Christopher D. Green wrote:
The eudcational system that is being proposed for the US here -- two
years of community college between 10th grade and university -- is
effectively the system that has existed in Quebec for decades now.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/15/education/15school.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin
<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/15/education/15school.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin>
or
*http://tinyurl.com/uecrh
*As a product of that system myself, I strongly recommend that they look
closely at the Quebec experience before going there. In theory, the idea
of having students gradually ease into the freedoms and electives of
university is a good one.
Of course, many will tell me that the US already has a fine community
college system, and it is just amatter of expanding it to include, well,
everyone. That may be true, but imagine attempting to expand it by, say,
5-fold in one fell swoop. Where would all those new teachers come from?
From the pool of people currently NOT being hired by community colleges.
The state of North Carolina has a system in place now that is producing
problems that may be similar to those alluded to by Chris. All public
universities and community colleges are interconnected through a set of
"articulation" agreements. The official fiction is that the first course
in (e.g.) introductory statistics covers the same material whether one
is attending UNC-Chapel Hill, ASU, or Blowfly Community College. Credit
for taking the introductory stat course at Blowfly CC would transfer
automatically to UNC-CHapel Hill because, officially, both courses cover
the same material.
The idea was that a student could ease into university life by attending
the local community college and still get an educational experience
equivalent to, and prepatory for, attending one of the public universities.
The reality is that the level of work for a course with the same name
differs at UNC-CH, ASU, and a CC. The problem is that we get transfers
who have attended a CC for 2 years and are completely unprepared for the
level of work at ASU. They spend a long, frustrating year at ASU either
pulling their academic work up to a passing level or discovering that
they can't do so.
Ken
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Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Psychology http://www.psych.appstate.edu
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
USA
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