THE STATE POSTSECONDARY REVIEW PROGRAM: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate began a series of hearings in 1990 that uncovered an alarming pattern of waste, fraud, and abuse in the Title IV federal student aid programs. To create a stronger and more coordinated evaluation of institutions desiring to participate in these programs, Congress enacted the new Program Integrity Triad, which significantly increases the gatekeep‐ing functions of each member of the triad and establishes a specific set of responsibilities for accrediting agencies, the states, and the Secretary of Education. Under this program, states are directed to set up agencies known as State Postsecondary Review Entities (SPRE) to assist the U.S. Department of Education in reviewing institutions of higher education referred by the Secretary to determine continued participation in federal financial aid programs. The diverse ways in which students use community colleges will make it difficult, at best, to apply the quantifiable standards for withdrawal, graduation, and placement rates established by the SPRE program. The result could have serious implications for community colleges and their continued participation in Title IV federal student aid programs.     

CARPE DIEM: OVERCOME MISCONCEPTIONS IN COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTANCE LEARNING

ABSTRACT

This paper makes note of the vast opportunities for growth and expansion available to community colleges through online distance education. While many community colleges have taken advantage of these opportunities, continued success may be in jeopardy because of the high drop-out rates in online courses of study relative to courses offered as traditional, face-to-face classroom instruction. The reason for this may be that the “digital divide” still exists between students of the 21st century and faculty who were educated long ago in the 20th century, including even those faculty who have stepped forward to offer online courses. Perception of up-to-date concepts of distance learning is a major issue, and only when the gap is bridged between distance learner and instructor will online learning reach its potential. The literature available on distance learning has numerous suggestions for bridging this gap between students and faculty. The authors of this article recommend that community colleges make the institutional commitment to equip and train Internet-ready faculty to appropriately advise and teach 21st-century students. However, taking such a step may have significant implications for the immediate future in the allocation of financial resources.     

PERSPECTIVES ON COMMUNITY COLLEGE LEADERSHIP: TWENTY YEARS IN THE MAKING

Findings from a national study of community college administrative careers, examining issues of position, gender, and race / ethnicity are reported. Career path data also are compared with an earlier national study, showing that paths to the presidency have changed since 1985. Implications for recruitment into senior positions and leadership diversity are discussed.     

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRANSFER STUDENTS AND "NATIVE" STUDENTS AT A LARGE STATE UNIVERSITY

Students were randomly chosen from the class of 1998 and 1999 at a large public university. Fifty in each class were community college transfer students who transferred to the university in the fall of 1996 and fall of 1997; 50 in each class were native students who had entered the university in the fall of 1994 and the fall of 1995. All students were from the College of Arts and Sciences. These groups of students were compared by GPAs at the end of the lower division work (sophomore year for natives and at the end of the second year of community college work for transfers). Students also were compared at the end of their first semester in their academic major to determine if transfer shock was evident for transfer students and if a GPA decline was evident for natives. Lastly, the students GPAs were compared at the end of the spring semesters of 1998 and 1999 to determine if there was recovery from transfer shock for the transfers and from the possible decline in GPA for native students. Retention and graduation rates for both groups were compared.     

大学图书馆的远程开放学习支持服务

本文阐述了在远程开放教育学习支持服务体系中,大学图书馆要强化远程学习支持服务特色和多媒体文献资源的展示工作,提高远程学习支持服务水平,确保远程学习服务质量;整合、开发利用各种媒体资源,做好远程学习支持服务工作;并且还提出了大学图书馆远程学习支持服务的具体措施。     

THE LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE FOR A NEW CENTURY: LINCING WOMEN AND MINORITIES INTO TOMORROW'S COMMUNITY COLLEGE LEADERSHIP ROLES

The Iowa Association of Community College Trustees, the Iowa Association of Community College Presidents, and Iowa State University Higher Education Program created a partnership to develop women and minorities for leadership roles in community colleges. The Leadership Institute for a New Century (LINC) program, which is in its eleventh year, uses a combination of national and state community college leaders, community leaders, trustees, and university faculty members to offer personal and professional development activities for participants. University credit that may be used as part of an academic degree program and for state licensure purposes is granted. Participants are nominated by their college; participate in monthly seminars; and complete projects related to local, state, and national issues. Nearly 70% of participants reported receiving a leadership promotion or advancement during or since their acceptance into the LINC program. The majority indicated that the program was very influential in their advancement. With the predicted impending administrator shortage, more cooperative leadership development programs need to be developed. The future of our community college system depends on the development of leadership opportunities and an infusion of leadership.     

BEYOND ORION: A EUROPEAN DISTANCE MASTER'S DEGREE IN COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP

Because of the crisis in the western European welfare state, government by itself can no longer provide the full range of social services that populations have come to take for granted. The shortfall must be complemented by an increasing variety of voluntary organizations. In order to be effective, however, such organizations as well as the more traditional service‐providing government organizations must have good leadership. As good leaders are as much trained to be good leaders as born, an efficient means must be developed for training leaders. Given the rapidity of social change, training must be provided on a permanent basis. The authors therefore propose the setting up of a European Master's Degree programme in leadership training. It would be modelled upon a distance Master's Degree programme in Educational Administration (Northern Interior Master's Programme ‐NIMB) that the University of Victoria in Canada offered in a large area of northwest Canada. Much of the course work for such a programme would be provided by distance means using new communication technologies. Universities in seven countries: England, Belgium, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, and Finland, that formed a consortium, would administer and offer this programme in which employed administrators could enroll.     

