In this chapter, we draw on the data collected during our evaluations of six TAACCCT grants to describe the challenges, successes, and transformative effect of adopting a developmental evaluation approach for community college programs.

In this chapter, we explore statewide tuition-free college programs which encourage students to earn Career and Technical Education (CTE) credentials. To map the current landscape of statewide Promise programs, we conducted a policy discourse analysis of all statewide Promise programs while focusing on policy features relevant to workforce…

Promise programs have grown in popularity as a way to provide college tuition/fees and other student supports in the hopes of increasing college access and success. This chapter presents results from a comprehensive mixed-methods evaluation of the Lake Tahoe Community College Promise Program. Using rich administrative data and interviews with…

This article describes the Catch the Next Ascender model, developed under the aegis of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board as a corrective to increase persistence and completion rates among the Texas Latinx college population.

As statewide college promise programs continue to develop, emerging equity concerns necessitate interrogating whom programs benefit and how expense funds can be applied. Critical Policy Analysis (CPA) is used in this chapter to understand how statewide promise programs advance or hinder racial equity across eligibility and financial aid support…

This chapter describes the ways in which civic learning and democratic engagement are incorporated into community colleges' missions and strategic plans, professional development, curricula, and extracurricular programming.

This chapter describes the concurrent reforms occurring in North Carolina--both campus-level changes focused on such issues as developing structured programs of study and state-level reforms aimed at supporting the campus efforts.

This article explores the general education needed by newcomers to higher education that will enable them to contribute in multiple ways in the twenty-first-century workplace. In an effort to become more precise about the kind of general education that Midwestern community colleges need to create, this article approaches two questions: (1) In what…

Looking beyond institutional strategies, the National Commission on Adult Literacy (2008) called for legislation that would make workforce preparation the primary goal of adult education, including addressing education for unemployed and lower-skilled workers, and other adult groups historically underserved by higher education. Further, state…

This chapter discusses the "tangled knot" of articulating associate degrees in applied fields and reviews sample programs from applied associate (A.A.S.) to baccalaureate degrees using three distinct pathways, comparing the resulting A.A.S. to baccalaureate degree pathways to similar B.A. or B.S. programs. It focuses predominantly on curricular…

This chapter identifies some of the challenges facing the applied and workforce baccalaureate. The authors believe that it is important to discuss potential challenges regarding mission, institutional identity, and faculty for college leaders, practitioners, and policy makers to address when seeking to create or maintain applied and workforce…

In 2010, Madison Area Technical College (Madison College), a comprehensive community college in Madison, Wisconsin, was selected by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs (ECA) to head a consortium project to expand the capacity of community colleges to offer study-abroad programs. The project focuses on…

The purpose of this article is to identify key ways in which program review provides information and documentation demonstrating that a community college is effective. This is accomplished through both the program review process (the means by which reviews are conducted) and the product (program review reports and supporting evidence). The various…

President Obama is calling for an increase in educational attainment among citizens of the United States (Obama, 2009). Prior to this national call, Washington State recognized the need to increase the educational attainment of its residents to maintain a globally competitive economy. By 2018, 67 percent of jobs in Washington will require a…

The term "institutional effectiveness" was developed in response to accreditation, and this emphasizes the large extent to which accreditation drives institutional effectiveness efforts on community college campuses. There are two general types of accreditation. "Institutional accreditation" is the process by which institutions of higher education…