The nation has made an unprecedented investment in community colleges to simultaneously increase college completion and stimulate economic recovery. One of the most substantial investments was the Trade Adjustment Act Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) program of the United States Department of Labor (U.S.DOL). Beginning October 2011,…

Networks, consortia, and coalitions among school districts are cost-effective means to provide staff development, improve instruction, and develop curriculum. This article summarizes results of two studies in Oregon that focused on cross-organizational collaboration for school improvement. Guidelines are provided for organizations and individuals…

Small schools may resist educational reform because they view the implementation of change as too costly and time consuming. Formation of a consortium of small schools allows the pooling of staff and resources, thereby increasing capabilities while maintaining the positive attributes of small schools. In rural northeastern Oregon, eight small…

Due to concern for the development of relevant graduate preparation of community college professional personnel, the Portland Metropolitan Area Adult Education Council coordinated the establishment of the Community College Doctoral Task Force Committee to develop a proposal for a Portland-based community college doctoral degree. The doctoral…

The Oregon Consortium for Incremental Development of Exemplary Career Education Programs had three major thrusts: (1) plans were made to upgrade levels of career education (K-12) based on 14 specified assessment categories; (2) each of the five participating consortium districts focused its efforts on one specific program category (the program…

This report describes a project designed to (1) develop models for use of vocational education data available from the Oregon Management Information System (MIS) to implement decision making at key points in program planning and curriculum development, and (2) design, develop, and test a system to improve the competencies of state and local…

Oregon's new graduation requirements represent a bold effort to implement a mandated statewide competency-based program at the K-12 public school level. All the various ramifications of instituting a change of this magnitude cannot be predicted at this early date, but one major effect already evident is that local school districts have begun to…

In 1988 the Oregon Precision Metal Fabricators Association (OPMFA) asked Clackamas Community College (CCC) to develop and conduct a training program specifically for the precision sheet metal industry. The aim of the partnership was to train new workers and to upgrade skills of current employees. OPMFA equipped the Advanced Technology Center…

The Columbia-Willamette Skill Builders Consortium was formed in early 1988 in response to a growing awareness of the need for improved workplace literacy training and coordinated service delivery in Northwest Oregon. In June 1990, the consortium received a National Workplace Literacy Program grant to develop and demonstrate such training. The…