Drawing from the theory of transformational leadership and community-college literature, the purpose of this study was to determine the leadership patterns and behaviors of female chief executive officers (CEOs) in the community-college system in rural, suburban, urban, and inner-city settings. This study further investigated whether there was a…

In many rural areas, community colleges are the institutions primarily responsible for providing postsecondary educational opportunities. As a result, they are tasked with the challenging responsibility of expanding those opportunities, training a rural workforce, and building a healthy and inclusive community. Like their urban and suburban…

A traditional way of assessing program effectiveness of academic programs has been by determining the percentage of students who complete programs and receive degrees or some other acknowledgment of completion. This method of assessment is particularly problematic for community colleges because only 4% of students who enroll in…

This article describes the process of integrating special-education content into 2 delivery models used in 2 different general-education teacher-preparation programs for elementary-education majors at the University of Wyoming and Casper (Community) College. One program was the traditional 4-year undergraduate elementary-teacher preparation…

This paper makes note of the vast opportunities for growth and expansion available to community colleges through online distance education. While many community colleges have taken advantage of these opportunities, continued success may be in jeopardy because of the high drop-out rates in online courses of study relative to courses offered as…

Community colleges are actively involved in distance-learning programs in Career and Technical Education (CTE). Over 76% of community colleges offer some form of distance learning in CTE. Over the years, only a few isolated studies have compared the effectiveness of distance CTE courses to traditional face-to-face courses. Typically, the findings…

This study examined the business curriculum offered by schools in the third largest community college system in the nation. The objective was to determine the degree that entrepreneurial-oriented curricula meet the needs of young people interested in starting their own business. By analyzing the business curriculum of community colleges throughout…

Community colleges are under constant pressure to increase participatory governance and gather data for accountability and accreditation. Campus climate surveys can provide valuable information for these purposes. This study examined the experience of one college in moving to a more participatory form of governance with the aid of periodic climate…

In recent years, community colleges have increasingly taken on the task of providing remedial education to its students. For policymakers and educators, understanding why remediation is on the increase is a frustrating problem made so by the complexity of the causes behind it. Are students graduating from high school less prepared or are academic…

The study reported in this paper examined the types of professional-development activities, support systems, and organizational structures necessary for community college faculty to make transitions from traditional teaching to Web-based teaching. Results indicate that (a) instructional change can by initiated through sustained professional…

As community colleges have more applicants, more programs have turned to selective admissions. Additionally, good postmatriculation advising requires more useful assessments than have been possible employing such measures as prior grade-point average (GPA). A variety of problems have been identified in relying on GPA. A series of noncognitive…

In the spring of 2002 we conducted a structure-focused case study at 4 North Carolina community colleges to understand how selected senior campus leaders assessed a new legislatively-mandated institutional-accountability program. Using confidential interviews and document analysis we collected, analyzed, and interpreted data that revealed clear…

Tuition rates for higher education continue to rise at the same time a growing number of young adults are deciding that they need college training to attain their career goals. One common method to cope with the financial strain is for students to remain in the home of their parents while they complete college. Freshmen attending community…

This study investigated the effects of locus of control and other predictors on personal-emotional and social adjustment to community college in English-language-learner students. Results indicated that locus of control was significantly associated with both social adjustment and personal-emotional adjustment. Students with more external locus of…

Developmental writing programs often include a small number of students who seem unable to respond to instruction and to acquire sufficient writing skills to move on. Many common writing difficulties reflect ambivalence about expression. A core issue is that expression is related to trust in the anticipated response to what is expressed. An…