Community College Review

Volume 35 Number 1
July 2007 66-84
2007 North Carolina
State University
An Exploratory Study of 10.1177/0091552107302237
http://ccreview.sagepub.com
Community College hosted at
http://online.sagepub.com
Baccalaureate Teacher
Education Programs
Lessons Learned
Deborah L. Floyd
Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton

Cheri St. Arnauld

National Association of Community College
Teacher Education Programs, Tempe, Arizona

Historically, community colleges have played a role in preparing teachers by

strengthening articulation and transfer with university-based teacher colleges,
hosting university center programs that provide upper division teacher educa-
tion courses, and providing alternative teacher certification programming for
holders of bachelors and higher degrees. In the past several years, a growing
number of community colleges have expanded their work in teacher education
programs by developing and conferring their own baccalaureate degrees. Perhaps
because these baccalaureate programs are so new, little has been written from
the perspective of the practitioners who have implemented them. Their stories
deserve to be told. Drawing on interviews with representatives from 10 com-
munity colleges or former community colleges, this article reports the initial
findings of an exploratory study of what can be learned from the experiences of
community college practitioners who have established bachelors degree programs
in teacher education.

Keywords: teacher education; community college baccalaureate; commu-

nity colleges

I t is generally little understood that for much of the first half of the 20th
century Americas public 2-year colleges played a major role in the
preparation of primary-grade teachers in the nations western, northwest-
ern, midwestern, and southern rural school districts. A credential, and not
a baccalaureate, was the minimum requirement for a position as a K-8
66
 Floyd, St. Arnauld / Baccalaureate Programs 67

teacher in nearly every state (Hutcheson, 2002; Hutcheson & Pedersen,

2001). Thus, early junior colleges were ideally positioned to offer the
12 to 15 credit hours in pedagogy and academic content required by
county school superintendents for a provisional teaching certificate and to
provide much needed local employment for women who were primarily
drawn to teaching and who had no desire or family support to migrate
from rural America.
By the 1940s, as the nations economy revived from the Great Depres-
sion, state legislatures grew more sophisticated in their taxing policies and
the courts pressed them to provide a thorough and efficient public school
system for all youth; thus the junior college as a training ground for
primary teachers faded. Many states either upgraded or established region-
ally diverse networks of normal schools and then, in time, teachers col-
leges to provide high school graduates with the opportunity to acquire both
the required bachelors degree and credential for teaching.
Over the past century, normal schools and teachers colleges grew up to
become regional colleges, then regional universities, and now research-
based universities. Additionally, an occasional former junior college also
evolved to become a university. Far more prevalent was the opening of hun-
dreds of community colleges whose campuses and centers served impres-
sive numbers of students in local communities. Today, American community
colleges enroll almost half of all students enrolled in undergraduate classes
and serve even more students through continuing education classes such as
teacher certification programs (National Association of Community College
Teacher Education Programs, 2005, 2006).
Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, many American communities
again find that they must turn to their community colleges, in the absence
of any viable alternative, to address a critical societal need for locally cer-
tified teachers. Data from the United States Department of Education and
several states, such as Florida, emphasize that our nation again faces a sig-
nificant shortage of qualified teachers. The need, admittedly, is not uni-
form. Northern states, which have been losing population, may actually be
producing an excess of some teachers through their mature networks of
teachers colleges, many of which are comprehensive state universities. In
the nations southern and western states, however, the growth in school-
aged children far exceeds the capacity of these states to attract and prepare
a sufficient number of teachers to meet the demand, particularly with cre-
dentials to work with disabled students and in the areas of science, math-
ematics, and other high-need fields (Murphy & DeArmond, 2003).
68 Community College Review

