Beyond Free College
Beyond Free College

Author: Eileen L. Strempel

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2021-01-15

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 1475848668

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Beyond Free College outlines an audacious national agenda—consistent with, but far more comprehensive than, the current “free college” movement—that builds on the best of US higher education’s populist history such as the G.I. Bill and the community college transfer function. The authors align a wide constellation of higher education trends—online learning, prior learning assessment, competency-based learning, high school college-credit— with a rapidly shifting student transfer environment that privileges college credit as the pivotal educational catalyst to boost access and completion. The book’s agenda seeks greater productive investment in postsecondary education by privileging a single metric—lower-cost-per-degree-granted—as the animating driver of a transfer pathway that will fulfill the potential of its historical, progressive innovators. Beyond Free College’s goal is as simple as it is urgent: To galvanize higher education advocates in an effort to reorganize, reorient, and reignite the transfer function to serve the needs of a neotraditional student population that now constitutes the majority of college-goers in America; and in ways that advance completion, not just access to higher education.

Working With Students in Community Colleges
Working With Students in Community Colleges

Author: Lisa S. Kelsay

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-07-03

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 100098107X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Co-published with This timely volume addresses the urgent need for new strategies and better ways to serve community colleges’ present and future students at a time of rapid diversification, not just racially and ethnically, but including such groups as the undocumented, international students, older adult learners and veterans, all of whom come with varied levels of academic and technical skillsThe contributing researchers, higher education faculty, college presidents, and community college administrators provide thorough understanding of student groups who have received scant attention in the higher education literature. They address the often unconscious barriers to access our institutions have erected and describe emerging strategies, frameworks, and pilot projects that can ease students’ transition into college and through the maze of the college experience to completion. They offer advice on organizational culture, on defining institutional outcomes, on aligning shifting demographics with the multiple missions of the community college, on strengthening the collaboration of student and academic affairs to leverage their respective roles and resources, and on engaging with the opportunities afforded by technology.Divided into three parts – understanding today’s community college campuses; supporting today’s community college learners; and specialized populations and communities – this book offers a vision and solutions that should inform the work of faculty, administrators, presidents, and board members.

Redesigning America’s Community Colleges
Redesigning America’s Community Colleges

Author: Thomas R. Bailey

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2015-04-09

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 0674368282

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

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.

Becoming a Critical Educator
Becoming a Critical Educator

Author: Patricia H. Hinchey

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9780820461496

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Many American educators are all too familiar with disengaged students, disenfranchised teachers, sanitized and irrelevant curricula, inadequate support for the neediest schools and students, and the tyranny of standardizing testing. This text invites teachers and would-be teachers unhappy with such conditions to consider becoming critical educators - professionals dedicated to creating schools that genuinely provide equal opportunity for all children. Assuming little or no background in critical theory, chapters address several essential questions to help readers develop the understanding and resolve necessary to become change agents. Why do critical theorists say that education is always political? How do traditional and critical agendas for schools differ? Which agenda benefits whose children? What classroom and policy changes does critical practice require? What risks must change agents accept? Resources point readers toward opportunities to deepen their understanding beyond the limits of these pages.

Making College Work
Making College Work

Author: Harry J. Holzer

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Published: 2017-08-15

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 0815730225

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Practical solutions for improving higher education opportunities for disadvantaged students Too many disadvantaged college students in America do not complete their coursework or receive any college credential, while others earn degrees or certificates with little labor market value. Large numbers of these students also struggle to pay for college, and some incur debts that they have difficulty repaying. The authors provide a new review of the causes of these problems and offer promising policy solutions. The circumstances affecting disadvantaged students stem both from issues on the individual side, such as weak academic preparation and financial pressures, and from institutional failures. Low-income students disproportionately attend schools that are underfunded and have weak performance incentives, contributing to unsatisfactory outcomes for many students. Some solutions, including better financial aid or academic supports, target individual students. Other solutions, such as stronger linkages between coursework and the labor market and more structured paths through the curriculum, are aimed at institutional reforms. All students, and particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, also need better and varied pathways both to college and directly to the job market, beginning in high school. We can improve college outcomes, but must also acknowledge that we must make hard choices and face difficult tradeoffs in the process. While no single policy is guaranteed to greatly improve college and career outcomes, implementing a number of evidence-based policies and programs together has the potential to improve these outcomes substantially.

Teachin' It!
Teachin' It!

