Nontraditional Students and Community Colleges

Levin makes a meaningful contribution to the literature regarding nontraditional students and community colleges in particular and illuminates how neoliberalism is threatening education in general. This book deserves an audience in higher education, student affairs, and other curricula where professionals are learning about the needs of nontraditional students, history and philosophy of community colleges, or how contemporary political issues influence the fundamental purposes of education. - Tracy L. Davis, Canadian Journal of Higher Education In Non-Traditional Students and Community Colleges, John Levin gives voice to the students most predominantly served by America's community colleges.He highlights the efforts of dedicated faculty and leaders of the colleges to serve the best interests of these non-traditional students despite social policies that often act in opposition.This book is well grounded in field-based research and should be essential reading for those who care about justice and fairness for those who are less privileged-thevery students who attend community colleges. - George R. Boggs, President and CEO, American Association of Community Colleges Most of the literature on higher education focuses on well-prepared students attending selective four-year colleges and universities. The real battle for educational opportunity and for social justice will be won or lost, however, in the two-year public community colleges, and this splendid study is essential reading for anyone who would understand the struggle faced by disadvantaged students, most of whom depend on community colleges for further education. Levin's work, based on sound conceptual theory and detailed interview findings, joins the relatively modest literature of quality that provides valuable insight into the successes and failures of this vital segment of American higher education. - David W. Breneman, University Professor and Dean, Newton and Rita Meyers Professor in Economics of Education, University of Virginia, USA Written by a scholar knowledgeable about community colleges, this book takes a unique approach. The author contrasts neo-liberalism, defined as ascribing responsibility for poverty with the individual and with social justice, which is fairness and the equalizing of advantage, and describes how community colleges are the educational sites where the two conflicts are played out. He takes the institutions to task for their alignment with the worst aspects of neo-liberalism and marketed themselves as 'a salvation for...economic development,' to the detriment of what should be their main mission. - Arthur M. Cohen, Emeritus Professor, University of California, Los Angeles, USA John S. Levin's Nontraditional Students and Community Colleges provides a solid foundation for further research. Levin's extensive use of interviews with students, administrators, and faculty provides practitioners with contextualized, anecdotal data about the specific needs of nontraditional students. Investigators will have a deeper understanding of the struggles of nontraditional students in community colleges, and the ways in which autonomous agents can foster the ideal of justice within these institutions. - Collin Ruud, Update