Over the past decade, a growing number of community colleges have been
authorized to award the baccalaureate (Floyd, 2006; Floyd, Skolnick, &
Walker, 2005). Given this authorization, they have developed and expanded
teacher education programs to award the baccalaureate, often in response
to shortages of credentialed public school teachers within their service
areas. Many people believe these new degrees are congruent with the com-
munity colleges institutional mission of open access and providing oppor-
tunities to attain well-paying jobs locally. Others, however, are more
skeptical of these new degrees, arguing that the community college mission
could be eroded by mission creep and that baccalaureate degrees are more
appropriate for universities than for community colleges.
Is awarding a baccalaureate degree congruent with the mission of com-
munity colleges? Will the community college baccalaureate detract from
the core values of these colleges? These questions are at the root of a
heated dialogue nationally and abroad (Townsend, 2005; Walker, 2001,
2006; Wattenbarger, 2000). They will not, however, be the primary focus
of this article. Rather, our emphasis is on telling the story of those who
have been there, giving voice to the path-finding practitioners who have
broken through the baccalaureate barriers so that their institutions might
confer their own degrees in teacher education.
What were the motivating factors for the development of the teacher
education baccalaureate degree at the community college? What are the
outcomes, if any, regarding community college graduates success as teach-
ers? Are faculty members who teach upper division courses paid higher
salaries than those faculty members who teach only lower division courses?
Do they have lighter teaching loads? And most important, what lessons
have been learned and what practitioner stories need to be told that could
benefit all sectors of higher education? These are the key questions guiding
this exploratory study.

Method and Limitations

This article is part of a larger exploratory study of teacher education

bachelors degree programs offered either by community colleges or by for-
mer community colleges that have subsequently been reorganized as senior
colleges. The purpose of this article is to describe, in the words of the prac-
titioners leading those programs, the lessons that have been learned in the
process of implementing a baccalaureate curriculum. These insights were
 Floyd, St. Arnauld / Baccalaureate Programs 69

obtained in telephone interviews conducted in late 2006 with representa-

tives from 10 associates degreegranting institutions, mostly community
colleges, that have developed and are now offering baccalaureate teacher
education programs. Representing six states, the institutions included in
this study are West Virginia UniversityParkersburg; Utah Valley State
College and Dixie State College in Utah; Dalton State College and Macon
State College in Georgia; Great Basin College in Nevada; Northern New
Mexico College; and Floridas Chipola College, Miami Dade College, and
St. Petersburg College. The interviewees were faculty members and admin-
istrators working in the teacher education programs at the selected colleges.
The interviews were conducted by a representative from the National
Association of Community College Teacher Education Programs and con-
sisted of 28 questions covering basic demographics, governance, faculty,
curriculum, institutional effectiveness, and finance. Additional information
was gathered from Web sites, catalogs, and other publications published by
the respective institutions.
The study has certain limitations. The sample of colleges, albeit represen-
tative of associates degree institutions offering baccalaureate degrees, is
small. Moreover, the interviews provide information that suggests areas of
further exploration that, because of time and resource limitations, were not
investigated in this study. Because the majority of the sampled institutions
have been conferring baccalaureate degrees for fewer than 5 years, there is
also a clear need for longitudinal data analysis. Finally, these interviews were
limited to one or two people on each campus, and we recognize that the per-
ceptions of additional persons on the 10 campuses would add to the richness
and value of our understanding. In spite of these limitations, this study reports
important lessons learned and encourages future extensive analysis. It is in
these lessons that the story unfolds and the questions for future study emerge.
It is also in these lessons learned that the practical realities of developing
teacher education programs at these colleges are more fully understood.

Background

A brief demographic profile of the 10 institutions that are included in this

study will provide some context for understanding the lessons learned in
community collegebased teacher education programs. Two of the institu-
tions, West Virginia UniversityParkersburg and Utah Valley State College,
were the first 2 of the 10 to gain approval for awarding a baccalaureate
70 Community College Review

