Re-visioning Community Colleges

Re-visioning Community Colleges
Author: Debbie Sydow
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2012-12-27
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1442214880

Re-visioning Community Colleges has the foresight into the shape that community colleges will likely take in the future. Their predictions are based on an analysis of the growth and innovation trajectory in community colleges as they respond to the dramatic changes in the field.

Multicultural Student Services on Campus

Multicultural Student Services on Campus
Author: D-L Stewart
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2023-07-03
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1000980634

Co-published with For new professionals in multicultural student services (MSS), this book constitutes a thorough introduction to the structure, organization, and scope of the services and educational mission of these units. For senior practitioners it offers insights for re-evaluating their strategies, and inspiration to explore new possibilities.The book discusses the history and philosophy of MSS units; describes their operation; asserts the need for integration and coherence across the multiple facets of their work and how their role is influenced by the character and type of their institutions; and considers the challenges and opportunities ahead. The theme Building Bridges, Re-Visioning Community reflects the dual role of MSS. They “build bridges” between underrepresented student populations and the broader institutional environment, between different groups of student populations, and across differences in cultural values and traditions. At a time of increasing diversity on campus, their role is also to champion the “re-visioning” or redefinition of what constitutes community in higher education – in other words to reach beyond serving their traditional constituencies to educate for multicultural competence, and advocate for social justice across the campus commons.This book is organized in four sections moving the reader from the past to the present to the future, and from a service mission to an educational one. Part One reviews the purposes for which MSS were created, and the evolution of their vision, concluding an overview of how units perceive their needs and challenges today.Part Two addresses a range of issues – such as race/ethnicity, sexual orientation / gender identity, and religion/faith diversity – commonly addressed by MSS, and, in recognizing the tensions inherent in serving such disparate constituencies, advances ideas for bringing greater integration and coherence to their work.Part Three considers how institutional context influences the structure and organization of MSS, and addresses such questions as: Who are they serving? What kind of support services and educational programming can they provide? How broadly or narrowly should they define their role, and can they extend their influence through alliances with other campus units?The book concludes by looking at how MSS can re-vision community to ensure their continued relevance to the college or university community.An ACPA Publication

We're Still Here

We're Still Here
Author: Jennifer M. Silva
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2019
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0190888040

Jennifer M. Silva tellas a deep, multi-generational story of pain and politics that will endure long after the Trump administration. Drawing on over 100 interviews with black, white, and Latino working-class residents of a declining coal town in Pennsylvania, Silva reveals how the erosion of the American Dream is lived and felt.

Author:
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 153
Release:
Genre:
ISBN: 1442209984

Redesigning America’s Community Colleges

Redesigning America’s Community Colleges
Author: Thomas R. Bailey
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2015-04-09
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0674368282

In the United States, 1,200 community colleges enroll over ten million students each year—nearly half of the nation’s undergraduates. Yet fewer than 40 percent of entrants complete an undergraduate degree within six years. This fact has put pressure on community colleges to improve academic outcomes for their students. Redesigning America’s Community Colleges is a concise, evidence-based guide for educational leaders whose institutions typically receive short shrift in academic and policy discussions. It makes a compelling case that two-year colleges can substantially increase their rates of student success, if they are willing to rethink the ways in which they organize programs of study, support services, and instruction. Community colleges were originally designed to expand college enrollments at low cost, not to maximize completion of high-quality programs of study. The result was a cafeteria-style model in which students pick courses from a bewildering array of choices, with little guidance. The authors urge administrators and faculty to reject this traditional model in favor of “guided pathways”—clearer, more educationally coherent programs of study that simplify students’ choices without limiting their options and that enable them to complete credentials and advance to further education and the labor market more quickly and at less cost. Distilling a wealth of data amassed from the Community College Research Center (Teachers College, Columbia University), Redesigning America’s Community Colleges offers a fundamental redesign of the way two-year colleges operate, stressing the integration of services and instruction into more clearly structured programs of study that support every student’s goals.

The Urgency of Now

The Urgency of Now
Author: Marcus M. Kolb
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 151
Release: 2015-09-09
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1475814526

With the student body evolving quickly, and the looming challenge of the “completion agenda,” community colleges are facing circumstances like never before in serving all students and propelling them to fulfilling their education aspirations. The Urgency of Now suggests a way forward, with students and their learning at the center of what community colleges, and all of higher education, must do to generate graduates in possession of high quality degrees and credentials. Through considering comprehensive assessment, new roles for accreditation, faculty engagement strategies, and competency-based education, The Urgency of Now describes our current challenges and the ways we might meet those challenges for the 21st century institution.

