often begin their two-year or
four-year study with too little preparation in mathematics, reasoning, and criti-
cal thinking to succeed. Extra coursework is required for remediation, which
lengthens the time for earning a degree and slows academic progress. As a
result, students become discouraged from pursuing a STEM career and either
change the focus of their studies or fail to complete their degree.
2. Recruiting and retaining students in STEM education. Outreach, inspiring
students to pursue a STEM career, and then helping them overcome barriers
along the way, all pose significant challenges. This is especially true for women
and minorities.
The National Academies have served as an interactive forum for
people who should be talking with each other but do not often have
opportunities to do so. In this regard, the summit was a great success.
Participants listened to each other, reflected on new ideas and insights,
learned about pressing issues, and thought about how those issues affect
their own domains. As George Boggs, former president of the American
Association of Community Colleges, a member of the NRC’s Board on
Science Education, and the chair of the summit organizing committee,
said in his concluding remarks, “This summit is the start of something
that will be beneficial for all of our institutions, for our students, and for
the country.”
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9
INTRODUCTION
3. Creating and sustaining effective partnerships between two-year and
four-year institutions. Although individual two-year and four-year institutions
in some regions and states have forged effective STEM education partnerships,
these partnerships could be much more widely implemented and reflected
in state and local policies. In particular, four-year institutions need to have a
greater appreciation for the kinds of modern approaches and subject matter in
STEM education that are offered at two-year colleges. Partnerships are needed
to address such issues as curriculum and other program alignment issues,
getting staff and faculty at both institutions on board with student needs and
program requirements, and providing course and program articulation poli-
cies and practices between two-year and four-year institutions. Partnerships
are also essential in developing pathways from a technical degree into a full
baccalaureate, especially if some time has passed since the student has com-
pleted an associate’s degree. In general, transfer and articulation policies and
practices are frequently mentioned barriers to retention in STEM education.
4. Finding the resources to support and sustain STEM education program
improvement. There is a universal lack of time and dependable, sustainable
resources to support the necessary STEM education collaborations and pro-
gram improvement initiatives. Furthermore, the weak economy has had a major
impact on those efforts. Both two-year and four-year institutions struggle with
the high cost of laboratory facilities. In addition, community colleges have dif-
ficulty in obtaining and managing external funding.
5. Aligning STEM education with workforce demands and practices. The
academic and corporate agendas for STEM education that enable students
to advance from two-year to four-year degrees in these fields and the need to
offer programs that propel students toward specific careers in STEM are not
always well aligned. In general, the dual role of community colleges to educate
students for careers and matriculation in four-year programs is a continuing
tension for community colleges.
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10 COMMUNITY COLLEGES IN THE EVOLVING STEM EDUCATION LANDSCAPE
The White House Summit
The administration of President Barack Obama has devoted considerable at-
tention to community colleges. As part of his call to increase college enrollments
and completion among young people, the President has asked community col-
leges to increase the number of graduates and program completers by five million
students over a 10-year period, representing a 50 percent increase over current
numbers.
In October 2010, the Obama Administration held a summit on community col-
leges at the White House organized by Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joseph
Biden and an adjunct professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College.
At that summit, President Obama called community colleges the “unsung heroes”
of American education and emphasized the critical role they play in sustaining the
nation’s competitiveness. He pointed out that in the coming years jobs requiring
at least an associate’s degree are projected to increase twice as fast as those
requiring no college experience. “We will not fill those jobs—or keep those jobs on
our shores—without community colleges,” the President said (White House, 2011).
