dividual differences. College credits must be viewed as currency, and institutions must not award credits until
course standards have been met.
Assure Standards

It is most important that student expectations be raised and that degrees and certificates be awarded on the
basis of demonstrated competencies. In the future, most individuals will require some postsecondary education,
yet society is demanding that funds not be expended where there is little hope of achieving a successful result.
A student's first year at the community college may well become the deciding point as to whether the public will
continue to pay for further education. The college should assume responsibility to assist individuals to succeed;
and an ordered curriculum should be instituted to deal with reading, writing and computational deficiencies
lirst, so that-all benefit from attendance. However, the colleges must be prepared to suspend students if there is
no evidence of reasonable progress.
Use Communications Technology

It appears that faculty are now ready to use communications technology after years of resistance. Comput-
ers and other communications devices have become an integral part of all of our lives. It would be most unusu-
al not to use them in the field of education, which is a combination of communications and human interaction.

Using computers for individualization of instruction, Miami-Dade Community College sends all students
information about their current academic progress approximately six weeks into each term. Ninety-three percent
of our students have expressed appreciation at receiving this personal computerized information; and recent stu-
dies show that students improve performance, increase completion rates and GPA, and lower suspension rates
when they are informed early of performance deficiencies and avail themselves of needed special assistance. In
addition, computerized instructional systems serve in more than one hundred courses, especially those with
large Cnrollments.
Effect Economic and Institutional Planning

The changes that must take place in the educational program of open-door colleges indicate the need for a
different configuration of services. Institutions cannot regard all of the new elements merely as additions to the
standard format; fis has long been a stumbling block to advances in education, Rather, they must think in terms of
reconfiguration of costs, based upon substantial change and reorganization of the educational program.
Provide Services for Superior Students

Overwhelmed by the problems of the underprepared and the task of providing support for them, the com-
munity college and other open-door institutions have, over a period of time, neglected superior students. The @
superior student is an important asset, not only to other students, but also in building and maintaining a posi-
tive public attitude toward the open-door colleges. Many institutions are implementing creative new programs
for these students, and a number of community colleges now enroll more than 30 percent of the top 10 percent
of high school graduates.
Provide Leadership with High School Programs

Kor large numbers of Americans, it is too late to begin improvement of academic deficiencies at the com-
munity college level. Community colleges and high schools should work closely in order to bring about neces-
sary curricular change prior to enrollment in the postsecondary system, to bring about close cooperation with
high schools, and to convince the community and parents of the increasing need for higher levels of
education —lo be both more supportive and more demanding of all schools.

 

Data indicate that there are sufficient examples of success in combining quality and access to encourage us
lo improve our approaches and programs and to continue in that direction. Expanding requirements of the in-
formation age and the need for all individuals to have strong information skills leave no other choice.

Robert 1. McCabe, President | DOUGLAS COLLEGE
Miami-Dade Community College

Ai CHIVE

-$

Abstracted with permission of John B. Bennett and Jay Peltason, Eds., Contemporary Issues in-Higher-Edueation—?
Self- Regulation and the Ethical Roles of the Academy, ACE/Macmillan Series in Higher Education (in press).

For further information, contact the author at Miami-Dade Community College, 11011 S.W. 104th Street, Miami,
Fl. 33176.

 

 

 

Suanne D. Roueche, Editor
April 26, 1985, Vol. VII, No. 14

INNOVATION ABSTRACTS is a publication of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, EDB 348, The University of Texas at Austin,

Austin, Texas 78712, (512) 471-7545. Subscriptions are available to nonconsortium members for $35 per year. Funding in part by the WK. Kellogg

Foundation and Sid AW Richardson Foundation. Issued weekly when classes are in session during fall and spring terms and monthly during the summer
The University of Texas at Austin, 1985

Further duplication is permitted only by MEMBER institutions for their own personnel ISSN O199-106X