Community College Policy Research Articles

Policies of Midwest Community Colleges around Communicating Grades to Students

ABSTRACTCommunicating grades to students often and early has shown to have a positive impact on retention. Studies have shown that students greatly benefit from the communication, but how have community colleges supported faculty in their policies and practices about communicating grades? In this study, community colleges in the Midwestern United States were surveyed to understand the common practices, resources, training, and support for faculty around communicating grades to students, including the use of learning management systems and early grade reports. Communicating grades to students needs to be tied to the community college policies, practices, training, and professional development. The recommendation based on the survey results identifies how resources need to be allocated to support faculty and finances allocated to administrators to make decisions to support these efforts toward retention.

Access in Community College Policy: An Examination of the Social and Political Space Afforded Disabled Students in California Community College Policies

ABSTRACTAccess to education has long been seen as a fundamental element of a developed country. Specifically, the relative availability and access to education by various constituent groups has been identified as an essential metric in educational evaluation. Yet, individuals with disabilities have been identified as being underrepresented within institutions of higher education, including the United States (U.S.) community college. Furthermore, scholars have also argued that discussion of disability remains on the margins of scholarship within academia. Therefore, this investigation employed qualitative methods by conducting a Critical Discourse Analysis of California Title 5 policies specific to disabled students. This was done in order to examine the sociopolitical space afforded to disabled students to navigate the institutional environment of the community college. Titchkosky’s (2011) 4 W Access framework provided the analytical frameworks for this investigation. Findings indicate that ideological constructs, inflexible funding models, and lack of integration shape access and opportunity negatively for disabled students in California community colleges.

An IHEP Perspective: Research to Inform Community College Policy and Practice

In this article, the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) presents research that can inform policy and practice to improve student success at community colleges. Grounded in IHEP’s mission of advancing college access and success for underserved students, the article shares lessons learned about the importance of data and transparency in helping community colleges drive institutional improvements, how crucial it is for institutions and communities to share innovative approaches that help students succeed, and the ability of institutions to be more proactive in awarding associate degrees to students who completed the requisite work but never received their degree. It explores these three issues in greater depth, drawing on more extensive research conducted by IHEP.

Community College Policy in Hong Kong: Intention, Practices, and Consequence

In order to increase the competitiveness of the workforce at low cost, the Hong Kong government brought in the idea of community colleges and the associate degree while keeping the same annual set quota of first-year, first-degree places at publicly-funded universities. At first glance, in doing so, the government could avoid expanding the sector of university education, which could eventually lead to credential inflation usually found in the West. However, the policy, perhaps unintentionally, boosts up students’ educational aspiration: while a greater number of students obtain an associate degree, they do not take an associate degree as a final degree but demand a bachelor degree. This rising demand, then, leads to the emergence and subsequent expansion of the self-financing sector of university education. This Hong Kong experience demonstrates that it is perhaps a mission impossible, to let more people have a higher education while keeping the sector of higher education intact.

Conveying Meaning: Oral Skills of L2 Literacy Students

Online, 124(11). Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2001/ll/art4full.pdf Holzer, H., 8c Lerman, R. (2009). The future of middle-skill jobs. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution. Retrieved from http://www.brookings.edu/?/media/Files/ rc/papers/2009/02_middle_skilljobs_holzer/02_middle_skill_jobs_holzer.pdf Johnson, B., & Christensen, L. (2000). Educational research: Quantitative and qualitative approaches. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn 8c Bacon. Kirsch, I., Braun, H., & Yamamoto, (2007). America's perfect storm: Three forces changing our nation's future. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Services. Retrieved from http://www.ets.org/Media/Education_Topics/pdf/AmericasPerfectStorm. pdf McMurrry, M. (2007). Minnesota labor force projections 2005-2035. St Paul, MN: Minnesota State Demographic Center. National Center on Education and the Economy. (2009). International trends in adult education and lifelong learning. Retrieved from http://www.jff.org/publications/ workforce/international-trends-adult-education-and/909 Nunan, D. (1992). Research methods in language learning. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Prince, D., & Jenkins, D. (2005). Building pathways to success for low-skill adult students: Lessons for community college policy and practice from a statewide longitudinal tracking study. New York, NY: Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University. RBC Financial Group. (2005). The diversity advantage: A case for Canada's 21st century economy. Paper presented at the 10th International Metropolis Conference on Our Diverse Cities: Migration, Diversity, and Change. Retrieved from http:// www.rbc.com/newsroom/pdf/20051020diversity.pdf Shaffer, B. (2009). ABE fact sheet?2008-09. Retrieved from http://www.cael.org/ pdf/publication_pdf/State_Indicators_Monograph.pdf Strawn, J. (2007). Policies to promote adult education and postsecondary alignment. New York, NY: National Commission on Adult Literacy.

