When Jack Hurley grades tests from his upper level history classes, he often notices the students who consistently score lower have something in common — They attended community colleges their first years of school.
“They just don’t have the writing skills,” said Hurley, chair of the history department. “It’s not that they can’t do it, it just takes them a while to adjust. I get students all the time who tell me they were getting A’s at the school they were at.”
Hurley is not alone. Other professors agree students who transfer from community colleges have a tougher time.
Last week a Tennessee Board of Regents official had a meeting with the chairs of each department to discuss their concerns. Community college transfers were the first issue raised. At least four professors lamented how students from community colleges are ill-prepared for higher level classes at universities. Many others in the room shook their heads in agreement.
Ralph Albanese, chair of foreign languages and literatures, said in his experience, students who take their intro classes at community colleges and the rest of their language sequence at four-year universities often find themselves repeating courses.
“We try to use the same texts,” Albanese said, “but (community colleges) aren’t as rigorous in the way of their instruction, especially in the oral component.”
He said this is frustrating for students and probably contributes to the high drop rate for the final two Spanish courses required for graduation.
The University of Memphis hasn’t conducted research that specifically quantifies how successful students from community colleges are upon transferring.
Tom Nenon, assistant vice provost of academic affairs, said it would be difficult to conduct such a test because it’s hard to weed out community college transfers from other four-year institution transfers.
However, The U of M did conduct a survey from the years of 1985 to 1997 to see how successful transfer students were in general. The graduation rate for full-term U of M students was 30.6 percent, but for transfer students it was 30.9 percent.
Each year transfer students make up approximately half of new incoming students.
Nenon said about half of those come from community colleges.
Chemistry chair Ted Burkey said research on community college transfers is needed.
“Something needs to be done in a quantitative way because for now, all we have is perceptions from faculty and students,” Burkey said.
Paula Short, TBR vice chancellor for academic affairs, said other urban institutions have established close, successful relationships with their local community colleges by communicating often about shared expectations.
At least one department on campus has chosen to do just that.
Ronald Day, chair of the department of engineering technology, said his department has set up a “two + two” program with TBR community colleges.
The program allows students to take their first two years at the community college, then finish at The U of M.
Day said the program is successful because the department meets with the community colleges once a year and discusses their expectations.
“Basically, it takes time to work out agreements and articulation efforts,” Day said, “but I find students come to us very prepared. Since we have this program they know exactly what to expect.”
Still, there are those who say no amount of preparation from any institution will ever change the outright character of a student though.
Nenon works closely with students who have academic problems and said he’s never seen a student who did poorly at The U of M that performed strongly elsewhere.
“The best predictor of a student’s score on the college exit exam is their high school ACT or SAT,” Nenon said.
Brad Jobe, a senior international studies major who attended Shelby State Community College for three years before transferring to the U of M, agreed.
“Curriculum is curriculum,” Jobe said. “It’s how you apply yourself.”
Still, some students find it’s just harder to apply oneself at The U of M than at community colleges.
“The upper levels were definitely harder at The U of M,” said Josh Gwatney, a junior marketing major who also attended Shelby State. “They were just more challenging.”
