Indicates that external relationships with associations, institutions, agencies, businesses, and constituencies are a major factor in determining the future of community colleges. Demonstrates the need for high quality and in-depth relationships. Offers suggestions for planning, implementation, and evaluation of effective and appropriate external…

Article focused on the concept of a cooperative and how it offers insights as to how a community college may work together with the community to develop a community-based educational program. (Author/RK)

Cites literature published in the 1970s illustrating the long-held goal of integrating community services and continuing education into the mission of the community college. Argues that the goal has been realized. Urges community service educators to become leaders of the movement to help communities become self-renewing through outreach and…

Explores community analysis as a community resource development base. Examines and classifies community elements necessarily included in community improvement plans: associations, institutions, agencies, businesses, constituencies, and individual effecters. Lists questions involved in determining the community's state of health and the uses of the…

Reviews the relative acceptability of the community college's transfer, vocational education, and community services missions. Argues that a clear, concise manifesto for the community services mission is needed. Outlines the important elements of the manifesto and the steps in gaining public understanding and acceptance. (DMM)

Presents three case studies showing how impact studies can be conducted in a constantly changing community environment. Describes the impact of a community college as direct or indirect, depending upon relationships between resources and outcomes. Recommends planned, coordinated assessment programs as tools for decision makers. (DMM)

Identifies challenges confronting community colleges entering the twenty-first century, concluding that dramatic changes in demography, social structures, and technology promise to shape a vastly different educational environment. Urges community colleges to address community problems and issues and empower citizens through the development of…

Community-based education is a concept of rapidly increasing interest and importance to community college educators, finding its way more and more frequently into literature and discussions, yet it is a concept more talked and written about than practiced. A basic reason for the gap between theory and practice is that few institutions have…

Arguing that the nation's educational system must be renewed to empower citizens and communities, this two-part monograph describes the importance of building learning communities and offers a blueprint to guide community colleges in this undertaking. The first part of the monograph provides three chapters focusing on creating a vision for the…

When a community college commits itself to adult education it must commit itself to three tenets: (1) that continuing lifelong learning is no longer an option, but rather a necessity, for individuals and communities; (2) that a community college must take its direction from the needs and wishes of its community and work to meet these needs in…

Convinced that the time has come for a college committed to the improvement of all aspects of community life, the authors present the "community renewal college" concept. Such colleges would offer courses, programs and activities that correspond to specific local needs; seek out and motivate people who can benefit from these programs;…

The following descriptive characteristics form the groundwork for a working definition of the concept of community-based education: (1) access to all; (2) continuous service to the learner throughout his life; (3) values and priorities based on the needs of the people; (4) recognition of the market; (5) flexibility; and (6) performance…