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Community College Professions

Decent Essays

For the past quarter century I have been one of those policy wonks trying to figure out how to judge whether a college is doing a good job. People who work at colleges, especially the faculty, tend to be annoyed by those of us who ask about effectiveness, because it seems like it should be obvious. The instructors have earned their bona fides in their disciplines. They have succeeded in attracting students. What more do I need to know?

Nowhere are the instructors more annoyed by the question than at community colleges, which tend to enroll the neediest of populations with the fewest resources. And I understand why: It seems almost insulting to ask them for an explanation of purpose, like asking a nun at an orphanage for a mission statement. But it is precisely because the needs are so great, and the resources …show more content…

It has a choice. Why does the community college do what it does? Why does it continue to do this year what it did last year? What evidence does it consider in making its …show more content…

What informs the decisions trustees make? What public purposes guide the president, faculty and staff in their daily activities? How would the trustees and the public know that the institution’s resources are strategically arrayed to achieve the goals? Colleges and faculty can too easily be accused of being knee-jerk protectors of the status quo. A robust, shared, operating vision for the college helps to make clear how the public interest, not personal interests, determine the steps that the college

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