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Developmental education as traditionally delivered does not appreciably increase community college students' chances of earning credentials or degrees. Few students who are more than one level below college proficiency ever complete their developmental education requirements, let alone earn college credits. This broken model of remedying students' academic deficiencies is not sustainable in an era of tight budgets, swelling enrollments, and pressure for more accountability for results. The Developmental Education Initiative's State Policy Framework and Strategy specifies the levers that state policymakers have at their disposal to support more effective ways of changing the organization and delivery of developmental education, and public expectations of individual and institutional success. Plus, it provides states with a clear, efficient guide for organizing and prioritizing their efforts toward this goal. The Developmental Education Initiative was launched in 2009 when six of the first states involved in Achieving the Dream joined together to focus more intently on policies to support dramatic improvements for students whose assessment scores indicate the need for developmental education. These six states, Connecticut, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia, are committed to an aggressive policy and capacity-building agenda to support their community colleges' efforts to improve success rates for students in need of developmental education.

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In 1998, the Albuquerque TVI Community College in the United States of America (USA) began to include secondary middle school sites for their service learning students. The College faculty believed that the students in this age group could benefit from the mentoring and learning opportunities provided by students from the College. These experiences could facilitate the younger students' personal development and help them make decisions about their continuing education and future career paths. The author describes a particular project to build a greenhouse undertaken by a collaborative partnership between the College and Washington Middle School. Show less

This issue, entitled 'Gendered perspectives on community college' and edited by Jaime Lester includes the following chapters: 'Community colleges as gender-equitable institutions' by Barbara K. Townsend (p. 7-14), this chapter discusses changes in gender-equity issues in community colleges since the mid-1990s; 'Factors promoting academic success among African American and white male community college students' by Athena I. Perrakis (p. 15-23), a longitudinal study of male white and African American students in an urban community college district provides evidence of the factors that promote student success; 'Masculinities go to community college: understanding male identity socialization and gender role conflict' by Frank Harris III, Shaun R. Harper (p. 25-35), using vignettes of male students in community colleges, this chapter describes the impact of gender socialization and gender identity conflicts on male student retention; 'Broadening female participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics [STEM]: experiences at community colleges' by Soko S. Starobin, Frankie Santos Laanan (p. 37-46), this discussion of women in STEM fields includes their reasons for enrollment and their experiences in the community college; 'Noninstitutional staff perceptions of the college climate' by Molly H. Duggan (p. 47-56), this chapter focuses on a largely invisible group of noninstructional staff and provides data on the impact of organizational climate and workplace satisfaction; 'The actors behind the curtain: representation of women faculty in community college institutional decision making' by Jaime Lester, Scott Lukas (p. 57-68), findings from a study of faculty governance in California's community colleges provide evidence of the involvement, satisfaction, and experiences of women in campus and districtwide governance; 'Gendered leadership: an organizational perspective' by Pamela L. Eddy, Elizabeth M. Cox (p. 69-79), this chapter describes the experiences of six female community college presidents, describing their path to the presidency and instances of gender inequity they have experienced on those paths; 'Work and family balance: how community college faculty cope' by Margaret W. Sallee (p. 81-91), survey data from one institution serve as a case study of how faculty in community colleges struggle with work-family balance; 'Meeting the challenge of gender equity in community college athletics' by Cindy Castaneda, Stephen G. Katsinas, David E. Hardy (p. 93-105), national data on compliance with Title IX provide evidence of gender inequities in athletics within community colleges; and 'Strategizing for the future' by Pamela L. Eddy, Jaime Lester (p. 107-115), the final chapter in this volume presents practical recommendations for community colleges interested in becoming more gender equitable.

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There is currently more focus than ever on the importance of earning a college degree. At the same time, many students and parents are dubious that America's expensive, one-size-fits-all higher education system can adequately educate students for an ever more diverse and sophisticated world of work. But there are other educational options that are worth more sustained and serious attention. Technical programs provide many students with marketable job skills, often for far less time and money than four-year bachelor's degrees. Even still, many policymakers are hesitant to endorse tracking students into occupational training programs, and parents tend to have higher aspirations for their children than technical training. In turn, it is unclear that students and parents are learning about these options at an early stage, or that consumers are generally aware of these programs' likely return on investment. The four case studies presented in this publication describe high-quality occupational training programs that strive to prepare students for the workforce.

The case studies are: Austin Polytechnical Academy: linking public education with advanced manufacturing / Daniel K. Lautzenheiser; Community college partnerships with automobile manufacturers: employment drivers? / K. C. Deane; Enroll in school to go to work: cooperative education programs / Kevin J. James and K. C. Deane; Stacking for success: 'stackable credentials' at Brazosport College / Rooney Columbus, Andrew P. Kelly and K. C. Deane. These case studies are examples of interesting attempts to align education with the demands of today's labor market. But while they appear to have positive effects on those who take advantage of them, options like these are few and far between. Students often don't know they exist, and even fewer students actually participate. Given these challenges, the authors hope these case studies not only aid researchers and policymakers but also help inform practitioners who might consider offering similar programs in the future.

