The United States economic recession is now in its third year and continues to have a serious impact on the American higher education system, including Illinois' public community colleges. Illinois community colleges are seeing increases in enrollments while at the same time seeing significant decreases in state funding. The purpose of this…

Integration of informatics competency into a nursing curriculum is important to ensure success throughout the education and career of contemporary nursing students. As enrollment in nursing programs increases, the diverse population of students from many different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds presents a challenge for faculty in…

School reformers hope that converting comprehensive high schools into collections of small schools will produce results similar to those realized in freestanding small schools. Three themes--personalization, professional community, and shared decision making--exemplify the early successes in conversions. But the challenge of sustaining these gains…

A PRELIMINARY STEP IN THE PROCESS OF ESTABLISHING ROCK VALLEY COLLEGE IN ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS, WAS THE COMPLETION OF A FEASIBILITY STUDY IN THE COMMUNITIES TO BE SERVED BY THE COLLEGE. THE REPORT WAS PREPARED IN 10 PARTS--(1) GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF JUNIOR COLLEGES, (2) AREA POPULATION AND ENROLLMENT PROJECTIONS, (3) HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AND…

The Professional Learning Community (PLC) model has moved to the forefront in the field of education as one of the most effective frameworks to improve student achievement and overall school success. The research conducted for this paper provides evidence for systemic and action based improvement using the PLC model in four diverse venues:…

By probing the micro-level interactions and experiences shaping students' thoughts, behaviors, and decisions during college the authors hope to generate a better picture of how individuals enact the intersection of their own agency with their given social context. Such insights may enable a more accurate and meaningful interpretation of the…

How are educators moving museums' interpretive goals beyond exhibition galleries? How are programs creating new relationships between a museum and its adult audiences? As plans for physical transformation at the Chicago History Museum took form, the education department launched a parallel process of planning to redefine the "look and…

This article discusses After School Matters, a nonprofit organization that works with dozens of community-based groups across Chicago to connect teenagers with a vast number of opportunities in the arts, sports, technology, and communications. The 13- through 19-year-olds participating in After School Matters programs do not just sign up for…

The public service role (PSR) of the University of Illinois and Parkland College in the black community of Champaign-Urbana was studied in a project funded under Title I of the Higher Education Act of 1965, channeled through the Illinois Board of Higher Education. As a pilot project, PSR explored current public service efforts by higher education…

The rationale for taking bold action on the nation's persistently failing schools can be summed up in one dramatic and disturbing statistic: half of the young Americans who drop out of high school attend just 12 percent of the nation's schools. Ending the cycle of failure at schools is a daunting challenge and a surprisingly controversial one.…

Some of the author's most valuable experiences as a library media specialist (LMS) were not in a school library. Rather, they were on the streets of Chicago, in community gardens, and on the rooftops of buildings in Humboldt Park, where she was hired by the University of Illinois Community Informatics Initiative as a graduate assistant and LMS in…

For much of the 20th century, it was the engine that powered one of nation's most massive retail operations. By the beginning of the 21st century, the historic building was no longer needed to supply energy to what remained of the once bustling Sears, Roebuck and Co. campus on the West Side of Chicago. The original purpose of the Power House, as…

The Afterschool Alliance and MetLife Foundation are proud to celebrate a fifth round of the MetLife Foundation Afterschool Innovator Awards. For the past five years, we have collaborated to highlight the work of quality afterschool programs that support children, families and communities across the nation. This compendium is a compilation of four…

Each year in addition to offering academic courses for credit, the Illinois public community colleges strive to meet the needs of their local communities by offering public service programs consisting of non-credit community education courses and other activities of an educational nature such as workshops, conferences, seminars, forums, and…