The Tie That Binds: Exploring Community College Curriculum Design

Abstract

More students are beginning their college careers at community colleges before completing degrees at four-year institutions. As enrollments swell at these two-year institutions, issues surrounding transfer and articulation agreements are increasingly important, and two-and four-year institutions must work together on the recruitment, retention, and transition of political science majors. Central to this collaboration is the curriculum. Building on conclusions from the 2011 Leadership Collaborative Core Curriculum and General Education track regarding a common curriculum in the discipline, this article examines the political science curriculum using data from 47 two-year colleges with separate political science departments. We examined similarities and differences among these programs and found suffi cient commonality in curriculum to allow students to transfer credits to four-year institutions. The article also offers community colleges an indication of common curricular features and informs the wider profession about community college curriculum design. W hat do we know about our curriculum within the political science discipline? Since the publication of the infl uential Wahlke Report ( 1991 ), political scientists have considered the extent to which four-year political science majors in the United States have met its recommendations. However, similar attention has not been given to the political science discipline at two-year colleges.In our experience as department administrators, we often face situations in which students have taken courses at other institutions and it is difficult to apply the coursework to their political science degree programs. This can lead to students failing to progress at the recommended rate, accumulating excess credit hours, and repeating similar course material. This can result in students being "off track" on their recommended degree plans because they must fulfill prerequisites before moving on to more specialized coursework.Accordingly, this research focuses on the curriculum design at community colleges with three major purposes: (1) provide knowledge about the curriculum off ered at community colleges, (2) evaluate course offerings that may overlap with four-year institutions, and (3) consider how two-1 and four-year institutions can advance the discipline's goals of undergraduate education through deeper collaboration. As a project involving faculty at twoand four-year institutions, we hope this research better informs our audience about how curriculum is shaped and how we can better understand our shared students. APPLYING RESEARCH ON THE CORE TO COMMUNITY COLLEGESCurriculum-design questions are not new to our fi eld. We defi ne "curriculum design" as the set of required courses and electives available to students in a political science program. The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) produced a critique of undergraduate curricula in "Liberal Learning and the

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“…Sources have established that the first community college was established in 1901, originally serving populations transferring to 4-year institutions or to the workforce (Boggs, 2012). Gentry, Lawrence, and Richards (2016) stated that "recent research suggests that almost half of all students who have completed bachelor's degrees during the 2013-2014 academic year had previously completed coursework at two-year institutions" (p. 536). However, just as MDC has done, many (n = 37) community colleges have transformed themselves in the past century, and they now offer baccalaureate degrees in applied fields such as teaching and nursing (Boggs, 2012).…”

“…Therefore, at the center of the community college is the goal of providing greater access to higher education (Boggs, 2012;Gentry et al, 2016).…”