The Relationship Between Decision-making and Accountability

The Relationship Between Decision-making and Accountability
Author: Bonnie A. Dowd
Publisher:
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2021
Genre: Community colleges
ISBN:

Inherent to college governance in many community colleges throughout the nation is the expectation that a collegial or participatory model of decision-making is the appropriate mode of governance. This type of model structures an organization to allow the opportunity for all constituencies to participate in decision-making. Some states, such as California, have mandated a participatory decision-making process, commonly referred to as “shared governance” (AB1725) while others operate in a similar manner but not by legislative mandate. Regardless of the model of decision-making used to govern community colleges, most states are being asked to address educational accountability with regard to student performance outcomes. States, such as Florida, have reorganized their entire educational governance structure (SB1162) in an attempt to increase student success. This case study provides an in-depth look at how internal structures of participatory decision-making respond to external requirements for accountability. The underlying premise for this study is that the decision-making process employed by a community college system at the state and local level significantly impacts any attempt to achieve accountability. The study examined two community college systems at the system (state) and college (local) level: California and Florida. Four research questions guided data collection with an additional sub-research question regarding how perceptions differed at the system and college level. A total of 29 respondents, at both the system and college levels, participated revealing meaningful insights about shared decision-making, accountability, student performance outcomes, performance-based funding and leadership. The findings of this study revealed that 1) whether mandated or not, participatory decision making results in a higher degree of commitment by all constituencies, 2) commitment while not guaranteeing success increases the likelihood of an initiative such as performance based funding improving student performance, 3) an emphasis on accountability shifts the focus to student success and removes barriers to completion, 4) community colleges continue to be under-funded while expected to provide services to meet growth and diversity demands and, 5) leadership is key to the success of any participatory decision-making initiative. This study suggests that additional research is needed to investigate implications of leadership and external influences.

Promising and High-Impact Practices: Student Success Programs in the Community College Context

Promising and High-Impact Practices: Student Success Programs in the Community College Context
Author: Gloria Crisp
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 116
Release: 2016-09-21
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1119319404

With calls for community colleges to play a greater role in increasing college completion, promising or high-impact practices (HIPs) are receiving attention as means to foster persistence, degree completion, and other desired academic outcomes. These include learning communities, orientation, first-year seminars, and supplemental instruction, among many others. This volume explores the latest research on: how student success program research is conceptualized and operationalized, evidence for ways in which interventions foster positive student outcomes, critical inquiry of how students themselves experience them, and challenges and guidance regarding program design, implementation and evaluation. This is the 175th volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.

What Community College Management Practices Are Effective in Promoting Student Success?

What Community College Management Practices Are Effective in Promoting Student Success?
Author: Davis Jenkins
Publisher:
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2006
Genre:
ISBN:

This study, conducted by the Community College Resource Center (CCRC), identifies community college management practices that promote student success. This study builds on earlier CCRC research using national survey data. It used transcript-level data on 150,000 students in three cohorts of first-time Florida community college students and a regression methodology to estimate the effect that each of Florida's 28 community colleges had on the probability that its students would achieve a successful outcome, after controlling for characteristics of the individual students. This effect can be seen as a measure of value added--the impact that a college has on its students' educational success independent of the characteristics of individual students. It then ranked the colleges according to their estimated effects on student success. CCRC selected colleges for field research using rankings of the magnitude of the effect of each institution on the probability that its African American and Latino students would attain successful outcomes. In Florida, as in other states, African American and Latino community college students are less likely than other students to complete a degree or to transfer to a baccalaureate program. At the same time, because of an interest in what colleges are doing to retain students generally, CCRC also examined each institution's impact on outcomes for all first-time students. The study used these rankings along with an analysis of descriptive statistics on each institution to select six colleges for field research: three with higher impacts on the chance that their minority students would succeed and three with lower impacts. The purpose of the fieldwork was to compare the institutional policies, practices, and cultural characteristics of the high- and low-impact colleges during the period in which the student cohorts were tracked (from academic year 1998-1999 through 2002-2003) to determine why some colleges had a greater net effect on their minority students' educational success than did others. Appended are: (1) Methodology for Measuring Institutional Impact on Student Success Using Student Cohort Data from the Florida Community Colleges; and (2) Profiles of High- and Low-Impact Community Colleges. (Contains 7 tables and 27 footnotes.) [This study was conducted in partnership with the Florida Department of Education's Division of Community Colleges and Workforce Education.].