degree. Both were approved by their respective state governing boards in

1993. Georgias Macon State College followed in 1996, and Dalton State
College, also in Georgia, gained approval in 1998-1999. In 1999 Great
Basin College in Nevada received degree-granting authorization at the bac-
calaureate level, and in the same year another 2-year college in Utah, Dixie
State College, received comparable degree authorization from the legisla-
ture. At the outset of the 21st century, three Florida institutions also gained
legislative authority to grant baccalaureate degrees in teacher education:
St. Petersburg College in 2001 and then Chipola and Miami Dade Colleges
in 2003. Northern New Mexico College was approved to grant the bac-
calaureate in teacher education in 2005.
The motivation that led these 10 colleges to seek approval to confer a
baccalaureate in teacher education was primarily a local desire to meet a
significant unmet need in their respective service areas. Some colleges are
located in rural areas far from any 4-year institutions, and access was a key
motivator. In many cases, existing university partnerships were not effec-
tive in meeting local needs, particularly because they were almost entirely
staffed with part-time faculty members who acted with relatively little uni-
versity supervision or direction; thus access to a cohesive program staffed
by full-time, on-site faculty members was another key motivator. In
all 10 cases, local demand for teachers in the service area was high.
Occasionally, local and statewide politicians successfully collaborated to
secure state-level approval for the education baccalaureate.
In terms of graduation outcomes, the 10 teacher education baccalaureate
programs discussed here appear very successful, although without further
research caution should be exercised in definitively comparing state licen-
sure score rates by institution across states. Accepting these limitations,
however, and as noted in Table 1, graduates of 7 of the 10 institutions
reported a 100% pass rate on their respective state licensure exams thus far,
with one indicating a 98% pass rate. Two colleges, Macon State College in
Georgia and Northern New Mexico College have yet to graduate a class of
students, so they could not provide data on licensure pass rates.

Lessons Learned

The lessons learned in this exploratory study were drawn primarily from
interviewee responses to 2 of the 28 interview questions: What lessons did
you and your college learn about conferring your own baccalaureate degree
 Table 1
Colleges Interviewed: Teacher Education Baccalaureate Programs
Year
Year Began Still Same
Approved for Baccalaureate a Community Faculty Graduation
Institution State Baccalaureate Program College? Motivation Pay?a Outcomes

Chipola Florida 2002-2003 2004 began Yes Small, rural area; Yes 20 graduates; 100%
College high unmet need; access licensure pass
St. Petersburg Florida 2001 2002 Yes Peninsula densely Yes 298 graduates; 100%
College populated area; high unmet licensure pass
need; access
Miami Dade Florida 2002 2003 Yes Urban densely populated area; Yes 65 graduates; 100%
College unmet need; access licensure pass
Great Basin Nevada 1999 1999 Yes Rural area; unmet need; Yes 139 graduates; 100% pass
College university center classes Pre-Professional Skills
not predictable Test; 96% pass
Praxis 2 exam
Dalton State Georgia 1998-1999 2005 No Students were enrolled in Yes 55 graduates; 100%
Collegeb a university partnership and licensure pass
transitioned to Dalton State
Macon State Georgia 1996 2005 No Unmet need; board and agency Yes No student outcomes are
Collegec asked for program. yet available
Northern New 2005 2005 Yese Unmet need; strong Yes No student outcomes
New Mexico Mexico community college and are yet available
Colleged administrative leadership

(continued)

71
72
Table 1 (continued)
Year
Year Began Still Same
Approved for Baccalaureate a Community Faculty Graduation
Institution State Baccalaureate Program College? Motivation Pay?a Outcomes

West Virginia West 1993 (affiliated 1993 Yes Public outcry that those Yes 460 graduates; close to
University Virginia 1with the degrees should be ours; 100% licensure pass
Parkersburgf university political influences
in 1989)
Utah Valley Utah 1993 1996 No Consistent with mission; Yes 850 graduates; 98%
State Collegeg unmet need; growing at licensure pass
a rapid rate and more
logical to run their own
program
Dixie State Utah 1999 legislative 2002 No High community needs and Yes 94 graduates; 100%
College authorization wants; community pushed licensure pass
all 4-year degrees
a
Same faculty pay scale for baccalaureate and lower division faculty?
b
Formerly Dalton Junior College.
c
Formerly Macon Junior College.
d
Formerly Northern New Mexico Community College.
e
Will change after accreditation approval.
f
Formerly Parkersburg Community College.
g
Formerly Utah Valley Community College.
 Floyd, St. Arnauld / Baccalaureate Programs 73

in teacher education? and For other community colleges or associates

degreegranting colleges wanting to move in this direction, what advice
and counsel would you offer them? An analysis of these responses high-
lights the importance of seven factors: (a) state politics, (b) financing,
(c) curriculum alignment with teacher education standards, (d) securing
accreditation at the baccalaureate level, (e) collaboration with local com-
munities and schools, (f) faculty qualifications and the integration of the
baccalaureate faculty into the total college, and (g) program success as
measured by student achievement and job placement.

