Book Review: Community College Leadership and Administration: Theory, Practice and Change

Abstract

C. Nevarez and J. LWood Community College Leadership and Administration: Theory, Practice and Change (Education Management Series, Vol. 3). New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2010. 290 pp. $35.00 (paper). ISBN 978-1-4331-0795-5.In an effort to prepare new leaders for the contemporary challenges facing American community colleges, Carlos Nevarez and J. Luke Wood offer a distinctive approach to the study of these institutions. The authors frame their presentation as deconstructing and constructing new approaches to how community college leadership is viewed, practiced and envisioned (p. viii). They speak with considerable authority; Nevarez is director and associate professor of the doctorate in educational leadership program at California State University, Sacramento, and Wood serves as the statewide co-coordinator of the Arizona Program for Policy, Ethics, and Education Leadership. The book consists of 12 well-documented chapters, with introductory questions and supporting graphics. Furthermore, each chapter includes a case study created by a college CEO to illustrate the complexities and dilemmas faced by such leaders. There is also an accompanying website with additional materials.The chapters could be clustered into three broad categories: overview of community colleges, leadership, and demographics and programs. The first two chapters begin the overview with a discussion of the vision, mission, and historical legacy of community colleges. The authors explain that an understanding of these elements is essential for those who aspire to leadership positions. In chapter 1, their community college core principles model (p. 3) shows graphically how vision informs the mission, functions, and operations of any college. Chapter 2 provides an excellent discussion of the social and philosophical forces that led to the establishment of these colleges and outlines seven periods of development, with challenges faced in each period. Chapter 10 addresses governance by examining the roles of governing entities at the national, state, and local levels, and the internal and external forces and ideological differences that affect the way the colleges are governed. The authors emphasize that leaders must participate in the governance process to effect change in their institutions and at various policy levels.Also in the overview cluster, chapter 9 focuses on finance, a critical component in understanding these institutions. Unfortunately, it is one of the less satisfying sections of the book. Revenue streams, expenditure categories, and student financial aid are described, although not in as much detail as might be desired and with some curious omissions. For example, in the section on financing college for students, there is no mention of the annual survey of college costs conducted by the College Board(TM), an important information source for policy makers. Moreover, the authors devote only one sentence to how states fund their education services through either sales taxes or property taxes. The consequence for states that rely on sales taxes is to create a structural deficit in the state budget, a practice that contributes to the colleges' chronic underfunding. Still other omissions are fund-raising, corporate partnerships, and entrepreneurship, all of which are skill areas new leaders must demonstrate.Chapter 12 on emerging trends also fits in an overview cluster. Drawing the discussion back to the sixfold mission of community colleges, the authors conclude their book with a brief review of challenges facing the colleges: open access, comprehensive educational prograniming, community service, teaching and learning, lifelong learning, and student success.A second cluster of chapters centers on leadership, the book's core theme. Nevarez and Wood rightly assert that effective community college leaders must base their practice in both knowledge of leadership theories and experiential knowledge. In chapter 3, they offer definitions of leadership, discuss leadership styles, and summarize three key leadership theories: trait, behavioral, and contingency/situational. …