Author: Felicia Darling

Publisher: Teachers College Press

Published: 2019-06-28

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 0807761583

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Teachin’ It! is a hands-on guide to cutting-edge research and classroom strategies that redress the graduation gap in community and open-access colleges. Drawing from the author’s 30 years in the education field as a math and college skills instructor, teacher educator, and researcher, this book describes an asset-based model that bolsters the success of all students, especially those underrepresented with 4-year degrees. This community includes students of color, first-generation college students, LGBTQ+ students, and students with disabilities. Readers will discover new strategies to create equitable, engaging, interactive classroom environments where students from all backgrounds are motivated to take risks, make mistakes, share their unique approaches and perspectives, and develop their own identities as powerful lifelong learners. Topics include inquiry-based learning, implicit bias, growth mindset, stereotype threat, scaffolding, college and career skills, and a community of learners. “Teachin’ It! is a wonderful guide for community college instructors. It is a must-read for faculty who strive to become better teachers.” —Frank Chong, president/superintendent, Santa Rosa Junior College “This book is a must-read for any college instructor. It communicates important research and ideas that can transform classroom environments and empower students to succeed.” —Jo Boaler, professor, Stanford Graduate School of Education “This is a bold and challenging vision for educators at all levels.” —Claude Goldenberg, professor emeritus, Stanford University

Community College Success
Community College Success

Author: Isa Adney

Publisher: Norlightspress.com

Published: 2012-02

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 9781935254621

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

While community colleges give first-generation students a chance to open the door to education, simply walking through that door is not enough. Once there, many students feel completely alone. As members of a rapidly growing population, these students are in desperate need of a practical, friendly, and useful resource.

Understanding the Working College Student
Understanding the Working College Student

Author: Laura W. Perna

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-07-14

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 1000978753

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

How appropriate for today and for the future are the policies and practices of higher education that largely assume a norm of traditional-age students with minimal on-campus, or no, work commitments?Despite the fact that work is a fundamental part of life for nearly half of all undergraduate students – with a substantial number of “traditional” dependent undergraduates in employment, and working independent undergraduates averaging 34.5 hours per week – little attention has been given to how working influences the integration and engagement experiences of students who work, especially those who work full-time, or how the benefits and costs of working differ between traditional age-students and adult students.The high, and increasing, prevalence and intensity of working among both dependent and independent students raises a number of important questions for public policymakers, college administrators, faculty, academic advisors, student services and financial aid staff, and institutional and educational researchers, including: Why do so many college students work so many hours? What are the characteristics of undergraduates who work? What are the implications of working for students’ educational experiences and outcomes? And, how can public and institutional policymakers promote the educational success of undergraduate students who work? This book offers the most complete and comprehensive conceptualization of the “working college student” available. It provides a multi-faceted picture of the characteristics, experiences, and challenges of working college students and a more complete understanding of the heterogeneity underlying the label “undergraduates who work” and the implications of working for undergraduate students’ educational experiences and outcomes. The volume stresses the importance of recognizing the value and contribution of adult learners to higher education, and takes issue with the appropriateness of the term “non-traditional” itself, both because of the prevalence of this group, and because it allows higher education institutions to avoid considering changes that will meet the needs of this population, including changes in course offerings, course scheduling, financial aid, and pedagogy.

What Excellent Community Colleges Do
What Excellent Community Colleges Do

Author: Joshua S. Wyner

Publisher: Harvard Education Press

Published: 2019-01-02

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 1612506518

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In What Excellent Community Colleges Do, Joshua S. Wyner draws on the insights and evidence gained in administering the inaugural Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. This book identifies four domains of excellence—degree completion, equity, student learning, and labor market success—and describes in rich detail the policies and practices that have allowed some community colleges to succeed in these domains. By starting with a holistic definition of excellence, measuring success against that definition, and then identifying practices and policies that align with high levels of student success, the author seeks to contribute to the growing body of knowledge about improving student success in community colleges.

Beyond Equity at Community Colleges
Beyond Equity at Community Colleges

Author: Sobia Azhar Khan

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-06-15

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 1000590682

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume proposes that the work of community colleges has expanded beyond equity into providing a true barrier-free learning environment for students, one that is attuned to justice. The essays included here serve as evidence and examples of the productive ways in which educators may bring theory and practice to bear on each other, which in turn may allow community college faculty, staff, and administrators to reexamine the role of a community college as a space for justice. Topics explored with this volume include liberatory educational practices in and out of the classroom, transforming classrooms into the site of collaboration and contestation, and unique visions of how to promote opportunity for marginalized students. Ultimately, the goal of this edited volume is to explore and encourage community college educators to understand the integral role they play in bringing transformative justice to their students and their communities.