Download or read book Redesigning America s Community Colleges written by Thomas R. Bailey and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-09 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Student Success in Community Colleges written by Deborah J. Boroch and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-02-22 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Student Success in Community Colleges As more and more underprepared students enroll in college, basic skills education is an increasing concern for all higher education institutions. Student Success in Community Colleges offers education leaders, administrators, faculty, and staff an essential resource for helping these students succeed and advance in college. By applying the book's self-assessment instrument, colleges can pinpoint how their current activities align with the most effective proven practices. Once the gaps are identified, community college leaders can determine the best strategic direction for improvement. Drawing on a broad knowledge base and illustrative examples from the most current literature, the authors cover organizational, administrative, and instructional practices; program components; student support services and strategies; and professional learning and development. Designed to help engage community college leadership and practitioners in addressing the practices, structures, and obstacles that enhance or impede the success of basic skills students, the book's strategies can be tailored to various institutional levels, showing how to unite faculty, staff, and administrators in a cooperative effort to effect institutional change. Finally, Student Success in Community Colleges reveals how investing in a comprehensive basic skills infrastructure can be a financially sustainable model for the institution as well as substantially beneficial to students and society. "This is a most unusual and valuable book; it is packed with careful analysis and practical suggestions for improving basic skills programs in community colleges. Compiled by a team of practicing professionals in teaching, administration, and research, it is knowledgeable about what has been done and imaginative and practical about what can be done to improve the access and success of community college students." K. Patricia Cross, professor of higher education, emerita, University of California, Berkeley "For its first hundred years the community college was committed primarily to access; in its second hundred years the commitment has changed dramatically to success. This book provides the best road map to date on how community colleges can reach that goal." Terry O'Banion, president emeritus, League for Innovation, and director, Community College Leadership Program, Walden University "This guide is the most comprehensive source of information about all facets of basic skills or developmental education. It will be invaluable not just to community college educators across the nation, but also to those in high schools and four-year colleges who share similar problems." W. Norton Grubb, David Gardner Chair in Higher Education, University of California, Berkeley

Download or read book The State of College Access and Completion written by Laura W. Perna and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-07-18 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite decades of substantial investments by the federal government, state governments, colleges and universities, and private foundations, students from low-income families as well as racial and ethnic minority groups continue to have substantially lower levels of postsecondary educational attainment than individuals from other groups. The State of College Access and Completion draws together leading researchers nationwide to summarize the state of college access and success and to provide recommendations for how institutional leaders and policymakers can effectively improve the entire spectrum of college access and completion. Springboarding from a seminar series organized by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, chapter authors explore what is known and not known from existing research about how to improve student success. This much-needed book calls explicit attention to the state of college access and success not only for traditional college-age students, but also for the substantial and growing number of "nontraditional" students. Describing trends in various outcomes along the pathway from college access to completion, this volume documents persisting gaps in outcomes based on students’ demographic characteristics and offers recommendations for strategies to raise student attainment. Graduate students, scholars, and researchers in higher education will find The State of College Access and Completion to be an important and timely resource.

Download or read book Community College Outcomes written by and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 2 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Activity Systems Analysis Methods written by Lisa C. Yamagata-Lynch and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-07-15 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last two decades, there has been growing interest in pursuing theoretical paradigms that capture complex learning situations. Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) is one of several theoretical frameworks that became very popular among educational researchers because it conceptualizes individuals and their environment as a holistic unit of analysis. It assumes a non-dualistic ontology and acknowledges the complexities involved in human activity in natural settings. Recently, reputable journals such as the American Psychologist, Educational Psychologist, and Educational Researcher that are targeted for a wide-range of audience have included articles on CHAT. In many of such articles, CHAT has been referred to as social constructivism, sociocultural theory, or activity theory. Activity systems analysis is one of the popular methods among CHAT researchers for mapping complex human interactions from qualitative data. However, understanding the methods involved in activity systems analysis is a challenging task for many researchers. This difficulty derives from several reasons. First the original texts of CHAT are in Russian and there have been numerous authors who report on the difficulties of reconciling translation problems of the works of original authors’ such as Vygotsky and Leontiev. Second, in North America activity systems analysis has deviated from the Russian scholars’ intentions and Engeström’s original work using the triangle model to identify tensions to overcome and bring about sociopolitical change in participant practices. Third, to this date there are numerous publications on the theoretical background of activity theory and studies reporting the results of using activity systems analysis for unpacking qualitative data sets, but there have been no methodological publications on how researchers engage in activity systems analysis. Thus, there is a dearth of literature in both book and journal publications that guide researchers on the methodological issues involving activity systems analysis.