State Politics Play an Important Part

in the Development of the Program
Almost all of those interviewed mentioned the important role played by
the political process in securing degree-granting authority, especially during
the approval and early implementation phases of their programs. This polit-
ical process played out at several levels, involving state legislatures, govern-
ing bodies, and existing baccalaureate degreegranting institutions. Offering
cautious advice to other community college leaders considering baccalaure-
ate programs, one official said, I dont know what the politics are like in
your state, but dont overlook that part of it, particularly with regard to the
perception of baccalaureate degrees and of governance and finances. In the
case of West Virginia UniversityParkersburg, for example, no program
could have been established without the support of a special, one-time
appropriation of $175,000 by the local state legislator, who also held the
states second highest ranking position, president of the state senate.
Approval to offer the baccalaureate in teacher education did not auto-
matically result in its acceptance by university peers. One community
college administrator remarked that for the first several years the bac-
calaureate institutions were not pleased that a community college was
also offering this baccalaureate; as a consequence, university personnel
gave representatives from the community college a rather chilly recep-
tion at statewide meetings. This administrator noted, however, that after
maneuvering the political culture cautiously and focusing on building a
successful teacher education program, the perceptions of universities
changed. The teacher education program at this college is now viewed
as very successful and baccalaureate institutions are now coming to
us for some advice about how to develop their programs, according to
the interviewee.
74 Community College Review

State legislatures and governing entities posed other challenges that were
complex and multidimensional. For instance, Nevadas community colleges
report to a state board of regents that governs community colleges and uni-
versities. Thus, legislative approval was not necessary for community col-
leges to gain the authority to grant the baccalaureate, but the approval of the
Nevada Board of Regents was mandatory. The multidimensional process of
maneuvering support politically was described by a Great Basin College
spokesperson as starting with a feasibility study and then carrying out other
tasks that included working to ensure community involvement, soliciting the
input of faculty members and community stakeholders on curricular issues,
and working with five county superintendents for their endorsement.
Following this process, the plan was submitted to the Nevada Board of
Regents for approval, then to the Nevada Department of Education, and
finally to the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.
The approval process in Florida was even more complex because it also
required legislative authorization in addition to approval by the State Board
of Education. In 2001, St. Petersburg College was the first Florida commu-
nity college to receive legislative approval to offer baccalaureate degrees.
The authorizing statute stipulated that community colleges approved to
offer baccalaureates must continue their community-based mission while
recognizing the economic and workforce needs of place-bound students.
Consistent with this mandate and with the comments of other Florida inter-
viewees, a Miami Dade College administrator said passionately that the
College sought to meet the needs of the community and labor force and, as
such, Miami Dade College is extremely mission driven in that it delivers
baccalaureate degrees in response to community needs and wants.
Representatives from each of the three Florida community colleges inter-
viewed noted that their institutions had to demonstrate the need for the
degrees they were requesting in terms of market need and geographic fac-
tors, showing strong external and internal support from public schools and
college boards of trustees. A Florida spokesperson explained, Even after
legislative authorization, Floridas community colleges had to obtain various
state approvals such as [approval from] the State Board of Education. Then
came the accreditation processes. This person noted further, The accredi-
tation from the Florida Department of Education is the hardest of all,
because the state of Florida is a partner state to NCATE [the National
Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education] and thus, the Florida
guidelines are aligned to NCATE, which is widely known for its extremely
strict accreditation standards.
 Floyd, St. Arnauld / Baccalaureate Programs 75

Financing Is Crucial to Success, Especially Start-Up Funding

Most college administrators who were interviewed emphasized the
importance of an appropriate level of available financial resources to the
success of a teacher education program. Administrators in Georgia and
West Virginia noted the costliness of implementing a nationally accred-
ited teacher education program. It is very expensive to bring in teacher
education programs. . . . We had to join NCATE, remarked one Georgia
administrator. Just as in the case of West Virginia, Special initiative
money was made available from the Georgia Board of Regents to initiate
a teacher education program, but the funding was not recurring, so that
you are on your own after that. The interviewee continued,

I think that what weve learned is that the administration has to understand the
costliness of bringing in a teacher education program that has to be nationally
accredited. If it were just a [matter of] state accreditation and you only had to
meet state guidelines, it would not be nearly as expensive. The other part of
the expense goes along with not only hiring faculty, but with all of the super-
vision that has to be done with your public schools. . . . Were responsible to a
lot of stakeholders.

