In 2015, Tennessee community colleges initiated a wave of national reform that reimagined academic support and accelerated student success. Through innovations in the delivery of targeted learning support, such as the corequisite support model, students are more likely to achieve key milestones of success in their first year of college. Now, after…

This study researched the effective practices that should be utilized when evaluating faculty. In addition to how faculty are evaluated, the study looked at how faculty evaluations are connected to faculty development for improvement opportunities. This study focused on the 15 Iowa community colleges. Each community college was asked to provide…

Community college students face a number of life and academic challenges. It is unknown what counseling models are currently employed by community colleges to meet their students' many needs. Representatives of Florida's 28 community colleges completed a survey detailing their counseling model, student populations, rationale behind the model…

For colleges seeking to improve student outcomes, new technologies often appear to hold the promise of transformative change. Across the country, colleges are using technological tools to enhance reform efforts related to how they teach, how they provide supports to students, and how they guide students through programs of study. In order for…

Critical thinking is an important outcome of a college education. Assessment techniques that require students to demonstrate their understanding of course concepts are referred to as authentic assessment and promote the development of critical thinking. Little research exists on the types of assessment and grading practices utilized by community…

This article examines measures of student success, with a focus on how they apply to community colleges. A conceptual framework is presented as a way of facilitating thinking about and accurately grounding discussions of student success. The article closes with an examination of emerging concepts related to the measurement of student success in…

Discusses President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act and addresses the flaws of the program. Addresses the program's focus on student assessments, relationship between assessment and accountability, and mandated assessments for public school. Also discusses how the program does not affect private and religious schools. (MZ)

Documenting student outcomes is a priority for higher education institutions. Federally-mandated graduation rates are often used as the sole measure of student success. However, this measure fails to document outcomes for students with multiple educational objectives and career paths. Driven by this challenge, the City Colleges of Chicago…

"Building Institutional Capacity for Data-Informed Decision Making" is the third installment of the Cutting Edge series, which aims to help colleges engage faculty, scale successful interventions, and create a strong culture of evidence through use of data to strengthen their institutional change and student success efforts. Though the…

Staff development activities that affect professional ability must be coupled with efforts toward organizational development if two additional determinants of performance, employee motivation and organizational climate, are to be significantly improved. Indeed, emphasis on staff development alone may have negative effects in that such an approach…

This document provides the official practices for faculty evaluation at Central Oregon Community College. Presented in outline format, it begins with the components for evaluation, which are discussed in greater detail later in the text. It then identifies the categories for evaluation: performance in primary assignment, professional improvement,…

Gilbert (1978) developed a Potential for Improving Performance (PIP) formula based on worth, value, and cost. Worth related the value of a performance to its cost. The PIP related the worth of exemplary performance to the worth of average performance. This offered an opportunity for improvement by making appropriate changes through training or…

In 1989, under a mandate from both the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and its own District Governing Board, Arizona Western College (AWC) began developing an institution-wide employee appraisal plan. A 12-member faculty task force, selected to represent a cross-section of the teaching population, was charged with designing the…

The implementation of a performance review system for administrators at a large community college is described. Early efforts focused on defining faculty excellence and then modifying review and promotion systems to support the definition. Using summary statements about administrator excellence, a feedback survey and a process for eliciting…

A Labor/Management Committee of the Board of Trustees of the Connecticut Community-Technical Colleges prepared the Faculty Development and Review Plan (FDRP). The FDRP was developed for use within the Connecticut Community-Technical Colleges and as a guideline by which the faculty's performance is to be rated and improved. The goals of the FDRP…