Download or read book Measuring Success written by Jack Buckley and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Once touted as the single best way to measure students from diverse backgrounds, schools, and experiences, standardized college admissions tests are now criticized for being hopelessly biased in favor of traditionally privileged groups. Out of this has emerged the test-optional movement that seeks to allow students to apply to schools without sitting through the rigors of the SAT. This book takes a step back and applies rigorous empirical measurements to these rival claims. Drawing upon the expertise of higher education researchers, admissions officers, enrollment managers, and policy professionals, this edited volume is among the first to investigate the research and policy implications of test-optional practices. It was conceived in response to the editors' frustration with the fragmented and incomplete state of the literature around the contemporary debate on college admissions testing. Many students, teachers, parents, policymakers--frankly, nearly anyone immediately outside the testing industry and college admissions--have little understanding of how admissions tests are used. This lack of transparency has often fueled beliefs that college assessments are biased, misused, or overused. Decades of research on various aspects of testing, such as the predictive validity of assessments, makes a compelling case for their value. But all-too-frequently researchers and admissions officers talk past one another instead of engaging substantively. This collection intends to remedy the situation by bringing these disparate voices together. This book is designed for provosts, enrollment managers, and college admissions officers seeking to strike the proper balance between uniformity and fairness"--

Download or read book Directed Self placement written by Daniel Royer and published by Hampton Press (NJ). This book was released on 2003 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This guide offers updated shopping tips to people visiting China. It explains what to buy (from porcelain, jade and pearls to silk, antiques, carpets and custom-tailored clothing), how to deal with local merchants and get the best prices, and where to find the best stores, markets and shopping districts - all in a handy pocket-sized format. It also provides tips on finding airfare, hotel and dining bargains.

Download or read book Developmental Education written by League for Innovation in the Community College and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Condition of Education 2011 written by Nabeel Alsalam and published by Government Printing Office. This book was released on 1989 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Learning Communities written by Barbara Leigh Smith and published by Jossey-Bass. This book was released on 2004-09-08 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shows how learning communities can be a flexible and effective approach to enhancing student learning, promoting curricular coherence, and revitalizing faculty. Provides the historical, conceptual, and philosophical context for learning communities and demonstrates that they can be a key element in institutional transformation. From publisher description.

Download or read book Developmental Education written by Hunter R. Boylan and published by Bedford/St. Martin's. This book was released on 2014-02-14 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Developmental Education: Readings on Its Past, Present, and Future offers twenty-two selections on historical efforts to serve underprepared students, on the state of developmental education today, and on innovative practices and possible directions for the future. Compiled by Hunter R. Boylan, Director of the National Center for Developmental Education (NCDE) and a professor of Higher Education at Appalachian State University, and Barbara S. Bonham, a professor in the Department of Leadership and Educational Studies at Appalachian State University, each chapter also includes introductions and questions for discussion and reflection.

Download or read book High impact Educational Practices written by George D. Kuh and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication¿the latest report from AAC&U¿s Liberal Education and America¿s Promise (LEAP) initiative¿defines a set of educational practices that research has demonstrated have a significant impact on student success. Author George Kuh presents data from the National Survey of Student Engagement about these practices and explains why they benefit all students, but also seem to benefit underserved students even more than their more advantaged peers. The report also presents data that show definitively that underserved students are the least likely students, on average, to have access to these practices.

