Short-term Higher Education: The United States’ Community Colleges’ Experience [ensino Superior De Curta Duração: A Experiência Norte-americana Dos Community Colleges] [educación Superior De Corta Duración: La Experiencia Norteamericana De Los Community Colleges]

摘要

Initially, the article tries to describe the role of Community Colleges in the American system of higher education. It describes its origin, growth, income sources, and relationship with other higher education institutions. After that, it shows some of the problems of the system - alongside the increase in access, the analyses have pointed to the fragility of the success, i.e., students’ performance, as well as equity showing the strong stratification and hierarchy of the American educational system. Therefore, it is argued that the dilemmas and problems are not strictly related to the school system, but to a social formation in which inequality is particularly high.