Community Colleges and the Equity Agenda: The Potential of Noncredit Education

While community colleges pride themselves on their inclusiveness, they tend not to enroll many of the lowest-performing students leaving high schools, most of the disconnected youth who have dropped out of high school, and many low-income adults. This article explores the possibility of using noncredit education as a bridging mechanism to allow such students to enter the community college. Noncredit programs have many advantages including lower cost; greater accessibility, flexibility, and responsiveness; and greater access to immigrants. Some noncredit centers have worked hard to develop smooth transitions to the credit programs of their colleges. While noncredit education has great promise as a mechanism for expanding access to community colleges, it also faces familiar problems: inadequate funding, low status, inadequate support services, and developing in adequate articulation mechanisms with credit programs. Finally, community colleges cannot by themselves resolve the problems of inadequate schooling and poverty, and a variety of complementary social and economic policies must also be developed.