Enhancing Program Quality

Abstract

Among the most critical issues facing community colleges in the 1980s is quality: its assessment, its enhancement, its relationship to resource allocation. Whatever the long-term consequences of the spirited public and private dialogue about quality, there seems little doubt that we are entering a period of introspection concerning com­ munity colleges' purposes and performance. At the least, the chang­ ing environment has encouraged us to reevaluate our priorities. The period of rapid expansion has ended; public support has become markedly less predictable, and, as a result, our future seems less secure. Faced with a turbulent environment, quality may be our key to the future. It is the thesis of this article that all of us concerned with com­ munity colleges need to be more self-conscious, reflective, and pur­ poseful about our role as guardians of quality. Instead of accepting the status quo, we need to renew our commitment to assessing and designing for quality. Along with a review and critique of current in­ stitutional approaches to quality, some suggestions are made for the enhancement of quality in the two-year college.