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.

College Promise programs are thriving in California, and with the continued growth comes a need to understand the features of these diverse efforts and the perspectives of the communities in which they exist. In 2018, the James Irvine Foundation supported California College Promise Project (CCPP) at WestEd to study the College Promise landscape in…

Following World War II, North Carolina created public junior colleges and industrial education centers to meet the educational demands of veterans and expand the technical skills of the state's workforce. Despite the creation of these campuses, in the early 1960s North Carolina ranked 47th in the number of citizens in college, and 66 counties in…

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 is a case study of a 2 + 2 undergraduate social work degree program developed by a regional urban community college and a social work program at a midwestern university. This program brings the undergraduate social work degree program from the university's main campus to the community college campus, using university instructors to…

One of the key services community colleges provide is community education, meaning those programs and activities that are often offered for leisure or self-improvement and not for credit. Programs of this nature are increasingly challenged to be self-financing, whether through user fees or externally funded grants. The current study explored 75…

This chapter will examine characteristics of first-year experience programs in community colleges, with specific attention to the extant research about their effectiveness, the ways in which research and program delivery can be integrated, and the unique challenges of delivering FYE programs and conducting research about them in community colleges.

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…

With the retirement of baby boomers (born 1946-1964) looming, considerable discussion and research has been conducted into succession planning and the educational impact from the loss of these leadership skills and experiences in community colleges. To prepare for this eventuality, many community colleges have begun Grow-Your-Own (GYO) leadership…

For the past decade, MDRC has evaluated a number of interventions designed to improve the outcomes of community college students, including enhanced counseling, learning communities, and financial incentives. Encouragingly, many of these strategies have produced positive effects, affirming that changes in institutional practices and policies can…

This research is a qualitative case study exploring the experiences of African American male mentoring community college students. Such programs have proliferated throughout higher education, over the past 20 years, in an effort to improve the retention, performance and goal attainment of African American males. The theoretical framework shaping…

With support from the U.S. Department of Education and advice from an external panel of experts, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) published a book that described disability support practices and programs designed to help community college students with disabilities reach their fullest potential. The book was an outgrowth of a…

This brief introduces "Community Colleges Broadening Horizons through Service Learning," the American Association of Community Colleges' (AACC's) fifth national Learn and Serve America grant project and describes its grantee college programs. The goals of this grant project are to build on established foundations to integrate service…

The article reviews the major components of the Ventura College (California) program for learning disabled adults. (SBH)

The role of the community college today and new programs that it offers are discussed. In its role as a comprehensive, multifaceted institution, the community college not only provides academic education but also attempts to be a "people's college" by providing many services to a wide variety of people, a "servant of the community," and a "center…