Different racial/ethnic groups often perceive the realities of the campus environment differently: This difference in perspective and the attendant reactions can be a factor in student satisfaction or dissatisfaction. A quantitative survey administered in 1996 and 1999 revealed that African-American students on the campus of a diverse two-year community college...
Research into community college governance has in the past centered on the formal aspects of decision-making of these institutions. These past studies often ignore the informal governance practices and policies that operate within all organizations. Staff perceptions of community
college governance have not been studied and possible disjunction between formal...
Strategic planning is a frequently used method for defining appropriate institutional responses to changing internal and external conditions. Numerous efforts have been made to adopt strategic planning styles that were originally developed in manufacturing businesses to the purposes of higher education. Despite theses efforts, community colleges have not yet developed...
The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe and communicate a student-constructed model of student services for electronic distance education (EDE). This study seeks to answer the following questions: Do students enrolled in EDE perceive a need for student services? If not, why not? Which services do students want/need?...
The purpose of this study was to: (a) determine the design features of the physical learning environment that support and enhance collaborative, project-based learning at the community college level; and (b) to gain an understanding of the rationale for the selection of the features. The characteristics of the physical environment...
Low completion rates have created serious "leakage points" (Astin, 1988) and "severe hemorrhaging" (Lango, 1996) in higher education to a large number of Hispanics. Traditional research on college persistence, which has blamed the students' culture for low performance, is inaccurate. Little research has specifically investigated academic persistence from a cultural...
This is a study of the process of collaboration between a community college and selected social service agencies for the purpose of developing an integrative social service and education delivery system, the One-Stop Center. Particular focus is on the interpersonal dynamics among the key stakeholders involved in a collaborative partnership....
Employers often lament that many American workers are not qualified for present and future jobs due to changing skills requirements and deficiencies of schools. In 1991, the Secretary of Labor's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) report recommended educators use work sites to help students achieve foundation skills and workplace...
The purpose of this study is to identify the internal support systems that contributed to the success of community college faculty teaching in a distance education setting. How do those faculty who are perceived as being successful in this setting attain such stature? What are the contributing factors? If contributing...
The purpose of this study is to describe the factors and issues surrounding development of one community college baccalaureate degree program, the three-year Bachelor of Manufacturing Technology at Westark College in Arkansas. This study probes three primary movements at play in the Westark baccalaureate program, which was developed to respond...
This ethnography describes a learning context where transformational learning routinely creates an emancipatory experience. It identifies those elements that increase understanding of transformative process-describing how the context that contains and supports this learning is constructed and a perspective transformation is sparked by group synergy. It names three transformational learning outcomes:...
The purpose of this study was to examine how faculty curriculum committees from different disciplines moved through a major curriculum change process from content-focused curriculum to outcomes-based curriculum. Data was gathered through direct observations, committee member interviews, a questionnaire, and the Gregorc Style Delineator from four curriculum committees representing different...
The study established how community college leaders establish connections
with other community leaders. Connections that form broad and inclusive networks
can be used to develop positive social capital in communities. Results showed that
new community college leaders follow a pattern of community engagement
including the identification of other leaders, making...
This qualitative study explores the experiences of women who are welfare
recipients attending a community college under the auspices of a new program,
Washington State's WorkFirst/Work Study program. The study, conducted over
two academic quarters, includes in-depth interviews with WorkFirst/Work Study
students, observations in a weekly seminar, and interviews with...
Critics of higher education urge educators to transform their institutions so as to align them with the needs of the twenty-first-century learner. However, colleges desiring to survive in a rapidly changing external environment often discover they must first find a way to make
fundamental changes in their institutional culture. Some...
This study documents thick-description single-source data from the life and experiences of a Native American / Native Canadian language worker. The worker, raised and educated in the United States, was separated from his ancestral village until his thirties. The worker, with a Masters degree in education from Oregon State University,...
