- Transferring Promising Practices in California
- Short-Term Credentials and the California Community College Curriculum, 1993-2006
- Lumina Project III
- "The Cost of Education," A Documentary
- C4 Professional Development Series
- C4/UCLA Collaborative Research
- C4 Presentations
- C4 Forum
Transferring Promising Practices in California
C4's "Transferring Promising Practices" project identifies and examines California community college programs that have demonstrably improved (or show considerable potential to improve) student learning and that have worked to close the achievement gap between Latino, African American, Native American, and low-income students and their white, Asian, or more affluent peers.
C4 researchers are examining promising practices across all of the community colleges' missions and multi-purposes through in-depth, qualitative case studies. This approach allows researchers to explore the explicit and tacit internal knowledge of a program, and to take into account the institutional, social, and regional contexts in which these programs exist.
Our aim is not only to identify promising practices that lead to student achievement, but also to suggest how these practices may be transferred to and successfully adopted on other community college campuses.
Transferring Promising Practices Purpose Statement
Short-Term Credentials and the California Community College Curriculum, 1993 - 2006
This report is the first part of a series that seeks to re-examine and re-imagine vocational education in the California Community College system. In this report, statewide curricular awards (associate degrees and vocational certificates) were analyzed over a fourteen-year period. Data were organized descriptively and analyzed in order to identify long-term trends.
There is evidence of a trend toward increased training for short-term certificates and associate degrees in the California Community College curriculum, a trend that may emphasize credentials at the expense of the transfer mission and, ultimately, baccalaureate degree attainment for students. These curricular trends are analyzed in relation to their institutional implications, in particular to the movement for increased accountability and the push for greater numbers of community college degrees and certificates.
The report recommends that the California Community College system review and assess its current programming priorities. Although sub-baccalaureate credentialing meets increased demands for institutional accountability, students' short-term interests, and the immediate needs of the labor market, it is imperative -both educationally and ethically - that the California Community College system not lose sight of the higher economic and socio-cultural opportunities associated with the baccalaureate degree, and thus the continued importance of the transfer mission.
The Lumina Project III is the third in a series of investigations on non-traditional students and their educational experiences in thirteen community colleges across the United States . Lumina III started in late 2002 and is supported by the Lumina Foundation for Education.
From an interpretative perspective, this study explores how the organizational environment of community colleges supports or hinders the educational experiences of non-traditional students. The intersection between the local and larger contexts is explored to explain how higher education organizations serve disadvantaged students. By analyzing the construction of socio-cultural practices between students and institutional agents, the study attempts to explain how organizational members create institutional identities and accomplish developmental outcomes. Qualitative analyses, including in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, were conducted at community colleges in North Carolina , Colorado , California , Texas , Virginia , Washington , and Arizona .
The study offers three broad contributions to the study of community colleges. First, it attempts to redefine the public image of community colleges by addressing the singularity of their organizational life and actors. Second, it provides comprehensive evidence for community colleges to conduct processes of organizational change and adaptability by taking into account students' characteristics and needs. Ultimately, it offers relevant implications in the elaboration of educational policies associated with community colleges.
Lumina Project I: Levin, J. S. (2007). Non-traditional students and community colleges: The conflict of justice and neo-liberalism. New York : Palgrave Macmillan.
Lumina Project II: Levin, J., & Levin, J. (2007). The cost of education. Documentary Film.
"The Cost of Education," A Documentary
Dr. Levin's newly released documentary, "The Cost of Education," examines the real-life struggles of non-traditional students in the community college system. This fourteen-minute film is the collaborative effort of Dr. John Levin and filmmaker Jeremy Levin.
The documentary is a by-product of Dr. Levin's 2007 book titled "Non-Traditional Students and Community Colleges: The Conflict of Justice and Neo-Liberalism" ( New York : Palgrave Macmillan).
Click here to view the documentary (QuickTime, 42 Mb).
Click here to view the UCR Newsroom article.
C4 Professional Development Series
C4 has partnered with Riverside Community College through a Title V grant to improve student learning and success. As part of this grant, C4 has organized a series of professional development seminars on topics of importance to faculty, administrators, and students at Riverside Community College. Professional development seminars are scheduled at the following times and are open to all interested community college faculty and administrators:
|
Date |
Leader |
Topic |
Type |
Confirmed Date/Time/ Location
|
|
October |
Dr. Tuere Bowles, North Carolina State |
Adult Learning |
Workshop |
Friday, October 19, 1-3pm Moreno Valley Campus |
|
November |
Dr. Mary McCaslin, University of Arizona |
Adolescent Learning and Motivation |
Seminar |
Friday, November 16, 1-3pm Moreno Valley Campus |
|
January |
Dr. Robert Teranishi, NYU |
Asian American / Pacific Islander Students |
Seminar |
Thursday, January 17 3-5pm Norco Campus |
|
March |
Dr. Estela Bensimon, University of Southern California |
Equity for All: Using Communities of Practice to Address Disparities in Student Outcomes |
Workshop |
Friday, March 7, 1-3pm Norco Campus
CANCELLED |
|
April |
Dr. Frances Contreras, University of Washington |
Hispanic/Latino Students |
Seminar |
Thursday, April 10, 1-3pm Moreno Valley Campus |
|
May |
Dr. Audrey Jaeger, North Carolina State |
College Student Development |
Workshop |
Friday, May 2, 10am-12pm Norco Campus |
C4/UCLA Collaborative Research
C4 is in the process of developing a collaborative research project on community colleges' overcoming or moderating effects of student characteristics.
