At technical colleges and secondary-level tech schools, students enrolled in basic electronics labs who have learned about diodes that do rectification are used to seeing power diodes like the 1N4001. When the students are introduced to low-power zener diodes and signal diodes, component identification gets more complex. If the small zeners are…

The Tennessee Technology Center system has become something of a darling among college-completion advocates. Comprising 27 locations across the state, the system boasts graduation and job-placement rates that many colleges only dream of: 75 percent and 83 percent, respectively. Such achievements are even more noteworthy given the population the…

In this article, Gwen Taylor describes the West Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC) groundbreaking program, "Accelerating Opportunity" (AO), which targeted students who are deficient in math, reading, or writing. The program uses the Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges' (2013) Integrated Basic…

With the retirement of baby boomers (born 1946-1964) looming, considerable discussion and research has been conducted into succession planning and the educational impact from the loss of these leadership skills and experiences in community colleges. To prepare for this eventuality, many community colleges have begun Grow-Your-Own (GYO) leadership…

In 2004, Central Community College (CCC) established the Mechatronics Education Center (MEC), a regional center of excellence, to help the state address the shortage of skilled technicians in the area of industrial automation. The MEC addresses the needs of the current and future workforce through the implementation of its three main components:…

In this article we present an overview of a recently launched cohort-based Ed.D. program that prepares participants to conduct group dissertations. The program, a hybrid model of online learning activities and monthly face-to-face class sessions, is delivered through a partnership between a university's college of education and the administrative…

Baltimore City Community College (BCCC) leveraged heightened student interest and enrollment in the sciences and allied health with Maryland's world-leading biotechnology industry to build a community college life sciences learning and research center right on the University of Maryland, Baltimore's downtown BioPark campus. The BCCC Life Sciences…

As part of its Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) reaffirmation process, Caldwell Community College (CCC) and Technical Institute's (TI) Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), entitled "Enhancing Writing--Write On!" demonstrates the need to improve student writing through multifaceted interventions. The goals of CCC's and TI's…

Apprenticeship Carolina[TM] is a new division of the South Carolina Technical College System that has increased employer use of registered apprenticeship by 123% since July 2007. The initiative's success spans multiple industry clusters and is built through statewide collaborations that include public-private, state-local, and state-federal…

When Western Wisconsin Technical College created the Health Benefits Improvement Team, they had no experience with the complexity and ever-changing demands of health care and its associated costs. See how they've embraced their mission and are changing the way business is done in their community.

This chapter describes a "grow-your-own" leader development program that emphasizes cross-disciplinary, multisector programs and activities that reinforce the community-building role of rural community, junior, and technical colleges.

Parkland College continues to move ahead with an innovative and diversified curriculum while laying valuable groundwork for future success in the neighboring high school classrooms by providing the option of dual credit programs. In 1963, the boards of education for both the cities of Champaign and Urbana, Illinois, began discussing the…

Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a unique technological institute comprised of eight colleges, including the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. At the institute, deaf students and deaf culture intermingle (not always seamlessly) with students from other nations, states, and cities. Like most other universities, its students are…

Reviews the benefits and problems encountered by the Wisconsin Vocational, Technical and Adult Education system in its use of telecourses for vocational-technical education. Notes challenges such as laboratory requirements, instructor-student contact, staff resistance, and confusion over instructor role. Considers ways these challenges have been…

Presents a model program of career development characterized by: (1) information for prospective students; (2) orientation before and at the time of college entry; (3) development of student assessment profiles; and (4) coordinated academic and work-based curricula. Includes steps for program implementation. Journal available from: Association of…