INTRODUCTION: COMMUNITY COLLEGE LEADERSHIP: PERSPECTIVES OF WOMEN AS PRESIDENTS

For many years, I pursued the role of a university professor, a great fortune for me, a reward for loving to read. Moreover, my emphasis, women in leadership roles and administration, gave me anopportunity to research women's ways of leading. In work at the University of Texas with John Roueche, I began to examine the modest gain women were making in that most egalitarian institution, the community college. It occurred to me as it did to others in university research (Twombly, Amey, Sagaria, Townshend, Pancrazio, Duvall, Desjardiens, Moore, Keim) that women's leadership needed a boost. Not content to paint a dismal picture, several thinkers began to examine what efforts and successes guided women's leadership. Most of us had been seriously affected by an insightful new discourse on women led by Gilligan (1982). In a Different Voiced; was a beacon for research, allowing women the privilege of saying there is more than one yardstick for measuring moral responsibility. Women,Gilligan stated,arrived at their responsibilities through care and concern,a different way from the path of justice men focused on.     

USE OF THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE IN BACCALAUREATE ATTAINMENT AT A PRIVATE LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGE

A number of studies have shown that the associate degree track no longer reflects the path of community college students pursuing bachelor's degrees. Rather, students use the community college to fulfill specific degree requirements. This study investigated whether community college credits were used to fulfill core or major requirements among baccalaureate graduates of a private liberal arts college over a five-year period. Results indicate that more than one-third of graduates used the community college to fulfill requirements for the bachelor's degree. Overall, the primary use of the community college was to fulfill requirements for the core curriculum. Use of the community college was greatest among humanities majors, with business majors completing the most community college hours.     

TEACHING IN CONTEXT: ENHANCING THE PROCESSES OF TEACHING AND LEARNING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGE MATHEMATICS

Teaching in context can be defined as teaching a mathematical idea or process by using a problem, situation, or data to enhance the teaching and learning process. The same problem or situation may be used many times, at different mathematical levels to teach different objectives. A common misconception exists that assigning/teaching applications is teaching in context. While both use problems, the difference is in timing, in purpose, and in student outcome. In this article, one problem situation is explored thoroughly at different levels of understanding and other ideas are suggested for classroom explorations.     

THE ENHANCED BIOLOGY EDUCATION（EBE）PROGRAM AT DREXEL UNIVERSITY

This article introduced the Enhanced Biology Education(EBE)program which is a successful innovated program developed in the USA.The program incorporates hands-on experience with theoretical knowledge, focuses on the ability to apply what is learned and trains the students to work independently from the instructor.     

COMMUNITY COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY INSTRUCTOR CONSISTENCY IN THE EVALUATION OF FRESHMAN ENGLISH THEMES

Several researchers have noted the variability among teachers in the grading of essays. Previous research has not attempted, however, to compare separate institutional settings. Because the regular English composition course at public two‐year colleges is transferable to four‐year public colleges, a comparison of the grading predilections of English faculty from both settings was undertaken. Each instructor was asked to mark and grade a set of five themes (the instrument). Means and standard deviations were determined, and ANOVA indicated the grading differences between the two settings were significant at the .05 level on all five themes and the grand total means. Though relatively consistent among themselves, community college instructors (N=19) were more than a letter grade more lenient than university instructors (N = 17) when all grades from each setting, referred to as the grand total mean, were averaged. University graders were most consistent on what they considered the two worst themes, whereas community college graders were most consistent on what they considered the two best themes. An expanded dialogue on grading criteria is recommended.     

AN ATTITUDE STUDY OF STUDENTS IN A COMMUNITY COLLEGE,A STATE UNIVERSITY,AND A TECHNICAL INSTITUTE

The purpose of this study in college student culture was to determine whether students entering different types of postsecondary institutions have value systems and/or personality characteristics which differ according to the type of institution they select An assessment of the attitudes and traits students bring with them to college was made at a comprehensive state university, a technical institute, and a community college.

The 16 Personality Factors Test of the Institute for Personality and Ability Testing (16 PF of the IPAT) was administered to 269 students in selected freshman level mathematics classes at the three schools. Individual factor scores were used to compute group means for each type of school on the 16 personality factors. The t test applied to differences in group means revealed significant differences (p < 0.05) among groups on several factors. The results support the hypothesis that student personality factors are related to the type of college selected.

If further research as recommended by the authors reinforces these findings, there are implications for many areas of the educational experience; e.g., college selection, programming activities, choosing instructional methods, counseling.     

THE PASS-FAIL GRADING OPTION AT A STATE UNIVERSITY: A FIVE SEMESTER EVALUATION1

To evaluate the pass-fail grading option, course and grade data were generated each semester. Faculty and student attitudinal data were obtained once. Because pass-fail students were not identified to instructors, all students were given traditional A-E grades. During administrative data processing, the A-E grades of pass-fail students were converted to pass or fail. In comparison with traditionally graded students in the same classes, pass-fail students received lower grades on the average. The pass-fail option proved to be popular. Students favored the pass-fail option, although their reasons for electing the option were not necessarily in accord with the official rationale, to foster exploration. Perhaps because they perceived students as abusing the option, the small faculty sample had somewhat negative attitudes toward the pass-fail system.