While students are the center of dual enrollment programs, high school counseling professionals, often called guidance counselors, and college/university administrators are vital to the success of these programs. High school guidance counselors coordinate schedules and ensure student awareness, registration, and participation in the program.…

The COVID-19 pandemic was a unique phenomenon that significantly impacted higher education. Programmatic grants were an important source of funding at community colleges during this unusual time, helping to provide vital resources and support services to institutions and their students. This study is one of the first of its kind to explore the…

In this qualitative grounded theory study, I interviewed participants from and analyzed documents associated with three community/state colleges in Florida. Additionally, I have included the perspective of key informants from the state and/or the Florida College System. The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory study was to develop a…

Teaching is a core role for librarians in academic contexts, although most librarians are not formally prepared to teach and encounter significant challenges in the role, including complex relationships with campus colleagues. The purpose of this research was to explore how community college librarians, an understudied population, understand their…

This chapter discusses the process Broward College in Fort Lauderdale, Florida used to embed certifications from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals into its associate and bachelor degree programs. Included is an overview of the process followed as well as challenges encountered. The chapter concludes with recommendations for…

Community college leaders have very demanding jobs. They are pulled in many directions, both professionally and personally--and they're responsible for the welfare of hundreds or even thousands of students, faculty and staff. But, as the safety instructions on an airplane imply, those in positions of authority have to take care of themselves…

This multiple case study examines the extent and ways in which leaders and administrators in Florida College System (FCS) institutions engage in distributed leadership through data sharing with frontline staff. Based on focus groups and individual interviews with administrators, faculty, and staff (659 participants) from 21 state colleges, we…

In 2015 while higher educational institutions received $40 billion in gifts, community colleges only received about 1.5 percent of that amount--despite the fact that they account for about half of students at any one time, according to an estimate provided by the Council for Aid to Education, which maintains data on educational giving. The reason…

This study identified the policy perspectives of "street-level bureaucrats" in higher education (in this case, community college personnel) and linked them to a typology of 4 policy implementation patterns. The context for this qualitative study is state legislation in Florida (Florida Senate Bill 1720, 2013) that fundamentally reformed…

This report describes a study conducted by the Community College Research Center (CCRC) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Task Force on the Work of the Future to understand how community colleges are adapting their workforce programs to changing skill demands, diversifying pathways to certificates and degrees, and grappling with…

Guided pathways reforms can take several years to implement at scale because they require a thoroughgoing redesign of a college's major functions, including: (1) organizing programs into career-focused meta-majors to enhance student recruitment and exploration and program improvement; (2) mapping clear paths to degrees, employment, and further…

"Reclaiming the American Dream" is the cornerstone of American Association of Community Colleges's (AACC) 21st-Century Initiative, launched in 2011 with the goal of outfitting an additional 5 million students with degrees, certificates, or other credentials by 2020. In Phase 1 of the initiative, featured was a nationwide "listening…

The nation's community colleges have an impressive to-do list: (1) Increase college completion by 50 percent by 2020; (2) Dramatically improve college readiness; (3) Close the American skills gap; (4) Refocus the community college mission; (5) Invest in new support structures; (6) Target public and private investments; and (7) Promote rigor and…

For almost 20 years the Community College Futures Assembly (CCFA) has met annually in Orlando, Florida to serve as a showcase of best practices in community college administration and to serve as a think-tank for research and policy. Through the years the research methodology has evolved. The 2011 CCFA used a mixed-methods approach: qualitative…

When an institutional program review determined the Hillsborough Community College Libraries Web site was out-of-date, lacked resources, and was in desperate need of a makeover, the authors embarked upon a redesign project. The article describes the challenges and considerations that contributed to the authors' decision-making and design…