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.

Practical Leadership in Community Colleges

Practical Leadership in Community Colleges
Author: George R. Boggs
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2016-07-18
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1119095158

Anticipate, manage, and overcome the complex issues facing community colleges Practical Leadership in Community Colleges offers a path forward through the challenges community colleges face every day. Through field observations, reports, news coverage, and interviews with leaders and policy makers, this book digs deep into the issues confronting college leaders and provides clear direction for managing through the storm. With close examination of both emerging trends and perennial problems, the discussion delves into issues brought about by changing demographics, federal and state mandates, public demand, economic cycles, student unrest, employee groups, trustees, college supporters, and more to provide practical guidance toward optimal outcomes for all stakeholders. Written by former presidents, including a past president of the American Association of Community Colleges, this book provides expert guidance on anticipating and managing the critical issues that affect the entire institution. Both authors serve as consultants, executive coaches, and advisors to top leaders, higher education institutions, and leadership development programs throughout the United States. Community colleges are facing increasingly complex issues from both without and within. Some can be avoided, others only mitigated—but all must be managed, and college leaders must be fully prepared or risk failing the students and the community. This book provides real-world guidance for current and emerging leaders and trustees seeking more effective management methods, with practical insight and expert perspective. Tackle the college completion challenge and performance-based funding initiatives Manage through economic cycles, declining support, and calls for accountability Delve into the issues of privatization and employee unionization Execute strategies to align institutional goals and mission Manage organizational change and new ways of thinking that are essential in today's competitive environment Manage issues involving diversity, inclusiveness, and equity Prepare adequately for campus emergencies Community colleges are the heartbeat of the nation's higher education system, and bear the tremendous responsibility of serving the needs of a vast and varied student body. Every day may bring new issues, but effective management allows institutions to rise to the challenge rather than falter under pressure. Practical Leadership in Community Colleges goes beyond theory to provide the practical guidance leadership needs to more effectively lead institutions to achieve results and serve the students and the community.

Evidence-Based Decision Making in Community Colleges

Evidence-Based Decision Making in Community Colleges
Author: Davis Jenkins
Publisher:
Total Pages: 65
Release: 2008
Genre:
ISBN:

Although there is increasing interest in evidence-based decision making in postsecondary education, there have been few large-scale empirical studies on the subject, and none of the research to date has examined in depth what specific data college faculty and administrators use in their jobs and the extent to which they use data analysis to design and improve the impact of programs and services. This report offers findings from a study designed to fill that gap in the knowledge base. The study was based on a survey and on telephone interviews about the use of student data by faculty and administrators at community colleges participating in Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count, a major national initiative designed to improve educational outcomes for community college students, particularly students of color, low-income students, and others who have traditionally faced barriers to success in college. Findings suggest three broad conclusions: (1) Achieving the Dream may have had an impact on data use at the colleges: greater use of data on student outcomes by faculty and administrators who are involved in the initiative indicates that an externally originated initiative can bring about changes in practice; (2) Producing substantive changes in culture and practice is a long process; and (3) Apparent disconnect between the extent of data use by faculty and administrators and the views and management practices of the college leadership may indicate that leadership commitment and a data-oriented approach to institutional management may not be sufficient to encourage faculty and administrators to become more data-oriented in practice, and that greater emphasis at department level is needed to encourage use of data for improvement. The authors advocate that further analysis is needed to better understand the relationship between data use and budgeting and planning efforts. Four appendixes are included: (1) Methodology for Creating Indicators of Data Use and Correlative Factor Measures; (2) Response Rate by College; (3) Demographics of Respondents; and (4) Tables on Patterns of Data Use by College. (Contains 22 tables and 2 footnotes.) [Additional funding was provided by College Spark Washington.].

