A weak job market has brought a wave of applicants to community colleges in search of job training, but those same students are finding it difficult to gain access to courses they need, says a report released Thursday.
Nearly four in 10 community-college students responding to a national survey commissioned by the Pearson Foundation said they were unable to enroll in at least one class they wanted this fall, and 20 percent said they had trouble enrolling in the courses they needed to complete their degree or certificate.
Students who had the most difficulty with course enrollment were those attending part time and taking remedial courses.
Pearson’s first survey of community-college students, conducted last year, found similar results, with one in five students feeling squeezed out of classes they needed.
This year’s “Pearson Foundation Community College Student Survey,” which can be found at www.pearsonfoundation.org, was conducted between August 15 and September 26 and included responses from 1,205 U.S. residents between the ages of 18 and 59. Respondents had to have pursued at least one community-college course for credit between August 15 and the survey’s completion.
This year’s survey also reported widespread concern among students about their college readiness.
More than half of community-college students who were recent high-school graduates felt their high school had not properly prepared them for college-level courses. Forty-eight percent responded that their high school could have done more by placing a stronger emphasis on basic skills, while 49 percent responded that their high school could have offered more challenging courses.
Poorly prepared collegebound students tend to be placed in remedial courses, where many toil and eventually drop out. Half of community-college students nationwide are placed in remedial courses when they begin their college studies. Numerous community colleges, foundations, nonprofit organizations, and even state governments have tried to address this issue with varying degrees of success.
This year’s survey also asked students about their attitude in regards to online learning. The survey found that nearly six in 10 community-college students have taken college courses online, with almost one-half taking at least one course online this fall. Three-quarters of students who have taken online courses said they were satisfied with their experience, and almost four in 10 agreed that they would like to take all their classes online.
