Modern automobile maintenance, like most skilled-trades jobs, is more than simple nuts and bolts. Today, skilled-trades jobs might mean hydraulics, computerized monitoring equipment, electronic blueprints, even lasers. As chief executive officer of Grainger, a business-to-business maintenance, repair, and operating supplies company that…

With the popularity of home schooling strengthening at the secondary level, the prevalence of home schoolers now attempting to enter higher education is escalating. Community colleges, however, may be inadvertently closing our doors to home-schooled applicants. This content analysis study uses the Home School Legal Defense Association's…

Despite record growth in international student enrollment at U.S. community colleges, little is known regarding how the international students learn about--and ultimately decide to attend--community colleges. This research study identifies the decision making factors and explores the sources of information utilized by international students who…

Difficulties in paying for college and in maintaining good academic performance are two major hurdles to college graduation for low-income students. In recent years, state and federal budgets for postsecondary education have been cut significantly, limiting the options policymakers, education leaders, and communities have to improve rates of…

For-profit, or proprietary, colleges are the fastest growing postsecondary schools in the nation, enrolling a disproportionately high share of disadvantaged and minority students and those ill-prepared for college. Because these schools--many of them big national chains--derive most of their revenue from taxpayer-funded student financial aid, they…

This qualitative multiple case study examined diversity perceptions of California community college senior leaders and sought to provide insights into how a senior leader's view of diversity concepts influences their actions in succession planning and selection of leaders and faculty. An in-depth qualitative analysis of participant interviews and…

Lone Star College had a unique opportunity in 2000 when it began planning its new CyFair campus in suburban Houston. The school wasn't retrofitting existing buildings or contending with entrenched attitudes about what type of physical environment best supported learning. So when it designed its sprawling 550,000-square-foot campus, paid for with…

As the nation prepares to meet President Obama's goal of eight million new college graduates by 2020, the transfer process--the pathway between community colleges and four-year institutions--will take on an increasingly vital role. For many four-year colleges and universities, however, this pathway is uncharted territory. To help clear a path,…

This interview took place in several meetings over a period of two weeks in late spring, 2008. Carl Ehmann had spent the past five months working with multiple California community college districts to resolve numerous, and multilevel, shortages in senior leadership positions. Robert A. Frost and Ehmann had come into contact through Frost's…

While most college presidents have mastered many basic tools of the digital environment, such as e-mail, Internet browsing, text messaging, most of them have yet to figure out social media--a glaring omission that remains one of the clearest dividing lines between generations young and old. Though most of them have yet to fully embrace social…

Recent studies have shown that students who are former Adult Basic Education (ABE) or English as a Second Language (ESL) students rarely make the transition to college-level work, even when they have a college-level goal. New programs have been designed to help these students move further, faster in their studies to help them complete credentials,…

This paper addresses the transition of community college students to degree programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The paper presents the results of an evaluation of a two-week residential summer bridge program that recruited community college students from a wide range of academic, ethnic, and socioeconomic…

The community college is one of the most diverse institutions of higher learning in regards to the make-up of its student population. However, with such a large representation of diversity within its student population, the community college has not been as successful in diversifying the community college presidency. The purpose of this…

California's education system--the largest in the United States--is an essential resource for ensuring strong economic growth in the state. The Career Technical Education Pathways Initiative (the Initiative) became law in 2005 with Senate Bills 70 and 1133 and provided more than $380 million over eight years to improve career technical education…

This article examines national employment and program trends in the nursing profession, the nursing shortage in Iowa, and state policy and community college responses in Iowa. During the seven-year period 2001-2008, two Iowa governors convened special task forces to study the nursing shortage and to make recommendations. The policy responses dealt…