The digest is drawn from "Preparing Department Chairs for Their Leadership Roles," a "New Directions for Community Colleges" volume. Two main issues regarding community college department chairs are discussed: role-related issues facing new department chairs, and training and development programs that aid in preparing…

An effective recruiting program is one that locates the best candidate available, makes an acceptable job offer, and retains the new employee for at least eight years. Successful recruiting results from a department chair's commitment to a people-oriented administration. By being aware of the career paths of faculty members, the chair can…

This monograph discusses how teaching portfolios can improve the quality of teaching and learning in higher education. Teaching portfolios can be defined as vehicles for documenting teaching (with an emphasis on demonstrating excellence), empowering professors to gain dominion over their professional lives, providing institutions with the means to…

This ERIC Digest reports on the outcomes of a conference of teachers, college history professors, teacher educators, and state and local school board members. The theme of the meeting was that if, according to the standards-based strategy for democratic school reform, all students in every school are to be offered an equally solid and engaging…