Beyond Access Methods and Models for Increasing Retention and Learning Among Minority Students

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This issue of New Directions for Community Colleges presents practical models, alternative approaches and new strategies for creating effective cross-cultural courses that foster higher retention and learning success for minority students. Arguing that minority students represent various cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds, the authors discuss a wide range of issues for educators in this field, including culturally specific learning styles, work-based mentoring programs, and the role of the non-minority instructor in a minority environment. Articles critically examine traditional methods in admissions assessments, placement measures, and learning evaluation that are failing to address cultural diversity, and offer alternatives, such as a theoretical model for measuring student learning style incorporating components of motivation and engagement for inclusion with the traditional cognitive perspective. They also present a case study of one campus's efforts to create a more inclusive climate. With demographic projections indicating dramatic increases in minority student population in the following decades, the authors assert that educational programs must now develop a broader curricula that includes multicultural and multi-linguistic information. In this issue, they have provided a valuable resource for institutions meeting that challenge.