Download or read book Economic Evaluation in Education written by Henry M. Levin and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2017-06-15 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The past decade has seen increased attention to cost-effectiveness and benefit-cost analysis in education as administrators are being asked to accomplish more with the same or even fewer resources, philanthropists are keen to calculate their "return on investment" in social programs, and the general public is increasingly scrutinizing how resources are allocated to schools and colleges. Economic Evaluation in Education: Cost-Effectiveness and Benefit-Cost Analysis (titled Cost-Effectiveness Analysis: Methods and Applications in its previous editions) is the only full-length book to provide readers with the step-by-step methods they need to plan and implement a benefit-cost analysis in education. Authors Henry M. Levin, Patrick J. McEwan, Clive Belfield, Alyshia Brooks Bowden, and Robert Shand examine a range of issues, including how to identify, measure, and distribute costs; how to measure effectiveness, utility, and benefits; and how to incorporate cost evaluations into the decision-making process. The updates to the Third Edition reflect the considerable methodological development in the evaluation literature, and the greater empiricism practiced by education researchers, to help readers learn to apply more advanced methods to their own analyses.

Download or read book A Practical Introduction to Regression Discontinuity Designs written by Matias D. Cattaneo and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-13 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this Element and its accompanying second Element, A Practical Introduction to Regression Discontinuity Designs: Extensions, Matias Cattaneo, Nicolás Idrobo, and Rocıìo Titiunik provide an accessible and practical guide for the analysis and interpretation of regression discontinuity (RD) designs that encourages the use of a common set of practices and facilitates the accumulation of RD-based empirical evidence. In this Element, the authors discuss the foundations of the canonical Sharp RD design, which has the following features: (i) the score is continuously distributed and has only one dimension, (ii) there is only one cutoff, and (iii) compliance with the treatment assignment is perfect. In the second Element, the authors discuss practical and conceptual extensions to this basic RD setup.

Download or read book Faculty Development and Student Learning written by William Condon and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2016-02-15 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Colleges and universities across the US have created special initiatives to promote faculty development, but to date there has been little research to determine whether such programs have an impact on students' learning. Faculty Development and Student Learning reports the results of a multi-year study undertaken by faculty at Carleton College and Washington State University to assess how students' learning is affected by faculty members' efforts to become better teachers. Extending recent research in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) to assessment of faculty development and its effectiveness, the authors show that faculty participation in professional development activities positively affects classroom pedagogy, student learning, and the overall culture of teaching and learning in a college or university.

Download or read book The Problem of College Readiness written by William G. Tierney and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2015-03-30 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines how states, schools, and postsecondary institutions might best help improve college readiness and completion. Though more students are entering college, many drop out, especially those who are low income and/or of color. To address this problem, educational stakeholders have focused on the concept of “college readiness,” or the preparation a student needs to succeed in college. However, what it means to be college ready and how to help more students become ready are questions without clear answers. By way of historical and contemporary analyses, this book uses California as a case study to demonstrate how the state has endeavored to make postsecondary opportunity accessible for all students. The contributors also explore the challenges that remain and address what states and schools can do to improve college readiness and completion. “This book adds important information to the debates and discussions around this critical topic.” — Caroline Sotello Viernes Turner, coeditor of Understanding Minority-Serving Institutions

Download or read book Promising and High Impact Practices Student Success Programs in the Community College Context written by Gloria Crisp and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-09-21 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With calls for community colleges to play a greater role in increasing college completion, promising or high-impact practices (HIPs) are receiving attention as means to foster persistence, degree completion, and other desired academic outcomes. These include learning communities, orientation, first-year seminars, and supplemental instruction, among many others. This volume explores the latest research on: how student success program research is conceptualized and operationalized, evidence for ways in which interventions foster positive student outcomes, critical inquiry of how students themselves experience them, and challenges and guidance regarding program design, implementation and evaluation. This is the 175th volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.