Student success is at the heart of both institutional effectiveness and the community college mission, yet measuring such success at community colleges is problematic. This article highlights three efforts to grapple with this problem--a multistate work group of system- and state-level policymakers to create an improved set of student success…

Policymakers, administrators, and institutional researchers should recognize the critical stakeholders in the area of institutional effectiveness at the community college, their differences in perceptions about institutional effectiveness, and ways to negotiate these differences in perception. This article identifies the different stakeholders in…

Forces inside and outside community colleges are changing the context for performance and mandating new conceptions of effectiveness. This article addresses the future of institutional effectiveness in community colleges. Its emphasis is on what is measured and why, beginning with a retrospective look at early efforts in effectiveness, moving to…

This chapter explores the tremendous growth in the use of the Internet to deliver distance education at community colleges. The author examines various definitions of online education, including the types of courses, programs, and degrees available and the types of community colleges that offer greater amounts of online programming. Considerations…

The delivery of courses and even complete degree programs online has become commonplace in higher education. As institutions seek to extend their reach and students demand more convenient access to the college curriculum, online offerings have increased at an accelerating rate. What has not kept pace with this expansion of online offerings is the…

During the 1990s it became evident that technology was changing instructional delivery and many student and academic support services in a major way. These changes, coupled with increasing interest in and demand for more flexible scheduling for courses and programs, paved the way for colleges and universities to develop online (Web-based) courses.…

About a year after January 2004 when the author decided to pursue a doctorate through an online program, the author received an e-mail about an online teaching opportunity. This came about as a result of a meeting he attended where the interim dean of City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) discussed the growing demand for quality instructors to teach…

Community colleges are facing difficult times. Resources are becoming increasingly scarce, enrollments are growing to unprecedented numbers, the student body is becoming increasingly diverse, the economic downturn continues to have an effect on curriculum and mission, increased demands for accountability are driving decisions, and faculty turnover…

This chapter provides a portrait of faculty development in community colleges, highlighting different issues facing faculty based on location and including a review of the impact of socialization on how faculty approach their roles. The research reported in this chapter draws from two sources: data from a qualitative case study, which provides the…

An effective faculty is essential to student success, and faculty development programs help sustain that effectiveness. Central to the faculty development programs at Hillsborough Community College (HCC) in Tampa, Florida, is the philosophy that they should lead to strengthened teaching and learning and, ultimately, improved student success. At…

An important consideration in examining faculty issues facing rural community colleges is the number of full-time faculty employed by these institutions and the number of students they serve. Using the measure of annual unduplicated head count enrollment, rural institutions served 36 percent of all community college enrollments in academic year…

Community colleges are generally more inclusive to female faculty as compared to four-year institutions. Women represent 49 percent of fulltime and 50 percent of part-time community college faculty, a stark contrast to the low numbers of female faculty in four-year institutions. Female faculty at community colleges also receive similar rates of…

For the foreseeable future, community colleges must seriously address hiring, retaining, and facilitating upward mobility for faculty members. Moreover, they should recruit a faculty corps that is more reflective of both the students they serve and the demographics of their college service area. It is critical for community colleges to employ and…

The American community college has posed, for a period of time, some distinctively unique concerns pertaining to legal issues. However, the most pressing legal issues facing community colleges now are those regarding personnel. The diversity of programs community colleges offer require that personnel (specifically faculty) come to the institution…

The process of hiring for student success is important, as college staff, faculty, and administrators affect the lives of students daily and help to determine their success in college and in life. What is at stake is student success and its infrastructure: the quality of the academic environment, the quality of learning, and services for students,…