Background/Context: Community colleges are central to the United States' college completion goals. A popular strategy pushed by a number of influential policy organizations and foundations is a policy of tying state funding to community college completions, otherwise known simply as performance funding. This is happening despite little to no…

Provides a rationale and description for adapting the student contract to lower-division technical writing classes in the community college. A copy of the learning contract and evaluation forms are included. (HTH)

Drawing from the experiences of McHenry County College, Illinois, offers 10 guidelines for a self-supporting community services/business training program: run it as a business, make critical decisions, know the markets, identify the competition, develop internal support, evaluate finances and instruction, plan carefully, educate personnel, and be…

Discusses how contract grading promotes quality writing as well as a larger quantity of writing. Considers how teachers can use contract grading to support and promote the behaviors, thinking skills, and writing skills they believe will help students create quality writing. Notes that contract grading leads students to write more, to have fewer…

This paper describes the Orange Plan, a learning support system at Orange Coast College (California) which creates alternatives to traditional educational experiences. The Orange Plan is composed of four subsystems: (1) learning contracts, (2) information systems, (3) resource consultants, and (4) interdisciplinary studies courses. Each subsystem…

Instructor-made quizzes, the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale, and Miskimins' Self-Goal-Other Discrepancy Scale were used to measure achievement and self-concept in this study of contract procedures and contract management. Students in the negotiated contract and teacher-managed conditions obtained significantly higher final grades than those in other…

At Clackamas Community College, a system of contract learning has been adapted for use in a technical writing class. The course focuses on teaching the essentials of technical writing (i.e., clarity and organization in report writing); the basic employment attitudes that local businesses and industries expect; and the form of writing that the…

Reviews the literature on the nature and scope of cooperative agreements and contractual relationships between community colleges and other public and private institutions and organizations. Finds no generalized set of conditions or functions for contractual or operational agreements. Identifies benefits of such relationships. (DMM)

Details strategies used by community colleges to successfully manage the financial risk inherent in performance contracting. Compares the results of training under the Job Training Partnership Act and California's Employment Training Panel from the perspective of a college administrator. (AYC)

Opportunities should be made available for students to design their own field experiences with the use of learning contracts. This approach affords the student flexibility, emphasizes initiative and involvement, and aids in the resolution of the problem of school-to-work transition. (Author/JDS)

Changing conditions in higher education have altered the attitudes of many participants in the academic evaluation process, as well as the process itself. The overall result has been a trade-off between more useful data gathering, more informed discussion by the participants, and some diffusion of the decision-making power on one hand; and a more…

The contract learning program at Bristol Community College (Fall River Mass.) was developed to offer students of diverse backgrounds an optional method of pursuing their educational goals. This document reviews the history of the program, and proposes an alternate administrative procedure appropriate to learning contracts. The document includes a…

Explains John Wood Community College's (JWCC's) common market approach to educational cooperation, which allows students to access higher education at participating area colleges via educational service contracts. Considers the growth of JWCC and its institutional linkages. Offers a checklist of key activities for community-based contract…

Considers influences on the funding of off-campus community and continuing education programs at community colleges. Reviews four existing funding patterns and proposes an alternative fiscal accountability model based on budget transfers and contracts. Looks at the principles and positive elements of the model. (DMM)

A survey was conducted of all 106 community colleges in California to determine the characteristics of programs implemented by the colleges to provide employee training for business, industry, and government. The survey gathered the following information on all existing programs: number of years in existence, number of contracts, enrollment,…