Florida, New Mexico, and West Virginia colleges also mentioned the
importance of start-up money and the need to find new sources of revenue
once initial funding had been expended.
One of the most creative strategies for funding after the initial state
appropriation was found to be inadequate was a baccalaureate fee estab-
lished at West Virginia UniversityParkersburg, the states only community
college approved to offer a baccalaureate. Another creative approach was
the use of private foundation monies by Floridas Chipola College to pro-
vide assurances that tuition would be provided for every student enrolled in
its teacher education program. Although community colleges are held to
the same state standards as universities are for baccalaureate teacher edu-
cation programs, they do not all receive equal reimbursement for these
programs. This disparity creates additional challenges and issues for the
community colleges, as noted by the Nevada interviewee. Furthermore, to
get the program approved and implemented, the full costs were sometimes
not fully revealed and, in many cases, not fully known. Most respondents
were unable to articulate the exact cost of operating their baccalaureate
teacher education programs because, in part, the expenses were mingled
with other curricular areas. Those interviewed expressed that the need for
76 Community College Review

teachers demanded this fiscal leap of faith, and it was clear from those
interviewed that these colleges were willing to take this leap to meet com-
munity needs for teachers One administrator emphasized this leap of faith
by stating,

We told everyone it didnt cost anything because we were afraid that if they
thought it was going to cost any money they wouldnt allow us to do it.
Actually for the first several years we simply operated it on the existing state
appropriation.

Developing the Curriculum to Meet the Parameters of the State and

Accrediting Agencies Is Paramount to the Success of the Program
A number of colleges expressed the belief that developing the curricu-
lum presented significant challenges but offered meaningful rewards.
Specifically, several colleges spoke to the challenge of having sufficient
time to develop a curriculum that would meet the standards established
by state boards and accrediting agencies. A Utah college administrator
commented that we were fortunate enough to have a couple of years
to . . . design what we wanted our program to look like. Furthermore, this
person emphasized the effectiveness of a backward design approach that
entailed determining the outcomes first and then developing the program.
One of the Georgia colleges spent 2 years building the curriculum from
standards, backwards, intentionally developing the program from the
ground up and emphasizing what a teacher needs to learn to be success-
ful in the classroom. Northern New Mexico Colleges representative also
emphasized that anyone starting from scratch should take care to build a
strong foundation from the beginning. This respondent stressed that
before beginning a program, the curriculum, assessment, and field practicum
details need to be in place.
Identifying accountability measures to document student and program
success is also critical when creating new programs. Curriculum and
competency alignment can build the foundation for documenting student
success. As noted by St. Arnauld (2006),

If programs, degrees and courses align for a rigorous sequence of core acade-
mic course work then quality indicators can be developed along the way.
Every course assessment can indicate student success. Every program and
completer can be an indicator of success. Every teacher who passes the state
 Floyd, St. Arnauld / Baccalaureate Programs 77

general knowledge and professional knowledge portion of the licensing test

can also indicate success. (p. 5)

Accreditation at the Baccalaureate Level

Although community colleges are accustomed to working successfully
with such program-specific accrediting agencies as the National League for
Nursing, the milieu of baccalaureate program accreditation was new terrain
for these colleges. Several interviewees mentioned specific challenges such
as baccalaureate program admission, graduation rules, prerequisite course
work, and faculty qualifications and assignments. For instance, one Florida
college leader said that, because teacher education programs were struc-
tured differently and had to be approved by a state oversight board, the col-
lege needed to call in content experts and curriculum developers to assist
them with programmatic planning. Furthermore, this administrator noted
that experts who understand the language of teacher preparation are
essential to the success of initiating such programs, especially given the
challenges of maneuvering state requirements and accreditation guidelines.
Nearly all interviewees were proud of their institutions role in address-
ing these challenges. A representative comment concerning the establish-
ment of a teacher education program was this: It [the program] is cutting
edge; it is dynamic; and its exciting to be able to build a program up from
the ground, knowing all the lessons about teacher preparation programs in
the past. It is most important that almost all leaders interviewed believed
that offering these baccalaureate programs was congruent with their col-
leges mission, and thus, the argument that these programs should not be
accredited because their teacher education programs fall outside their
institutional missions is simply irrelevant.

