The only overview of research on the uniquely American community college system, which is increasingly becoming the site of entry for students seeking a higher education. This new volume shows why America's community colleges increasingly find themselves at the epicenter of social conflict, surrounded by unresolved questions such as: In a country based on the notion of equal opportunity, shouldn't all high school graduates have access to higher education? Are access and excellence really compatible? What is the real work of community colleges? Is it to provide transfer programs for students going on to baccalaureate colleges or training workers for careers in business and industry? In this comprehensive guide, readers will find not only a solid grounding in the latest research on these difficult questions but also a thoughtful analysis of the social forces that gave rise to American community colleges and still shape them today.

Grounded in an economic perspective, Financing Community Colleges: Where We Are, Where We're Going helps college leaders make sense of the challenges they face in securing and managing the resources needed to carry out the community college mission. Finance has perpetually been an Achilles heel for leaders at all levels of management. With the premise that leaders are better at winning battles they know something about, this book equips leaders with an understanding of the fundamentals and the complexities of community college finance. It tackles current and emerging issues with insight that is analytic and prophetic—a must read for current and prospective leaders.

How do the benefits of higher education compare with its costs, and how does this comparison vary across individuals and institutions? These questions are fundamental to quantifying the productivity of the education sector. The studies in Productivity in Higher Education use rich and novel administrative data, modern econometric methods, and careful institutional analysis to explore productivity issues. The authors examine the returns to undergraduate education, differences in costs by major, the productivity of for-profit schools, the productivity of various types of faculty and of outcomes, the effects of online education on the higher education market, and the ways in which the productivity of different institutions responds to market forces. The analyses recognize five key challenges to assessing productivity in higher education: the potential for multiple student outcomes in terms of skills, earnings, invention, and employment; the fact that colleges and universities are “multiproduct” firms that conduct varied activities across many domains; the fact that students select which school to attend based in part on their aptitude; the difficulty of attributing outcomes to individual institutions when students attend more than one; and the possibility that some of the benefits of higher education may arise from the system as a whole rather than from a single institution. The findings and the approaches illustrated can facilitate decision-making processes in higher education.

Minding the Dream provides challenging, reflective, and practitioner-based information about community colleges that is data-based, clear and accessible for the general reader as well as the scholar. New employees, current leaders, graduate students, legislators, and boards of trustees need a grounded sense of the magnitude of the community college sector. Minding the Dream evokes the laudatory goals of the early pioneers of the community college movement, while accurately framing key programs and political conundrums challenging community colleges. Minding the Dream celebrates community colleges’ successes and is scrupulously honest about their failings. Community college leaders need honest information about what’s working and need to be challenged about the things that are not. State Legislatures and Congress need updated facts to assist them in making wise funding decisions regarding community colleges. Community college advocates need updated information to assist them in their advocacy work, and Higher Education programs need an updated book about community colleges to use as a basic text. These are the people who can benefit from reading Minding the Dream.

This volume provides practical ways colleges can focus on the College Completion Agenda. Originally begun as an economic workforce issue for the Obama administration, the College Completion Agenda has been adopted by myriad educational institutions, public and private funders, and others. The identified “Big Goal” is to increase the proportion of Americans with high quality college degrees and credentials from 39% of the population to 60% by 2025. To date, much advice has been offered to colleges about what the issues are and what needs to be done. However, there is considerable work being done at colleges around the country to address the identified issues. This volume introduces some of these policies and practices—the thinking behind them, research supporting them, roles to be fulfilled, and impact on the student experience This is the 164th volume of this Jossey-Bass higher education quarterly report series, an essential guide for presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, this quarterly provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.

Since their inception, America’s community colleges have undergone continuous change. They must, because their mission is to provide learning vital for those who face local as well as global transformations, and that requires vigilant, vigorous commitment. This volume contains insights from men and women who have led the thinking and practice in these colleges to current historical heights. They were asked to forecast solutions to today's most critical problems as well as to identify opportunities that will likely engage tomorrow's community college leaders. In addition, a prevailing university authority was asked to review the support system traditionally relied upon to provide expertise to faculty and administrators. "Presidents and Analysts Discuss Contemporary Issues" collects decades of experience from extraordinary leaders and places that wisdom in readers' hands. This is the 156th volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.

Can the U.S. keep its dominant economic position in the world economy with only 30% of its population holding bachelor’s degrees? If the majority of U.S. citizens lack a higher education, can the U.S. live up to its democratic principles and preserve its political institutions? These questions raise the critical issue of access to higher education, central to which are America’s open-access, low-cost community colleges that enroll around half of all first-time freshmen in the U.S. Can these institutions bridge the gap, and how might they do so? The answer is complicated by multiple missions—gateways to 4-year colleges, providers of occupational education, community services, and workforce development, as well as of basic skills instruction and remediation.To enable today’s administrators and policy makers to understand and contextualize the complexity of the present, this history describes and analyzes the ideological, social, and political motives that led to the creation of community colleges, and that have shaped their subsequent development. In doing so, it fills a large void in our knowledge of these institutions.The “junior college,” later renamed the “community college” in the 1960s and 1970s, was originally designed to limit access to higher education in the name of social efficiency. Subsequently leaders and communities tried to refashion this institution into a tool for increased social mobility, community organization, and regional economic development. Thus, community colleges were born of contradictions, and continue to be an enigma. This history examines the institutionalization process of the community college in the United States, casting light on how this educational institution was formed, for what purposes, and how has it evolved. It uncovers the historically conditioned rules, procedures, rituals, and ideas that ordered and defined the particular educational structure of these colleges; and focuses on the individuals, organizations, ideas, and the larger political economy that contributed to defining the community college’s educational missions, and have enabled or constrained this institution from enacting those missions. He also sets the history in the context of the contemporary debates about access and effectiveness, and traces how these colleges have responded to calls for accountability from the 1970s to the present.Community colleges hold immense promise if they can overcome their historical legacy and be re-institutionalized with unified missions, clear goals of educational success, and adequate financial resources. This book presents the history in all its complexity so that policy makers and practitioners might better understand the constraints of the past in an effort to realize the possibilities of the future.