Redesigning America’s Community College is an in-depth look
at the current state of America’s community colleges and how various political
forces have converged to catalyze fundamental changes within the community
college system. One of the major political forces sweeping higher education has
been the relatively recent movement to inject and infuse accountability and
outcome measures into the higher education apparatus - particularly affecting community colleges. The open access mission hardwired into community colleges’
DNA has not always served those who came to higher education woefully under prepared.
Too many students drop out before achieving any degree or credentialing, often
times with student loans.
The future forthcoming blog posts will outline some of the
suggestions and best practices for redesigning community college
administration, curriculum and student learning models in current era of
funding streams that increasingly require accountability measures such as
completion and persistence as proxies for student success and positive learning
outcomes.
Join me in this discussion throughout the upcoming months
and add your thoughts, criticisms and experience along the way!!!
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ReplyDeleteRegarding the first political force regarding accountability and outcomes, I believe that what you are saying is that you think this will negatively effect the community colleges because their outcomes will be lower due to the DNA you mention. I look forward to hearing more about the best practices in the book. I actually went to a 4-year college and dropped out after one semester. In the year that I was home, I took several classes at the local community college and found them to be just as challenging as the courses I took at the 4-year university which worked out well for me. That said, I think individuals who attend thinking it will be easy will be in for a big surprise.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to more discussion on this topic as I am not yet sure how I feel about increased accountability. It entirely depends on the types of accountability measures. However, I disagree with anything that creates perhaps more barriers for certain individuals.
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