Multicultural Student Services on Campus

Multicultural Student Services on Campus
Author: D-L Stewart
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2023-07-03
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1000976076

Co-published with For new professionals in multicultural student services (MSS), this book constitutes a thorough introduction to the structure, organization, and scope of the services and educational mission of these units. For senior practitioners it offers insights for re-evaluating their strategies, and inspiration to explore new possibilities.The book discusses the history and philosophy of MSS units; describes their operation; asserts the need for integration and coherence across the multiple facets of their work and how their role is influenced by the character and type of their institutions; and considers the challenges and opportunities ahead. The theme Building Bridges, Re-Visioning Community reflects the dual role of MSS. They “build bridges” between underrepresented student populations and the broader institutional environment, between different groups of student populations, and across differences in cultural values and traditions. At a time of increasing diversity on campus, their role is also to champion the “re-visioning” or redefinition of what constitutes community in higher education – in other words to reach beyond serving their traditional constituencies to educate for multicultural competence, and advocate for social justice across the campus commons.This book is organized in four sections moving the reader from the past to the present to the future, and from a service mission to an educational one. Part One reviews the purposes for which MSS were created, and the evolution of their vision, concluding an overview of how units perceive their needs and challenges today.Part Two addresses a range of issues – such as race/ethnicity, sexual orientation / gender identity, and religion/faith diversity – commonly addressed by MSS, and, in recognizing the tensions inherent in serving such disparate constituencies, advances ideas for bringing greater integration and coherence to their work.Part Three considers how institutional context influences the structure and organization of MSS, and addresses such questions as: Who are they serving? What kind of support services and educational programming can they provide? How broadly or narrowly should they define their role, and can they extend their influence through alliances with other campus units?The book concludes by looking at how MSS can re-vision community to ensure their continued relevance to the college or university community.An ACPA Publication

Women in Higher Education

Women in Higher Education
Author: Ana M. Martinez Aleman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 662
Release: 2002-12-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1576076156

The only comprehensive encyclopedia on the subject of women in higher education. America's first wave of feminists—Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and others—included expanded opportunities for higher education in their Declaration of Sentiments at the first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in l848. By then, the first American institutions to educate women had been founded, among them, Mt. Holyoke Seminary, in l837. However, not until after the Civil War did most universities admit women—and not for egalitarian purposes. War casualties had caused a drop in enrollment and the states needed teachers. Women students paid tuition, but, as teachers, were paid salaries half that of men. By the late 20th century, there were more female than male students of higher education, but women remained underrepresented at the higher levels of educational leadership and training. This volume covers everything from historical and cultural context and gender theory to women in the curriculum and as faculty and administrators.

Higher Education Leadership

Higher Education Leadership
Author: Rozana Carducci
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2024-02-06
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1421448793

Sharing the new and evolving approaches to higher education leadership that foster liberatory systemic change. Higher Education Leadership offers a groundbreaking exploration of leadership in higher education. Rozana Carducci, Jordan Harper, and Adrianna Kezar challenge traditional paradigms and ideologies that hinder progress—advocating instead for liberatory systemic change. The authors highlight new and evolving interdisciplinary leadership approaches for resisting and dismantling oppressive systems, including neoliberalism and white supremacy, within and beyond higher education organizations. This comprehensive textbook synthesizes decades of leadership scholarship and dissects the limitations of hierarchical and individual-centered models prevalent in higher education. Through critical analysis, the authors unveil process-centered, shared-power, and equity-oriented approaches that prioritize liberation. By translating classic and revolutionary theories, they empower current and aspiring higher education leaders to reimagine their roles to create more meaningful impact. The authors bring theory to life by exploring the specific context of higher education and providing practical applications. Their survey also identifies gaps in knowledge and methodologies and provides ideas for future leadership research. They invite readers to view leadership as both a problem to be interrogated and dismantled as well as a pathway to a more liberatory future. By recognizing these dual possibilities of leadership, the authors open the door to powerful insights while also offering a cautionary tale. With enriching case studies, vignettes, and discussion questions, Higher Education Leadership serves as an essential resource for graduate classrooms and professionals seeking to critique existing leadership practices and forge new pathways that foster equity and systemic transformation. This thought-provoking textbook offers a new vision for higher education scholars and leaders committed to fostering inclusive, anti-racist, and equitable universities.

The Costs of Completion

The Costs of Completion
Author: Robin G. Isserles
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2021-12-07
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1421442086

To improve community college success, we need to consider the lived realities of students. Our nation's community colleges are facing a completion crisis. The college-going experience of too many students is interrupted, lengthening their time to completing a degree—or worse, causing many to drop out altogether. In The Costs of Completion, Robin G. Isserles contextualizes this crisis by placing blame on the neoliberal policies that have shaped public community colleges over the past thirty years. The disinvestment of state funding, she explains, has created austerity conditions, leading to an overreliance on contingent labor, excessive investments in advisement technologies, and a push to performance outcomes like retention and graduation rates for measuring student and institutional success. The prevailing theory at the root of the community college completion crisis—academic momentum—suggests that students need to build momentum in their first year by becoming academically integrated, thereby increasing their chances of graduating in a timely fashion. A host of what Isserles terms "innovative disruptions" have been implemented as a way to improve on community college completion, but because disruptions are primarily driven by degree attainment, Isserles argues that they place learning and developing as afterthoughts while ignoring the complex lives that define so many community college students. Drawing on more than twenty years of teaching, advising, and researching largely first-generation community college students as well as an analysis of five years of student enrollment patterns, college experiences, and life narratives, Isserles takes pains to center students and their experiences. She proposes initiatives created in accordance with a care ethic, which strive to not only get students through college—quantifying credit accumulation and the like—but also enable our most precarious students to flourish in a college environment. Ultimately, The Costs of Completion offers a deeper, more complex understanding of who community college students are, why and how they enroll, and what higher education institutions can do to better support them.