Editor's choice: the significant community college

Community College Review, Fall, 2005 by Randall J. VanWagoner, Linda S. Bowman, Laurence D. Spraggs

The level of success that has sustained community colleges in the past will not suffice for the future, Shifting environments, resources, competitors, accountability, and technology have changed the measures of organizational performance. This article provides a new framework and defines a new set of critical measures that will move community colleges from success to significance.

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American community colleges face a future marked by contrasts. Demand for services is increasing. Support from communities is strong. Business and industry leaders are increasingly turning to community colleges as their workforce providers. Large foundations are increasing their support. Projections for further growth challenge the projections for future resources. But demands for accountability continue to accelerate. And while as community college professionals we pride ourselves on being more responsive and more nimble than our four-year brethren and while we brag about our role as the gateway to opportunity for the underserved and underrepresented, we have to face the fact that our job is more challenging than ever. Graduation and retention rates are largely unimproved. The aging baby boomers and dynamic demographics of our communities are increasing the pressure on our models for workforce development. Our K-12 partners are struggling to address the new challenges of less prepared students and more transient families. In this complex environment, Barr and Tagg's (1995) Change article provided a direction during the past decade as community colleges engaged in the learning paradigm, a shift from faculty-to learner-centeredness. Community colleges are now more respected, better understood, and better positioned than at any other time in their history. But our challenges have risen with our status, and we must now impose a new paradigm upon ourselves.

In her book, Hesselbein on Leadership (2000), Frances Hesselbein, former CEO of the Girl Scouts, encourages leaders to move their institutions to a level of significance, making an impact on their communities at a more fundamental level. Similarly, community colleges must move beyond traditional measures of learning to increasingly successful outcomes for all students. We must move from being community partners to being community decision-makers. We must move beyond parochial budget management to leveraging all community resources collaboratively. Rather than simply responding to calls for accountability, we must collect and use data that will help improve institutional performance and lead to greater understanding of our role and accomplishments. Partnerships, which have been our hallmark, must move to strategic alliances that not only respond to community needs but actually create the future. We can no longer settle for being wired technologically but must utilize technology to bridge the digital divide for our students and create the 21st century workforce. Our focus and efforts must drive our institutions to a place where the organizational climate and culture propel community colleges toward significance. And we must move beyond the generally positive feelings we enjoy to quantifiable support and allegiance from our many constituencies.

To a Significant Focus on Learning

Across the United States, college participation is increasing, with notable gains in the community college sector. Community colleges are a choice for students who want a personalized college experience--challenging but nurturing--regardless of their long-term academic goals. Community colleges are also a choice for students with degrees who are seeking more marketable skills. Increasingly, younger, more traditional-age students are choosing community colleges, or "reverse-transferring," following a failed or disappointing university experience. Students turn to community colleges for basic skills brush-up or new skills acquisition. Across the broad spectrum of the community college mission, students are arriving on our campuses in greater numbers--a measure of our increasing success.

But how do we measure significance? The greater numbers arriving on our campuses also have greater needs. The students who start behind too often stay behind. In the significant community college, the number of students passing through the "in" door is not the important success measure--the number persisting to the graduation-transfer-employment door is of the greatest importance.

Our graduation rates are not acceptable, much as we try to explain them away by talking about the complexities of community college student intent. Community colleges serve as the gateway to higher education for minorities, students of color, and first-generation college students. We have been successful in attracting them into our institutions. Nevertheless, the graduation rates for these students lag behind those of the dominant culture, whose rates are also inadequate. Significant community colleges must attract and retain students. A significant community college is a college of choice for the underrepresented and underprepared as well as for a cross-section of talented, focused, prepared, and resourced people. Across this broad spectrum, the significant community college produces results. Community colleges must achieve significant results in student success. We know that choosing the right "entry portal" into higher education is a critical decision for students. We must demonstrate that we are the right decision for a broad group of students with differing needs.