Working Effectively With the Local Community and

School Districts Is Essential
Every college leader interviewed stressed the importance of strong
relationships with the local community and school districts. Feedback
from school districts was a key ingredient for developing relevant cur-
riculum. Including school districts in initial decision making was empha-
sized by one Florida administrator, who noted that one of the first things
[we did] . . . was to have significant and numerous meetings with the
school districts and to get their feedback on what they were looking for
78 Community College Review

in classroom teachers. This person further noted, I think this is why we

are getting such positive feedback, because we actually listened to them
and implemented some of their suggestions.
Second, representatives of the 10 colleges believed that involvement
with the community enhanced the implementation of the teacher educa-
tion program. As one Georgia administrator noted, There is a large com-
munity support for the program here. This sentiment was echoed by
Nevadas representative in explaining the collaborative role of the com-
munity, extending from developing its feasibility study, determining the
need for the program, and developing the curriculum collaboratively.
Including outside stakeholders on the development committee keeps us
in reality with the needs of our districts, noted the Nevada interviewee.
Another outcome of collaboration with the community and school dis-
tricts was the benefit of field-based placements. One Georgia interviewee
remarked,

We spent an enormous amount of energy building collaborative relationships

with the community and the K-12 community. . . . So the schools were ready
to work [with our students]. . . . They took our students right away; they
placed them and ensured doors are open for them.

The West Virginia college official noted that teacher education students
begin with clinical experience in a public school classroom in their first
professional education class. The importance of the field-based curricu-
lum was affirmed by interviewees at all 10 colleges.
Finally, several colleges mentioned that involvement of local commu-
nities and school districts helped to cement political support for the
programs. This support greatly helped to reinforce the role of politics as
described previously in this article.

Qualified Faculty Must Be Integrated Into the Total College

and Not Segregated as a Baccalaureate Faculty
All colleges addressed the issues of faculty academic credentials, work-
load, and compensation. Almost all of the 10 colleges sampled require an
educational specialist credential or a doctoral degree of the full-time fac-
ulty members in their teacher education programs. In addition, some of the
colleges also require relevant classroom teaching experience in addition to
an appropriate disciplinary degree. Several interviewees mentioned that
they recruit faculty members nationally.
 Floyd, St. Arnauld / Baccalaureate Programs 79

It is interesting that none of the interviewees believed that the baccalau-

reate teacher education faculty members should be viewed any differently
from other faculty members at the institution. In fact, the interviewee from
Nevadas Great Basin College noted that faculty [members] were adamant
that we not have a tiered system and that it took 3 years to pass a work-
load policy. This same point was also supported by other representatives.
To ensure further that faculty members are truly integrated into their col-
leges, the interviewees from New Mexico, Florida, and Georgia also noted
that teacher education faculty members are assigned to teach in both upper
and lower division classes and that they are not paid on a different scale.
Respondents for the colleges did note that although faculty members teach-
ing upper division classes are paid on the same salary scale used for lower
division faculty members, teaching loads may vary occasionally in light of
upper division practicum and field supervision requirements.

Teacher Education Programs Have Been Successful

as Measured by Student Achievement and Job Placement
With a few exceptions, the teacher education programs studied are recent
additions. However, early indications are that these programs are succeed-
ing in achieving solid levels of student graduation rates as well as high rates
of students passing licensure exams and gaining placement in the teaching
field. As for licensure exam pass rates . . . [we have achieved] 100% for
the last five years. We have the highest percentage in the state. Thats our
big draw! exclaimed one Georgia college administrator. A Utah intervie-
wee echoed a similar pride with job placement, stating, We have good job
opportunities here. Everyone who wants to teach is teaching.
Teaching jobs are especially prized positions in rural communities. One
of the two Appalachian colleges in the study reported that all the graduates
of its program are employees in local school systems. Everyone we pre-
pare for teaching goes right back into the schools, and they can all get jobs
because the population is exploding and new schools are being built all the
time. Interviewees from rural colleges in Utah, Nevada, West Virginia,
Georgia, and Florida also emphasized that they are meeting an important
local community workforce need with their teacher education programs.
There have been other lessons learned but the responses from these rural
colleges reflect some of the more important contributions these teacher
education programs have made to students, the communities they serve,
80 Community College Review