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This issue focuses on economic and workforce development and the role that community colleges play in the training of a skilled, competent workforce. The articles include: 'If America's so dumb, why are we so rich?' by Anthony P. Carnevale and Donna M. Desrochers (p. 10-15) which attempts to reconcile the nation's workforce success in the light of mediocre educational standing, arguing that the US cannot continue as an economic leader with a second-rate education system; 'Outsmarting the wolf: critical paths to performance' by Richard Alfred (p. 16-23) which examines the growth challenges facing community colleges in the US; 'Problem-based learning: a corporate training model for community colleges' by Wendy Flint (p. 24-27) which describes a learning strategy that brings real life work-based scenarios to the community college classroom; 'Holding one hundred hands: helping dislocated workers' by Tammy Jolley and Kathleen McNamee (p. 28-31) which describes how two community colleges in Arkansas created a program to help local workers dislocated by a factory closure; 'Targeting clusters, achieving excellence' by Stuart Rosenfeld, Jim Jacobs and Cynthia Liston (p. 34-40) which focuses on cluster-based training in response to community-based workforce needs; 'Creating a united community workforce team' by Charles R. Dassance and Margaret Spontak (p. 48-51) which looks at using community partnerships to create a team to respond to local workforce issues. Show less

The ongoing integration of instructional technology within community colleges has occurred for a variety of reasons. First, community colleges have implemented technology-based models to make operations more efficient and cost-effective. Second, instructional technology has been used to expand student markets through alternative course-delivery methods that reach those students unable to attend traditional campus courses because of geographical locations and constraints related to rigid work and family schedules. Third, community college courses are regularly updated to increase enrollment capacities and in many cases to better align content with today’s high-tech economy. In this study, the authors use Karl Weick’s conceptualization of loosely coupled organizations to explore the organizational environments of three community colleges in relation to the emphasis each institution places on the use of instructional technologies.

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Deficient publicity challenged participants when selecting community college for postsecondary education and identifying secondary mathematics teaching as a career. Secondary mathematics teaching career promotion by the community college out in the local community and on the community college campuses was found to be nonexistent but necessary to increase the teacher-of-color pool. The purpose of this case study was to understand the role community colleges played in preparing current Washington State secondary mathematics teachers of color. Teachers-of-color voices were evaluated through Critical Race Theory, and recommendations were developed to support and counter identified oppressive structures: A future secondary mathematics teacher community outreach club would engage the community by (a) developing partnerships with local K-12 schools to increase teaching career exploration, (b) exploring feasibility of Math in the Community, and (c) promoting the community college as A College FOR the Community with outreach mathematics application courses taught in nonschool-based community venues.

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To adapt to a changing environment, many community colleges are experimenting with new management and decision-making structures. A number of these structures include self-managed teams that consist of employees from various levels and areas of responsibilities. This study is an assessment of the effectiveness of team leaders at College of the Mainland, Texas City, Texas. The study included the identification of new leadership skills needed by team leaders and a comparison of the perceptions of team members with those of team leaders regarding the utilisation of those new skills as well as the use of some of the more traditional leadership skills. Communication skills were found to be among the most valued within the team management structure. The implementation of preparation programs for team leaders that include the enhancement of communication skills was among the recommendations made.

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'NACE journal', published four times a year, covers both sides of the college career services and human resources (HR) /staffing field. This issue includes the following feature articles: Educational experience abroad: preparation for a globalized workplace / Cheryl Matherly and William Nolting (pp.14-20, 44); Think and act, globally: career services, international students, and global employers / Mona Dine and Vivek Bapat (pp.21-25); Student profiles and career planning: case study of a human resources development program / Bassou El Mansour (pp.26-30); Using new media: blogs and social networking technology / Maureen Crawford Hentz (pp.31-33); A collaborative, holistic career development program for business students / Joanne K. Damminger, Robert E. Pritchard, Gregory C. Potter, Betsy McCalla-Wriggins (pp.34-44). Show less

Drawn from multiple theoretical perspectives (e.g. sociology, economics, psychology, education), researchers have developed several student retention models. Most student retention models are intended for retention of traditional age, full-time students at four year institutions (Bailey and Alfonso, 2005). The staggering high student attrition rate at community colleges necessitates rigorous studies concerning student retention. Built upon prior research studies, [the author] proposes a student retention model for community colleges and estimate the association between student retention and various variables. Data have been drawn from Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and The Beginning postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS: 04/09). Consistent with other research studies, student academic integration plays a more important role than social integration in student retention. While the proportion of minority students and part-time faculty were found to be associated positively with student retention, institution size and the proportion of female students were found to be associated adversely.

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