The purpose of this study was to describe the presidential search process at a
newly created community college and to learn how that process reflected the
emerging organizational culture. A single research question guided the inquiry: How
did the presidential search process at a newly created community college reflect the...
This study presented an in-depth exploration of international student perceptions of a coordinated studies program (CSP) at Seattle Central Community College. In conducting this research project, a phenomenological research methodology was used. Qualitative data were collected through participant observations, focus group, document review and individual in-depth interviews with nine students....
Community colleges are in a strategic position to meet the growing demands for educating a population that is in a dynamic state of change, a population that is becoming more diverse with each passing year. A diverse population and other critical issues have created a new challenge for community colleges....
This study describes the historical development of the Associate Degree Nursing Program at Portland Community College by women faculty leaders in a male-dominated organization. In-depth interviews of eleven participants were transcribed and analyzed. The participants gave a very rich description of this nursing programthus describing its culture. Six themes were...
The era of "customer satisfaction" brings students to colleges who are increasingly identifying themselves as customers. Competition among a growing number of institutions and learning organizations is sharpening the desire of institutions to deliver high quality service in order to attract and retain students. Some examples of interactions where service...
This study compared recidivism rates of adult male completers and non-completers
of correctional education programs in ABE/GED/high school, vocational, and
college transfer programs over a five-year period. A total of 1382 releasees was
studied for the five years following their release. Recidivism was the dependent
variable. Recidivism was defined as...
The purpose of this study was to discern unpredicted, non-linear patterns that may emerge in complex instructional systems design projects. A secondary purpose was to determine how existing models could be redesigned to accommodate emerging factors. The following questions focused the inquiry:
1. In what ways does the actual ISD...
The purpose of this study was to produce data and information that inform California
Community College decision-makers of: (a) extent of variance in California's associate
degree definitions and graduation requirements, and (b) perceptions of curricular leaders
regarding the variances. Associate degree definitions and graduation requirements were
compiled and analyzed from...
Time is the educational resource educators most desire, but which is
in shortest supply. Educators cannot add more days to the 12-month
calendar year, or minutes to the day. Whatever control is to be had over the
calendar and clock rests in the way time is managed by those in...
In education today, there is a growing sense of urgency to build the capacity of
educators, parents, and community members to work together to solve the complex issues
facing schools. The central purpose of this study was to explore how one elementary school
site council learned and adopted a set...
The purpose of this research was to examine the
effects of a co-curricular program on the behavior of
seriously emotionally disturbed (SED) middle school
students. Co-curricular activities are any school-based activities that give students an opportunity to
blend the various aspects of their academic learning
with personal actions.
This was...
The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of participants involved
in one community college's strategic planning process in which faculty, administrators, and
staff at all levels of the organization were encouraged to participate. Data were collected
through direct observation, focus group interviews, analysis of institutional documents, and...
Persistence has been identified as an issue at all levels of higher education,
and numerous strategies have been attempted to stem the flow of students who leave
an institution before completing their programs of study. Persistence research
abounds at the community college, four-year college and university levels, but little
research...
This study documents three cases of protracted conflict in an
institution of higher education. Work groups in conflict were studied for
one year in order to create cases and to describe factors influencing
conflict escalation. From these cases, autistic conflict as a descriptive
construct was developed to illustrate one phase...
In 1990, the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges moved to an
accreditation model based on outcomes, their assessment and deliberative attempts at
institutional change and improvement. No study existed in northwest community colleges
which identified the systematic application of effectiveness indicators for institutional
change and improvement. This study was...
This study was conducted to develop a holistic understanding of distance education by identifying factors and patterns of factors that foster or impede distance education. The Washington State Community and Technical College System provided the context for the investigation of four primary questions: 1. What is the community and technical...
This qualitative study was designed to identify factors
that might affect the psychological and educational wellness
of nontraditional students in nontraditional graduate
programs in Education.
