This volume profiles some of the innovative reforms community college practitioners are engaged in, focusing on supporting students through to graduation. While much has been written at the federal and state levels about the need to improve student completion rates, this volume translates that imperative into action at the campus level. It presents the practitiners' voices and experiences in:Changing academic contentPedagogyStudent support servicesAnd other critical components of community colleges.Each chapter focuses on either a particular campus-based reform or on a cross-cutting approach or set of issues relevant for most campuses. The volume highlights opportunities, describes challenges and how they were overcome, and provides guidance that can be used by other postsecondary practitioners involved in large-scalecampus, multi-campus, or system-levelreforms that aim to increase student success.This is the 167th 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 Collegesprovides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.
EDITORS NOTES 1Katherine L. Hughes and Andrea Venezia
1. Redesigning Arithmetic for Student Success: Supporting Faculty to Teach in New Ways 5Susan Bickerstaff, Barbara Lontz, Maria Scott Cormier, Di Xu
This chapter describes a promising new approach to teaching developmental arithmetic and prealgebra, and presents research findings that demonstrate how a faculty support network helped instructors adopt new teaching strategies and gain confidence in teaching the reformed course.
2. Steps and Missteps: Redesigning, Piloting, and Scaling a Developmental Writing Program 15Peter Adams, Donna McKusick
This chapter tells a story of course reform, describing in a fresh and candid way the steps taken toward change and the results achieved. The authors emphasize that instructors need considerable support in order to teach differently, as well as underscore the need to consider scalability of reform even at the pilot stage.
3. The California Acceleration Project: Reforming Developmental Education to Increase Student Completion of College-Level Math and English 27Katie Hern, with Myra Snell
This chapter describes how the authors are using data and professional learning to mobilize change in developmental English and mathematics curricula and pedagogy across multiple community colleges inCalifornia.
4. Strategies for Integrating Student Supports and Academics 41Mina Dadgar, Thad Nodine, Kathy Reeves Bracco, Andrea Venezia
This chapter defines the integration of academics and student support services and offers examples of models and strategies from colleges nationally.
5. Providing Transparent Information to Empower Students Decision Making and Develop Institutional Capacity 53Gary Rodwell
This chapter describes the University of Hawaiis work to develop an online navigational tool that helps students develop and execute their educational plans, and assists colleges with ensuring that they have the capacity to meet students needs.
6. Strengthening Program Pathways Through Transformative Change 63Lenore Rodicio, Susan Mayer, Davis Jenkins
This chapter reports on a major college-wide effort to smooth students paths as they enter the college, choose a program, and progress to a credential. Leadership, inclusiveness, and communication have been central to the success of the effort.
7. State-Level Reforms That Support College-Level Program Changes in North Carolina 73R. Edward Bowling, Sharon Morrissey, George M. Fouts
This chapter describes the concurrent reforms occurring in North Carolinaboth campus-level changes focused on such issues as developing structured programs of study and state-level reforms aimed atsupporting the campus-level efforts.
8. What Weve Learned About Supporting Faculty, Administrator, and Staff Engagement 87Alison Kadlec, Isaac Rowlett
This chapter focuses on how colleges can increase faculty, administrator, and staff engagement in reform processes, with the message that large-scale change is not merely technical work; there is a powerful human dimension that can make or break a reform.
9. Putting the Pieces Together: Lessons Learned for Future Reforms 99Andrea Venezia, Katherine L. Hughes
This chapter summarizes the main lessons learned throughout the volume and highlights common needs with any large-scale reform along with common strategies.
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