This article explores the unique structure and challenges faced by Southeast State University's Educational Specialist (Ed.S.) and Tier II Leadership Certification programs. It highlights the effective strategies implemented to address these challenges and their positive effects on program quality and student success. The findings indicate…

The book analyses and evaluates several key community college reform programs that emerged after the Recession of 2008 and as a result of major initiatives in California, New York, Tennessee, Florida, Connecticut and Wisconsin. Because of the economic downturn in the early 21st Century, an already eroding financial base for public higher education…

Community colleges play a critical role in providing access to higher education for over two million Californians seeking an educational foundation that will prepare them to transfer to a four-year university or to participate in the workforce. However, community colleges have not always delivered on that promise--fewer than half of students who…

The authors of this article concede that Annmarie Guzy's lead article for this volume of "Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council" speaks of a familiar challenge in the Eastern Kentucky University Honors Program. The nearly universal and dramatic increase in the number of AP, IB, and/or Dual Enrollment credit hours among their…

This thesis examines two uncommon topics in the economic literature regarding college access and completion: the role of college proximity in recent high school graduates' enrollment decisions, and how structural changes to the student experience at a postsecondary institution can affect college completion. The first chapter is a review of the…

Honors colleges and programs often evolve in response to a mandate from boards of regents or trustees. Such mandates can lead to new or accelerated change within the institution, change that in many cases is linked to and represented by honors. Such has been the case at Western Kentucky University (WKU), where the honors program has played a key…

KSU redefined the MOOC value proposition through collaboration of university leadership and faculty. The new proposition shifts measures of success beyond just course completion to include measures that benefit students, faculty, and the institution. Students benefitted through access to open educational resources, the acquisition of professional…

This paper provides an account of the pilot and first year of a university improvement initiative, developed in response to a reaffirmation mandate from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. The initiative focused on increasing student retention and enhancing learning through the campus-wide use of team-based…

There is a pervasive and ongoing perception that leadership preparation is a problem. Important questions remain about the intentions, capacity, and impact of state departments of education engaged in leadership preparation program redesign. In this essay, I take up several issues concerning this state policy work, including whether a one size…

Increasing criticism of practicing educational leaders has led to additional critiques of the university programs in which they are prepared. In response, many states have mandated statewide university preparation program redesign. The articles in this special issue describe five unique cases of principal preparation program redesign--including…

For many years, schools of social work have engaged in partnerships, especially with public child welfare agencies, to prepare a competent and professional child welfare workforce through the mechanism of Title IV-E training. In 2008 the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI) established an additional resource for preparing students in…

What works to increase Latino student success in higher education? Since 2005, "Excelencia" in Education has led the only national effort to recognize evidence-based practices that accelerate Latino student success in higher education through Examples of "Excelencia." Through this process, "Excelencia" recognizes…

Bob Monroig smiles every day on his way to work at Lake Washington Technical College (LWTC), high atop a hill overlooking the affluent Seattle suburb of Kirkland, Washington. He's created his own job within a job, where he's the Harley-Davidson University program coordinator and tenured faculty in the Motorcycle, Marine, & Power Equipment…

Currently there are multiple teacher education reform policies being proposed, piloted, and debated at a variety of levels and by various interest groups, stakeholders, and policy-makers. Along with an unprecedented sense of urgency about these important goals, what most U.S. reforms have in common is increased accountability. Using a discourse…

Twin strategies of Institutes on the Teaching and Learning of Science and Mathematics and support for faculty through minigrants are shown to be effective in stimulating college science and mathematics faculty to modify their introductory courses to include more active learning strategies. The institutes were designed to provide faculty who are…