and the discipline itself. Those creating a community college baccalaure-

ate in teacher education need to think about these lessons and learn from
these path-finding practitioners and their institutions. It is important to
note, however, that several college leaders who were interviewed men-
tioned broken or failed relationships with senior institutions as a key moti-
vation for the pursuit of a baccalaureate program in teacher education.
They felt forced to find new ways to address the current teacher shortage.
The lessons learned from these broken relationships may provide an addi-
tional source of future study.

Facing the Critics

A recurring criticism of the community college baccalaureate is that

once community colleges are authorized to offer bachelors degrees, these
colleges will abandon their core values and community-based mission
(Townsend, 2005). It is admittedly limited in its scope and methodology,
but this study suggests that those community colleges that have introduced
a limited number of baccalaureate programs have not abandoned their long-
standing commitment to access and a comprehensive curriculum. Although
all 10 colleges contacted for this study are no longer classified by the
Carnegie Foundation as community colleges but rather as 4-year bac-
calaureate/associates colleges or associate/public 4-year institutions
(Townsend, 2006), those individuals interviewed in this study emphasized
that their institutions retain a strong commitment to a community-based
mission. Furthermore, although the Carnegie Foundation may have reclas-
sified these institutions, the states of West Virginia, Florida, and Nevada
still regard these institutions as community colleges in statute and for pur-
poses of funding.
As Floyd (2006) noted, the classification of community college bac-
calaureate delivery models, is not a simple task . . . because current sys-
tems of classifying community colleges are imperfect (p. 62). The
Carnegie Foundation president, Lee S. Schulman (2005), acknowledged
that classification is not for the faint of heart (p. B20). Commenting on
the most recent revision to the Carnegie Foundation classification scheme,
he justified these revisions in the community college sector by noting that
as the higher-education landscape has become increasingly complex and
multifaceted, we have felt that attempting to shoehorn all institutions into
 Floyd, St. Arnauld / Baccalaureate Programs 81

a single classification has introduced avoidable distortions, inaccuracies

and obscurities (p. B20).
Perhaps classification systems have not kept up with the realities of com-
munity college programming, as Floyd (2005, 2006) suggested, and as an
unintended consequence, most of the community colleges that have chosen
to confer their own baccalaureate degrees are being shoehorned into clas-
sification categories that distort the realities of their work. Building on the
research of Floyd and Walker (2003) on community college teacher educa-
tion programs, Floyd (2005) proposed a four-part typology of community
college efforts to provide students with access to the bachelors degree: the
articulation model, based on articulation agreements that ensure accep-
tance of freshman and sophomore credits by senior colleges and universi-
ties (p. 30); the university center model, which often involves consortia
of colleges and universities that jointly use facilities for the delivery of
upper division courses and programs (p. 33); the university extension
model, based on baccalaureate programming offered by universities at off-
campus extension centers; and the community college baccalaureate
approach, in which community colleges themselves confer the baccalaure-
ate rather than partnering with universities to provide baccalaureate pro-
gramming. She noted that community colleges are trying to address [an]
increased need for access to the baccalaureate (p. 28) in a society that
increasingly values and requires credentials to gain access to all well-
paying, stable occupations. Simultaneously, they [community colleges] are
seeking a new terminology to accurately represent a fundamental expan-
sion in community colleges mission (Floyd, 2005, p. 28). Regardless of
how they are classified, however, community colleges that have opted to
expand their curriculum to include the baccalaureate warrant a thorough
study of the costs and benefits of this action. Only in this way can the
debate between critics and advocates be more fully informed by accurate
and broadly representative data.
The data uncovered by this study, for all its limitations, clearly suggests
that a resolution of the current debate between critics and advocates will
only be borne out by more extensive research. In the case of the advocates,
most rely on arguments based on principles rather than data. For example,
in a letter to the Pappas consulting group, which at the time was preparing
a report on the future of higher education in Florida, David Armstrong,
chancellor of the states community college system, contended that com-
munity college baccalaureate degreeswill be prioritized for teacher edu-
cation and the most critical of applied degree majors (David Armstrong,
personal communication to the Pappas Consulting Group, October 30, 2006).
82 Community College Review