IS STUDENT-RIGHT-TO-KNOW ALL YOU SHOULD KNOW? An Analysis of Community College Graduation Rates

Over the last decade, policymakers, educators, and researchers have increasingly sought to understand community college policies and practices that promote students’ success. This effort has been partly driven by an increased emphasis on outcome accountability, but it has also promoted a productive discussion about improving institutional performance. The research reported here has two related goals. One goal is to work towards strengthening the ability to assess and compare institutional performance. We thus have developed a model that can be used to adjust simple graduation rates for institutional characteristics, such as student composition, college resources, size, and location, all of which might influence those rates. Our long-term goal is to understand how to improve student outcomes, so the paper also uses the model to measure the effect of those institutional characteristics on graduation rates. We use data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) surveys, applying a weighted least-squares procedure for grouped data to estimate an institutional-completion rates model. This analysis confirms several hypotheses about institutional determinants of graduation rates at community colleges. Our results indicate a consistent negative relationship between enrollment size and completion. Additionally, colleges with high shares of minority students, part-time students, and women have lower graduation rates. A final significant finding among institutional characteristics is that greater instructional expenditures are related to a greater likelihood of graduation. The method developed here can be used to better assess the performance of community colleges.

Got Human Capital?

HUMAN capital. It's why our neighbors have good jobs; it's why the teenager down the block can invent a new technology to help deaf people communicate. It's why we're able to compete economically within and among our 50 states and with other nations. It's why novels are written and why history is documented. And human capital comes from education. The Well-Being of Nations: The Role of Human and Social Capital, a 2001 report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, took the lead in examining this connection. (This report is available at www.oecd.org; search on the title.) It correlated human capital (the knowledge and skills derived from education, training, and experience) and national well-being (economic growth, better health, lower crime, political and community participation, and social cohesion). Evidence from the Census According to Educational Attainment: A 2000 Census Brief -- a U.S. Census Bureau report released in August 2003 and summarized in a new issue of Progress of Reform from the Education Commission of the States -- education levels in the United States are high and rising. In 2000, four out of five adults had completed high school (contrasted with just 24% of the population in 1940 and just over 50% in 1970), and more than half the U.S. population aged 25 and older had completed at least some college education. The six states with the lowest high school completion rates in 1990 (Mississippi, Kentucky, West Virginia, Arkansas, Alabama, and Tennessee) were, in 2000, among the states with the largest growth in the percentage of people aged 25 and older who had completed high school or more. However, it is possible that attainment may be leveling off. If one disaggregates the data by age group, it appears that younger generations are less educated than the generations they will succeed. Closing the College Participation Gap Although these data demonstrate that we've made strides in our development of human capital, a newly released report, Closing the College Participation Gap: A National Summary, looks at current conditions related to postsecondary access and participation. (This report and others in the same series are available at www.ecs.org.) Author Sandra Ruppert, who is program director of the Education Commission of the States' Center for Community College Policy, presents a sample of findings gleaned primarily from her analysis of 2000 census data: * The projected double-digit percentage growth in traditional college- age enrollments during the next decade has captured national attention. But the less-noticed story is that half of the states probably will see either little or no growth or even an actual decline in the numbers of students attending college. * It's not just about the kids anymore: adults now account for nearly half of all college enrollments. * Less than 38% of the 19-year-olds who had graduated from high school by 1999-2000 had enrolled in college by fall 2000. * Nearly 34 million people -- 12.4% of the U.S. population -- live below the poverty line. * One of every 10 teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 is considered a dropout -- neither a high school graduate nor currently enrolled in school. * More than 13 million foreign-born people legally entered the United States during the past decade, but just six states absorbed over half of the influx. * The aging of the baby boomers over the next decade will result in dramatic changes in the age structure of the U.S. population. The report notes that the percentage of adults aged 25 and older who have less than a high school credential is lowest in Alaska, where less than 12% have not completed high school or received a GED. The next- closest states, with rates between 12% and 13%, are Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The U.S. average is 19.6% -- or nearly one in five students without a high school credential. …

Orderly thinking about a chaotic system

AbstractThis chapter examines the ways in which community college policy makers at all levels can come to understand the diversity of statistical information available to them. It suggests that all information must be contextualized at the local, institutional level.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF FEMALE STUDENTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE PRACTICES

This article addresses the problem of sexual harassment as it relates to the community college context. The authors discuss the incidence and types of sexual harassment that have been reported on campuses of institutions of higher education and conclude that the most prevalent form of sexual harassment involves male professors harassing female students. They discuss the unique characteristics of the female community college student, indicating that many of these students are new to the higher education experience and, as a consequence, may be particularly vulnerable and susceptible to sexual harassment. The authors also explore the transient nature of community college students and how this characteristic may affect the culture of community colleges. The legal basis and definition of sexual harassment are discussed along with the elements of effective community college sexual harassment policies and procedures. Examples of effective community college policies and procedures are presented. Finally, the lea...

Images of community colleges for the twenty‐first century

AbstractWhile the community college's policy of open admissions often seems incompatible with public perceptions of educational quality, these colleges can build on their dominant image of being comprehensive to project a distinctive image of quality in the twenty‐first century.