Transformational Learning in Community Colleges

Transformational Learning in Community Colleges
Author: Chad Hoggan
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9781682534052

Transformational Learning in Community Colleges details the profound social and emotional change that nontraditional and historically underserved students undergo when they enter community college. Drawing on case study material and student observations, the book outlines the systematic supports that two-year institutions must put in place to help students achieve their educational and professional goals. The book offers guidance on how a renewed focus on student transformational learning can complement the skills curriculum, accelerate current reforms, and help lead to higher student success rates. "Chad Hoggan and Bill Browning have produced an excellent guide for assuring greater levels of success at the place community colleges and students meet at scale everyday: the classroom. It will provide community college academic leaders and faculty alike with a guide that will significantly improve student success in the classroom. This book is both timely and relevant as the classroom becomes the next frontier for community college reformation." --Kenneth L. Ender, professor of practice, The Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research, and president emeritus, William Rainey Harper College "Transformational Learning in Community Colleges makes a meaningful contribution to the literature on student success by addressing pressing challenges such as the need for coordinated efforts at the program level. Intended for practitioners in community colleges and career pathways training programs, this book focuses on the changes students experience in college and provides helpful real-life examples, case studies, and applied strategies for readers to use." --Meredith Archer Hatch, senior associate director for Workforce and Academic Alignment, Achieving the Dream Chad D. Hoggan is an associate professor of Adult, Workforce, and Continuing Professional Education in the Department of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development at North Carolina State University. Bill Browning is an independent consultant with a thirty-year career combining management roles in corporate training, a community-based nonprofit, community college, and workforce development policy and leadership training. Robert G. Templin, Jr. is professor of the practice at the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research at North Carolina State University and senior fellow of the College Excellence Program at The Aspen Institute.

Community College Student Success

Community College Student Success
Author: Vanessa Smith Morest
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Total Pages: 131
Release: 2012-12-19
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1442214821

Student Success: From Board Rooms to Classrooms analyzes the emerging body of scholarly research on student success in an accessible and readable way that community college leaders will find both interesting and relevant. To further illustrate the connections between research and practice, case studies are drawn from community colleges that are engaging in reform. Morest offers a three-pronged approach for community college leaders seeking to improve the success of their students. First, community college leaders need to look around at the technological transformation that has occurred in other service sectors and import some of these ideas to student services. Second, community college leaders need to explicitly socialize their students to become college students and to bond with their community college. Finally, improving the quality of teaching is particularly important with regard to developmental education, where students are attempting to master material that they have ostensibly been taught in the past.

The Development of Policy Affecting Community Colleges

The Development of Policy Affecting Community Colleges
Author: Iain Michael Ritterbrown
Publisher:
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:

The issue of student success has become significant if not dominant in discussions at all levels of education since the early part of the 21st century. Discussions of public education have historically focused on issues of access, stemming from the belief that everyone should have the opportunity to benefit from education. In recent years, however, the focus of this discussion has shifted to the obligation of educational institutions to ensure students not only have access to education, but that they are successful. In response to the growing concerns about student success, the California State Senate, in 2010, passed SB 1143, which authorized the California Community College Board of Governors to form the California Community College Student Success Task Force, a body led by California Community College Chancellor Jack Scott. The task force was charged with producing actionable recommendations that would improve the success of California's community college students. The Student Success Task Force produced 22 recommendations, published in the Student Success Task Force Final Report (2012). Most of these recommendations were implemented by the time this study was completed. Implementation has had a considerable impact on the California community college system and its students. While the recommendations and their implementation have received considerable attention, relatively little is known about the process by which they were formed. This case study of the Student Success Task Force was designed to examine the ways in which educational policy is formed. Specifically, the study sought to examine policy formation from a systems theory perspective. The study explored ways in which student success was defined by the task force and by individual members, the ways in which these definitions were influenced by educational research and theory, and the degree to which the task force employed formal research methodology in the formation of its recommendations. The study found that the Student Success Task Force represented an effective model for policy development, and that its structure, developed by the architects of the task force, provided a sound foundation for discussions. The deliberate inclusion of all stakeholder groups provided representation from a broad range of perspectives, though faculty, community college administrators, and outside interests, which collectively had the largest numbers of representatives, appear to have had had the greatest influence on discussions. Stakeholder obligation also played a significant role in the development of the task force recommendations. Perhaps the most important influence on the task force and the development of its recommendations was the strength of leadership provided by Chancellor Jack Scott and by the California community college CEOs.