Michigan State University Extension
Diversity and Pluralism - 02140018
12/95/
ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED326261 AUTHOR: Richardson, Richard C., Jr.
TITLE: Responding to Student Diversity: A Community College
Perspective. Minority Achievement Counting on You.
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1990
NOTE: 28 p.
AVAILABILITY: ECS Distribution Center, 707 17th Street,
Suite 2700, Denver, CO 80202-3427. (Order Number MP-90-2,
$5.00 per copy).
ABSTRACT: More than half of entering community college
students lack the basic skills required to do college-level
academic work. Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians
disproportionately rely on community colleges as their point
of initial access to higher education, making the issue of
preparation inherently tied to factors of race and
ethnicity. In some areas, community colleges enroll 40% of
all high school graduates, but 80% of the minority
graduates. The prevailing community college approach to
student preparation issues involves a deficiency model in
which remediation is emphasized as the dominant strategy for
bringing everyone to minimum standards. Also needed is an
achievement model that challenges faculty to design an
environment where diversity is valued and individuals are
inspired to build on their strengths to attain maximum
potential. The task of implementing achievement models in
institutions historically committed to access is, above all,
a task of managing culture. While culture management is more
time-consuming and difficult than the introduction of
technology, it is the only approach through which faculty
can be influenced to augment deficiency views and practices.
A complicating factor is that the two models will need to
coexist in most community colleges for the foreseeable
future. Efforts to manage culture will be aided by the
opportunity to employ new staff as those faculty who
represent founding values and beliefs retire in large
numbers over the next decade. A flow-chart model of
institutional adaptation to student diversity and a 28-item
bibliography are included. (JMC)
KEY DESCRIPTORS: Academic-Achievement; Academic-Aptitude;
Academic-Aspiration; Affirmative-Action; Change-Strategies;
College-Outcomes-Assessment; Educational-Assessment; Ethnic
Groups; Models-; Organizational-Change; Remedial
Instruction; Student-Attitudes; Student-Recruitment; Teacher
Recruitment; Two-Year-Colleges
KEY DESCRIPTORS: *Access-to-Education; *College-Preparation;
*Community-Colleges; *Educational-Environment; *Minority
Groups; *Student-College-Relationship
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