Content area
During the mid-1960s the federal government provided funding for special services programs for capable but underprepared students in higher education. Some state governments followed its lead in allocating special funds to assist the underprepared students in their state supported colleges and universities. Ohio was one of the states that allocated funds to assist underprepared students.
This study focused on providing information concerning the development and status of tutorial programs funded by developmental education subsidy in the major community colleges in Ohio. The absence of this kind of information provided the impetus for this study.
Specifically, this study sought to answer the following questions:
First, what was the development process of tutorial programs in Ohio's community colleges? The findings indicated that the tutorial programs in Ohio grew out of the diligent effort of committees and individuals who were concerned about learning problems that had developed in higher education during the late sixties and early seventies. These programs were designed with the hope of ameliorating the academic problems faced by underprepared students.
The second question was concerned with the programmatic aspect of tutorial programs in Ohio's community colleges. These findings showed tutorial programs to be viable services to Ohio's community colleges. This is indicated by the large number of students who received tutoring. The data suggest that a range of 10 to 44 percent of students received some type of tutorial service. The weakest feature of the tutorial programs was the lack of systematic evaluations.
The final research question involved the recommendations that can be made concerning the tutoring programs in Ohio's community colleges. The findings suggest that a firm budget base must be established and that tutorial programs should be directed to needs of students--e.g., retraining and high technology. Most important for the future, new funding sources should be sought. Also, external and internal evaluations should be an integral part of program evaluation.
The participants in the study included the six program directors from the following community colleges: Cuyahoga Community College (three campuses), Lakeland Community College, Lorain County Community College, and Sinclair Community College. These six directors were extensively interviewed in order to gather the data for this study. An interview format questionnaire designed by the researcher and validated by professional educators from Cuyahoga Community College was used to ascertain the data.