Building relationships is the essence of the community college. Higher education administrators learned long ago that building rapport with businesses, state and local government, and constituents is the best way to represent the interests of the community. But that does not make it easy. Board members come and go and the shifting dynamics of…

"Voices from the Field: Collaborative Innovations in Early Childhood Educator Preparation" is jointly published by the Illinois Education Research Council (IERC) and the Illinois Board of Education (IBHE), and highlights the accomplished work of many of the state's two- and four-year faculty to redesign early childhood educator…

This research focuses on factors predicting faculty-student engagement for Black male collegians. In this study, the authors investigated whether students' perceptions of racial/gender stereotypes had a moderating effect on the determinants of engagement with faculty. The sample population was derived from 16 urban community colleges located…

The newest student activist movement appears to be amplifying what some higher education practitioners have talked about for a long time: students of color have been granted access to an educational opportunity that was not as advertised, and the result is not good enough. Others are shining the spotlight on race, class, identity, and equity as…

Over the years, a number of interventions aimed at increasing student engagement and performance have been implemented in higher education. Some of these, labeled high-impact practices (HIPs), when done well, have led to documented evidence of student success. Two approaches that have been identified as HIPs--first-year seminars and learning…

This article features several community college alumni who share how community colleges contributed to their success later in their lives and how they are inspired to give back. These outstanding alumni stress the importance of community and public service. They include: (1) Dr. Richard Carmona, U.S. Surgeon General from 2002 to 2006; (2) Colonel…

Partnerships between community colleges and employers to create apprenticeships have been around for decades. These traditionally have covered fields like the building trades--electrical, construction and others--as well as heavy manufacturing like the automobile industry. Inspired partly by a new federal apprenticeship consortium--and $175…

This study focused on exploring Illinois community college faculty development coordinators' perceptions about how they are implementing faculty technology professional development programs and providing technical support for part-time faculty in the Illinois community college systems. Also examined were part-time faculty perceptions of the degree…

There is a growing consensus that the United States and its regions, including the Midwest region, will increasingly compete on innovation. This also is widely recognized in the business world. There is also growing consensus that innovation talent--the human talent to drive and support innovation--will be a major key. Despite this consensus,…

This research focused on identifying and exploring the significant current and emerging community college non-academic support service issues. These auxiliary services, not unlike academic or student affairs, support the community college mission and vision as well as students' academic success. Since December 2007, Americans have been…

The purpose of this study was to discover which student engagement variables and student characteristics predict student academic achievement. The research utilized the standardized national Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) to examine data from 19,516 students from 13 Illinois community colleges. The outcome of student…

Virtual environments such as Second Life (SL) may provide a way to connect with today's digital native and increase the readership of the community college student, both in virtual and real world libraries. Many colleges and universities already have a presence in SL. Books and services typically found in a "brick and mortar" library can…

Keeping up with alumni has always been tough for community colleges. It's not unusual for students to transfer to other institutions and leave the area, or to attend school briefly only to be swallowed up again by the workforce. Fortunately, a new breed of social media is making alumni outreach easier. And colleges are taking advantage. This…

In this article, the authors discuss contemporary challenges. David Berry offers advice on teaching the humanities at a community college; Gerald Graff examines how the traditional organization of universities undermines student learning; and Cary Nelson considers the effects on the humanities of the increasing reliance on contingent faculty.

Shifting Gears was launched in 2007 by the Joyce Foundation, a Chicago-based organization focused on improving the quality of life of citizens residing in the Great Lakes region of the United States. The primary goal of Shifting Gears is to increase the number of low-skilled, low-income Midwestern adults who obtain college-level occupational…