This article reports several two-year institutions who are seeking out architects to create impressive new buildings as well as imaginative renovations of humdrum buildings from the 1960s and 1970s. Johnson County Community College, in Overland Park, Kansas, opened a limestone-sheathed museum, designed by Kyu Sung Woo Architects, that the "Kansas…

This annual newsletter contains updates on the latest CCRC research, new publications and details of upcoming presentations at major conferences. The feature article in this issue, "Addressing the Needs of Underprepared Students," by Thomas Bailey, summarizes the discussion found in the paper "Challenge and Opportunity: Rethinking the Role and…

Google Docs was used to create the rip-mix-learn (RML) classroom in two, first-year undergraduate introductory chemistry and biology courses, a second-semester introductory chemistry course, and an upper-level developmental biology course. This "transmedia" approach assigned students to create sets of collaborative lecture notes into…

THIS COLLECTION OF REPORTS IS PRECEDED BY A BRIEF PAPER ON TEACHING COMPOSITION, AND EXCERPTS FROM ALBERT H. MARCKWARDT'S KEYNOTE ADDRESS ON THE INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF THE JUNIOR COLLEGE IN EDUCATION AND THE AIMS AND CONTENT OF LITERATURE COURSES IN THE TWO-YEAR COLLEGE. THE REMAINDER OF THE DOCUMENT INCLUDES THE SUMMARY REPORTS AND…

The Coordinating Board for Higher Education and the Department of Higher Education are pleased to present this Annual Report of accomplishments, benchmarks and statistics related to Missouri higher learning for fiscal year 2008. Chief among this year's accomplishments is the coordinated plan, "Imperatives for Change: Building a Higher Education…

Comments on the teaching of literature in two-year colleges and suggests ways to interest community college students in reading literature. (MKM)

The researchers examined part-time enrollment within public two-year, degree-granting community colleges by the degree of urbanization classifications of city, suburban, town, and rural for fall 2003 and 2005. Findings indicate no statistical differences in part-time enrollment between city and suburban institutions. No statistical differences…

Exploiting a statewide cutoff point on the placement examination used to assign students to remedial courses in Tennessee, this study employs a regression discontinuity research design to provide causal estimates of the effects on student outcomes of recently redesigned remedial courses at three Tennessee colleges. Moreover, using data on student…

Every two years the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), "the Nation's Report Card," reports the nation's average reading and math scores in grades 4 and 8. Despite the strong focus on reading under the 2001 No Child Left Behind law, the recent 2009 reading scores were not statistically different from those of 2007, which had not…

Offers 10 annotated references on the topic of peer mentorship in community colleges. Describes peer mentorship programs as an effective way to promote academic and transfer success and assist underrepresented and developmental students. Provides citations of research on peer mentorship and effective programs that may be implemented at two-year…

Based on a longer review, this Brief summarizes research evidence and theoretical discussion regarding whether community college students are more likely to persist and succeed in programs that are tightly and consciously structured, with relatively little room for individuals to deviate from paths toward completion, and with limited bureaucratic…

Wide disparity exists in philanthropic giving to public, two-year community colleges as compared to public, four-year universities. Recent estimates indicate that 0.5 to 5% of all private philanthropic giving to U.S. higher education annually goes to public, two-year community colleges, with the remainder going to public and private four-year…

Over the past two years, through an NSF RCN UBE grant, the ASBMB has held regional workshops for faculty members from around the country. The workshops have focused on developing lists of Core Principles or Foundational Concepts in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, a list of foundational skills, and foundational concepts from Physics, Chemistry,…

This article addresses an area of international concern, the need to enhance the development in reading comprehension for English Language Learners. We report results of an intervention to raise achievement in English (L2) in Samoan bilingual classrooms for 9-13 year old Samoan children. The general aim was to examine patterns of biliteracy and…

The author started her training in adventure education around 1986 when Mike Laurence introduced the concept to Brock University. At the time, she was employed by Niagara College working in its Futures Program. To her the theory behind adventure-based programs seemed a coalescence of her yen for sociology, psychology, existential philosophy and…