In that community colleges enroll a large population of students who are not only less well-prepared for college but also less economically fortunate than four-year college and university students, student characteristics alone predict lower educational attainment for community college students.
Yet student outcomes cannot be assessed through only one single measure, such as grades or degree attainment, but through a variety of measures including:
- Individual course performance
- Subsequent course performance
- Program performance
- Access to employment
- Employment performance
- Access to further education
- Further education performance
Specific student populations have different education outcomes in all of these areas. Some of these outcomes are related to student characteristics and some to institutional effects and thus institutional effects may differ not only for specific populations of students but also on specific outcome behaviors.
The first phase of implementation for this project, identification and organization of a core group of researchers from UCR and UCLA, has begun and specific project development is now in progress.
Future developments and research project updates will be posted to this website as available.
C4 presented on two research projects at the Council for the Study of Community College's 50th Annual Conference held in Philadelphia, PA April 3-5, 2008.
The presentations were:
The California Community College Collaborative (C4), in co-operation with Riverside Community College District, hosted its second annual Forum titled, "Community Colleges and a Master Plan for Higher Education in California: A Need for Renewal?" The event was held at Canyon Crest Country Club in Riverside, and drew practitioners and scholars from throughout California.
The keynote address was delivered by Dr. John Aubrey Douglass, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley, followed by a panel discussion featuring these prominent California community college leaders:
Dr. Jerome Hunter, Chancellor, North Orange County Community College District
Dr. Rita Cepeda, President, San Diego Mesa College
Dr. Ray Maghroori, Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs, Riverside Community College District
Dr. Richard Mahon, Senate President, Riverside City College
Dr. Mark Drummond, Chancellor, Los Angeles Community College District
Panelists discussed many ideas related to the California Master Plan including:
Three main issues facing CA community colleges:
- Mission:
- The CA community colleges' mission is too broad and inclusive and needs clarification;
- There is conflict between Career and Technology Education and Workforce Development branches of the community colleges (Who should be doing what? How will they be funded?) that also needs to be clarified
-
Governance:
- Current governance structure has led to a weak and ineffective board; the Board of Governors was never given autonomy and an identity similar to the UC Board of Regents or the CSU's Board of Trustees
- Board of Governors needs more autonomy and to perhaps become a Public Trust
- Finance:
- Unstable and unpredictable funding
- Different funding priorities within different geographical regions of the state
- Community college budgets have been reduced but responsibilities have been increased
Three critical questions for the CA system:
- Is the California higher education system fit for its purpose? And whose purpose would it fit – educators? Politicians? Business and industry? Children and families of California?
- Is the California higher education system the proper structure in a postmodern and globalizing economy? Consensus seemed to be that "No, the current system, when viewed through a 21st century lens, is not the proper structure but that community colleges are the closest to having the breadth and depth necessary to respond to that construct."
- Addressing the "unintentional conspiracy" is California willing to fund education for the thousands of undocumented students coming through the pipeline?
Four critical changes that are needed in the Master Plan:
- Implementation of the A-G requirement as a default curriculum;
- Implementing financial aid policies that increase aid to underrepresented students and people of color;
- Make all segments of the California higher education system- UCs, CSUs and Community Colleges- accountable for community college transfers (instead of primarily holding only community colleges accountable for transfers)
- Develop goals that will strengthen the role of the California community college transfer function – make transfer the function of the community colleges and the 4 year institutions
Overall, according to one panelist, the Master Plan failed to look at the junctures of the various roles of the segments within the California higher education system. Instead, it created silos out of each segment and failed to build bridges between each segment. Additionally, community colleges have evolved into institutions that were not expected by the developers of the original Master Plan.
- Much of this evolution is due to the fact that the Master Plan clearly outlined the missions of the UCs and the CSUs but failed to do so for the community colleges. So, in essence, once the UCs and the CSUs took their parcels, the remaining load- which included such areas as remedial education, ESL, and workforce and economic development- was poured in to the community college "bucket." Since the original Master Plan's development, this bucket has continued to grow so that now community colleges' missions are so broad that it is difficult to determine for what they are responsible, how to evaluate them and how to fund them.
One solution offered by a panelist for this predicament is to divide the current community college structure into two entities:
- A college that is responsible for transfer related coursework (including occupational programs that may lead to transfer), and,
- An institution that focuses on remedial education, workforce development and entrepreneurial activities.
- This entity could also be more heavily governed by a local board while the transfer-focused institutions would be more closely governed by the Board of Governors; this would also help alleviate competition between those two boards
Another solution to creating bridges between California's higher education segments is further development of hybrid colleges - the offering of bachelor's and even master's degrees on community college campuses either stand-alone degree programs or through the partnering of CSUs and community colleges. (The CSU would be responsible for the integrity and rigor of the final two years of the bachelor's degree while the community college would be the physical site for the program.) Hybrid colleges may help address the issue of providing postsecondary education beyond the associate's degree to underrepresented students who may not have physical access to a CSU or UC campus but do to a community college campus.