This book brings together a collection of chapters with different research designs that explore the research, practice, and policies of community colleges. The chapters in this book are the result of the graduate students and their faculty mentor’s scholarly work, and a rigorous special issue’s peer review process. Furthermore, this book offers recommendations on how to mentor graduate students, in the absence of research and mentorship on how to publish for graduate students and practitioner-scholars, as well as recognizing that graduate programs and professional associations are important on the socialization of practitioner-scholars. Each book chapter addresses the implications for practice and future research, policy for community colleges, and recommendation for change indicated by the research results. Five broad research themes, higher education policy, leadership practices and roles, network community, student success, and technology, emerged from the empirical articles and critical reviews. A final chapter shares advice and lessons learned from the 30 authors and mentors. With the exception of Chapter 14, the chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Community College Journal of Research and Practice.

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.

This book brings together a collection of chapters with different research designs that explore the research, practice, and policies of community colleges. The chapters in this book are the result of the graduate students and their faculty mentor's scholarly work, and a rigorous special issue's peer review process. Furthermore, this book offers recommendations on how to mentor graduate students, in the absence of research and mentorship on how to publish for graduate students and practitioner-scholars, as well as recognizing that graduate programs and professional associations are important on the socialization of practitioner-scholars. Each book chapter addresses the implications for practice and future research, policy for community colleges, and recommendation for change indicated by the research results. Five broad research themes, higher education policy, leadership practices and roles, network community, student success, and technology, emerged from the empirical articles and critical reviews. A final chapter shares advice and lessons learned from the 30 authors and mentors. With the exception of Chapter 14, the chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Community College Journal of Research and Practice.

Understanding Community Colleges provides a critical examination of contemporary issues and practices and policy of community colleges. This contributed volume brings together highly respected scholars as well as new scholars for a comprehensive analysis of the community college landscape, including management and governance, finance, student demographics and development, teaching and learning, policy, faculty, and workforce development. At the end of each chapter, the "Questions for Discussion" section helps to bridge the gap between research and practice. Written for students enrolled in higher education and community college graduate programs, as well as social sciences scholars, this provocative new edition covers the latest developments in the field, including trends in enrollment, developmental education, student services, funding, and shared governance.

This book is about American community colleges, during the period from 1965-1980, and presents a comprehensive study useful for everyone concerned with higher education. It includes data summaries on students, faculty, curriculum, and many other quantifiable dimensions of the institutions. The data, descriptions, and analyses can be used by administrators--to learn about practices that have proved effective; curriculum planners--who anticipated program revision; faculty members--seeking ideas to modify their classes; and trustees and policy makers--for interesting financial and administrative guidelines.

Beer and Circus presents a no-holds-barred examination of the troubled relationship between college sports and higher education from a leading authority on the subject. Murray Sperber turns common perceptions about big-time college athletics inside out. He shows, for instance, that contrary to popular belief the money coming in to universities from sports programs never makes it to academic departments and rarely even covers the expense of maintaining athletic programs. The bigger and more prominent the sports program, the more money it siphons away from academics. Sperber chronicles the growth of the university system, the development of undergraduate subcultures, and the rising importance of sports. He reveals television's ever more blatant corporate sponsorship conflicts and describes a peculiar phenomenon he calls the "Flutie Factor"--the surge in enrollments that always follows a school's appearance on national television, a response that has little to do with academic concerns. Sperber's profound re-evaluation of college sports comes straight out of today's headlines and opens our eyes to a generation of students caught in a web of greed and corruption, deprived of the education they deserve. Sperber presents a devastating critique, not only of higher education but of national culture and values. Beer and Circus is a must-read for all students and parents, educators and policy makers.

Peterson's Two-Year Colleges 2015 includes information on more than 1,900 accredited two-year undergraduate institutions in the United States and Canada, as well as some international schools. It also includes detailed two-page descriptions written by admissions personnel. College-bound students and their parents can research two-year colleges, including community colleges, for information on campus setting, enrollment, majors, expenses, student-faculty ratio, application deadline, and contact information. In addition, Two-Year Colleges offers articles that cover tips on transferring, advice for adults returning to school, "green" programs at community colleges, the basics of financial aid, and much more. Up-to-date data profiles for more than 1,900 institutions, listed alphabetically by state (and followed by other countries) with facts and figures on majors, academic programs, student life, standardized tests, financial aid, and applying and contact information Helpful articles on what you need to know about two-year colleges: advice on transferring and returning to school for adult students; how to survive standardized tests; what international students need to know about admission to U.S. colleges; and how to manage paying for college The latest on exciting, innovative "green" programs at community colleges throughout the United States State-by-state summary table allows comparison of institutions by a variety of characteristics, including enrollment, application requirements, types of financial aid available, and numbers of sports and majors offered Exclusive two-page in-depth descriptions written by college administrators for Peterson's Easy-to-search indexes offering valuable information on associate degree programs at two-year colleges and four-year colleges