Continuing to champion the congruence of the community college bac-

calaureate within the mission of todays community colleges, Armstrong
further argued that community colleges are appropriately fulfilling this
mission to the students and economy of Florida at a time when we need
all hands on deck to provide baccalaureate access in this state. Similar
to the role of earlier junior colleges in teacher preparation, community
colleges find themselves again being challenged to provide access to the
required teaching credential of the early 21st century by providing access
to todays credentials minimum criteriona baccalaureate degree.
The same cautionary observation should be considered by those who
now criticize this development. The majority of these critics have alleged
that the community college baccalaureate will be a second class creden-
tial (e.g., Wattenbarger, 2000, p. 5) that will deny community college grad-
uates the full range of career opportunities open to degree holders from
senior colleges and universities. Indeed, the late Jim Wattenbarger, often
referred to as the father of Floridas community college system, editorial-
ized that community colleges should avoid the baccalaureate and stick to
what they do best (Wattenbarger, 2000, p. 4).
Furthermore, contrary to the concern of skeptics that a two-tiered fac-
ulty would develop in community colleges that offer the baccalaureate,
with lower division faculty members drifting apart from upper division
faculty members both professionally and even personally, a surprising
finding of this study (noted earlier in Table 1) is that every college we
analyzed applied the same faculty pay schedule and benefit plan for both
the upper and lower divisions. And although several colleges reported that
their baccalaureate faculty members are often assigned fewer credit hours
than some other members of the faculty, this lighter load was attributed
mainly to the supervisory requirements imposed on the baccalaureate fac-
ulty in the areas of internships and clinical experience for education
students. As a result, faculty loads, when measured in contact hours, do
not vary meaningfully.
Finally, this study found evidence that the critics concern that the com-
munity college baccalaureate would constitute a second-class degree is
weakened substantially by the exceptionally strong graduate licensure
pass rates so far registered by the graduates of these programs as well as
by their high employment rates. In fact, several colleges reported that their
licensure pass rates are the highest in their respective states, an outcome
that is not surprising to many who understand the central importance of
teaching in community colleges.
 Floyd, St. Arnauld / Baccalaureate Programs 83

Closing Commentary

Kenneth F. Walker (2006), District President of Edison College and

founder of the Community College Baccalaureate Association, has noted
that one of the paradoxes in life is the illusion of stability and the reality
of perpetual change (p. 14). Throughout the various eras of their century-
long history, community colleges have embraced change and entrepre-
neurialism as one facet of their core values. And those community college
practitioners providing leadership in such areas as the community college
baccalaureate in teacher education are pathfinders with stories to tell and
lessons to be learned. Perhaps, as Levin (2004) has suggested, There is a
potential for the development of a new institutional identity for those com-
munity colleges engaged in offering their own baccalaureate degree
programs (p. 2).
Regardless of how we, as higher education scholars, classify these col-
leges or whether we agree with this movement, we have an obligation to
future generations to devote significant time and energy to the study of
the factors that promoted this changewhether universities played a
direct or indirect role; whether Americas society simply failed to draw
the clear lines of distinction between institutional sectors that researchers
in higher education have made; or whether the need to resolve pressing
societal challenges, such as a severe teacher shortage, trumped any insti-
tutional claim to a more focused or limited mission. A substantial number
of community colleges are in the process of rewriting the sectors history
and its social role, and what transpires at these institutions deserves to be
recorded and fairly and fully evaluated.

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Deborah L. Floyd is a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership, Florida

Atlantic University, Boca Raton.

Cheri St. Arnauld is the executive director of the National Association of Community
College Teacher Education Programs in Tempe, Arizona.