Specifically, informants were selected purposefully
from three Oregon State University extended-campus graduate
programs in Education. Student informants were working
professionals with family obligations. Faculty informants...
Community colleges serve the most diverse student populations in higher education. They consist of non-traditional, part-time, older, intermittent, and mobile students of different races, ethnic backgrounds, language preferences, physical and mental abilities, and learning style preferences. Students who are academically challenged may have diverse learning characteristics that are not compatible...
This study investigated the impact of team-teaching in coordinated-studies programs
(CSPs) on community college faculty in three instructional development domains: personal,
social, and professional. Grounded in a social-constructivist theoretical framework, this
research examined whether development occurs best experientially, in collaborative
communities of knowledgeable peers. CSPs are team-taught interdisciplinary, problem-solving
enterprises...
Contextual teaching is emerging as an important concept in education reform
efforts. This field study attempts to clarify the concept of contextual teaching by defining
and identifying characteristics found in the research literature, experienced teacher
observations and practices, and students' views of contextual teaching.
The foundation for this field study...
This case study describes and analyzes the experiences of Mt. Hood Community
College (MHCC) in its implementation of four retention interventions. Each of the four
interventions are described in detail. Discussion is framed within the context that retention
is a by-product of institutional renewal brought about by implementing interventions that...
Using qualitative methodology and a case study format, this study examines from the inside-out the organizational impact of significant change in leadership at a mature community college during the initial period of that change. The study describes and characterizes the nature of change in the organization during the periods of...
This study examined the utilization of selected student services by domestic and
foreign students in their sophomore, junior, or senior year at Oregon State University during
Winter 1994 to find out if differences in awareness, usage, and satisfaction existed between
them. It also examined if differences in awareness, usage, and...
This study documented the history of the development and practice of the
kinlein associate. Consumer dissatisfaction with health care, nursing unrest, and
increased demand for long-term care-givers were the antecedents for a paradigm shift
to "caring with" persons based upon the theory of esca developed by
M. Lucille Kinlein. Interested...
This case study of leadership in crisis at Meadow View
Community College (fictitious name) was undertaken to add to
the practical and theoretical knowledge and understanding of
presidential leadership issues that actually occur in
American community colleges. The college under study
one of nearly one-third of the community colleges in...
This study is a review of the researcher's deliberate strategies for
incorporating Latino culture into the teaching of a Spanish language course.
The researcher developed, presented and assessed a curriculum unit
designed to examine the social and educational problems of Latinos, the history
of Latin America, the effects of discrimination...
This qualitative study examined organizational change including the
necessary steps that a large school district took in planning and implementing a
reform effort. This project told a story of one school district's experience.
The study covered a five year period from 1990 to 1995 in the 30,000 student
Salem-Keizer School...
Community service organizations, community college apprenticeships
and organized labor have been working together to address the barriers to
successful completion of apprenticeships. The barriers have been especially
daunting for women and people of color. The Trades Mentor Network (TMN)
grew out of a need to address this issue and to...
My study explores the impact of participation in a faculty teaching and learning community (TLC) on the professional development of community college faculty. I address the problem that, in spite of the growth of faculty development activity in the community college during the past decade, how faculty development occurs is...
There is a need for a simple tool to assess the learner's match to
distance delivery methods such as telecourse and modem classes. The
concept of a prediction instrument is a practical approach to identifying
the at-risk student in the distance delivery environment.
The purpose of this study was to...
The purpose of this study was to describe the transitions, support, and current
activities of students who completed baccalaureate degrees after completing
community college non-transfer degrees. The population was limited to students who
earned an associate degree of Applied Science, Science, or General Studies from
Oregon community colleges, and who...
School administrators are required by law to report suspected cases
of child abuse. They create serious legal and moral consequences for their
school districts when they fail to report suspicions of child abuse occurring
in the school setting. Studies consistently find that child sexual abuse is
under-reported and that allegations...