An examination of North Carolina community college goals

Abstract

The uneven evolution of the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) from dissimilar educational institutions has created diverse views among the leaders and policy makers of the system about what are appropriate goals. The problem of this study was to determine what goals are important and the extent to which agreement existed with respect to goal statements from the Community College Goals Inventory (CCGI). These goal statements were ranked by 399 state administrators and board members and local community college administrators and board members of 22 of the 24 comprehensive community colleges within the NCCCS.

The 20 goal areas were analyzed to identify and compare present and preferred goal priorities chosen by each of the respondent groups using Spearman's rank order correlation. The findings of this study indicated that there was consensus among all groups concerning the highest and lowest current and preferred goals. A high degree of agreement was found concerning the goals "vocational/technical preparation,'' “general education," and “accountability” as being highly important to all respondent groups. “Humanism/altruism”, "social criticism," and "cultural/aesthetic awareness" were considered the least important goals.