In the midst of a challenging economic recovery, the nation’s policy makers and education leaders are seeking new and potentially more effective strategies to align personal and public educational investments with job creation, increased levels of employment, small business development, and entrepreneurial activity. Reaching the 2020 national college completion goal will require powerful and fully implemented innovations in two-year colleges, particularly in states and regions where economic difficulties are more deeply entrenched. Grounded in the Midwest context, this special issue examines several promising policies and innovations that re-envision the role of two-year colleges in developing regional rather than local solutions to the emerging economic and educational challenges. This is the 157th volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.

Community colleges exist in a highly litigious society, and their leaders are confronted with numerous legal issues as they carry out assigned duties. Some of those issues are not new to postsecondary education. Examples include governing board relations, academic freedom and tenure, collective bargaining, and employment issues. Other issues newer to the community college include student rights, codes of conduct, accommodation of disabled students, campus safety, distance education, intellectual property rights, and risk management. Community college leaders must find ways to resolve or mitigate these and other issues if their colleges are to continue providing exemplary services to students -- from publisher.

The community college is poised to contribute beyond its own community to across the world. To do so—to advance the work for the betterment of students and communities—it must engage internationally while building capacity. Recognizing the growing importance of educating students in a globalized world, this volume explores the community college in an international context. It addresses global ideals, values, competencies, and understanding in a local context and shows: How individual community colleges have internationalized How models and partnerships can aid progression to comprehensive internationalization How international systems consider adoption and adaptation. The authors point to a crucial vision for the future: Globalization has moved the U.S. community college steadily from international education as an add-on to international education as a choice, and now to international education as a crucial, integrated mission that has drawn increased interest from other nations intent on an educated, skilled citizenry. The community college is no longer about the United States; the community college is for all of us, a world phenomenon. This is the 161st volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Essential to presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinct and expanding educational mission.

Historically, community colleges have served societal and functional missions that expanded over time, with the result of trying to achieve multiple goals for multiple audiences. This volume explores the forces currently shaping community college missions and the resulting tension between stated goals, assumed goals, and achievement of those goals. In an era of increasing accountability, tighter coupling, and the need to do ever more with fewer resources, mission focus is vital to college survival. Explore such issues as: the unspoken social contract, transfer, developmental education, noncredit education, dual enrollment, workforce development, the free college movement, and planning for the future. The topics are explored thoughtfully from both scholarly and practical perspectives, highlighting the forces that shape community college missions. This is the 180th volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.

Community colleges face pressure to “do more with less” that have prompted many college leaders to consider fundamental changes to the ways they have typically done business. Because piecemeal solutions have not often been effective or efficient, colleges are moving far beyond discreet “programs” or “interventions,” and are attempting to implement comprehensive reform efforts. This volume conceptualizes comprehensive reform as being marked by: a focus on student success; a theory of change that ties programmatic components together in an intentional and cohesive package, implemented at multiple levels throughout the college and touching the majority of students; and a culture of evidence that uses data to continuously assess programs and processes against student success. Presenting original analyses that describe the rationale for comprehensive reform, this volume examines the challenges involved in implementing, evaluating, and sustaining those efforts. This is the 176th volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.

Distance education offers the potential to further the mission of the community college in significant ways. However, the practice of education will not change without corresponding changes in our fundamental views of teaching and learning as these are reflected in the total of our state, federal, and institutional policies. In many ways the community college offers other sectors of higher education a vision for the future. This issue presents some of the policy issues confronting higher education in the age of distance learning and discusses the implications of these issues for the community college. This is the 99th issue of the quarterly journal New Directions for Community Colleges.

This volume highlights existing issues in online courses and programs and provides strategies for addressing them as the demand for online education continues to grow. Organizational changes caused by greater reliance on technology for teaching and learning are still not fully understood, and many colleges continue to react to change rather than positioning themselves to take advantage of it. As a challenge to that, contributors to this volume use personal narratives and research to discuss how online education continues to lead to organizational, professional, and personal change. Community colleges are at the forefront of the tremendous growth in online programs. Two-year colleges now serve more than half of all online students, and they are poised for continued growth as more adults seek education and retraining. Despite the acceptance, and even expectation, of online services and programs in education, colleges must address existing issues before expanding these. This volume is an indispensable resource in that process. This is the 150th volume of the Jossey-Bass higher education quarterly report series New Directions for Community Colleges. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.

In unstable times, effective leaders must not only be able to cope with the environment, they must also be able to shape it. Leaders in today's community colleges must fit that mold. Change leadership can be said to embody four essential characteristics that might be called the four "A's." These are Change leadership anticipates it is visionary and forward-looking and avoids reactionary thinking Change leadership constantly analyzes both the internal and external enviroment to gather reliable data upon which to make decisions; it engages in strategic and tactical planning to make the most of the moment Change leadership acts; with a vision and a plan, with accurate and current data, action is collaborative and inclusive Change leadership affirms; it is not enough to have a vision, a plan, and action. Once action is implemented, attention is given to reflection, to review, and to sustaining change. This volume focuses on change leadership at all levels. The authors bring unique perspectives--they are strong, recognized scholars in leadership studies as well as practitioners actively engaged in community college leadership. Both empirical studies and best practices are included to further our knowledge and understanding of effective leadership in the context of change. This is the 149th volume of the Jossey-Bass higher education quarterly report series New Directions for Community Colleges. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.

Student affairs and services play a critical role in student learning and success, as well as the level at which community colleges meet institutional outcomes. The evolution of student affairs as a field and recognition of its role in student experiences underscore its importance in the effort to provide quality education to college students. This volume provides a framework for excellence in student affairs work at community colleges, including assessing quality and outcomes for program development and accreditation. The authors explore: Excellence in preparing and developing professionals at multiple stages in their careers Creating and using professional standards and competencies Understanding the role of accreditation in professional practice. The issue also includes a discussion of implications for community college student affairs preparation and practice. This is the 166th volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.