From Theory to Practice: Implementing a State-Level Comparator-Based Funding Request and Allocation Model

Recently Published Dissertations on Community and Junior Colleges

National Civic ReviewVolume 68, Issue 11 p. 605-612 Article State/local financing crises: With benefit of hindsight L. Laszlo Ecker-Racz, L. Laszlo Ecker-Racz L. Laszlo Ecker-Racz is a public finance consultant, formerly assistant director, US. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations. This article is an update of developments in state and local finance since League publication of his It's Your Business: Local and State Finance (1976), written to interest the average citizen in getting involved in finding ways to solve money issues.Search for more papers by this author L. Laszlo Ecker-Racz, L. Laszlo Ecker-Racz L. Laszlo Ecker-Racz is a public finance consultant, formerly assistant director, US. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations. This article is an update of developments in state and local finance since League publication of his It's Your Business: Local and State Finance (1976), written to interest the average citizen in getting involved in finding ways to solve money issues.Search for more papers by this author First published: December 1979 https://doi.org/10.1002/ncr.4100681104 AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume68, Issue11December 1979Pages 605-612 RelatedInformation

ABSTRACTIt is currently unknown how many Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) exist at community colleges. This study investigates the percentage of public and Tribal community colleges that have active IRBs. It also examines the potential relationships between states that allow community colleges to confer baccalaureate degrees, or that have articulation agreements, and community college IRBs. Data were drawn from the United States Department of Health and Human Services in conjunction with the American Association of Community Colleges and state department of education websites in order to create a national snapshot of active and deactivated IRBs at these institutions. It was most common for a state to have at least one IRB at public community colleges. Conversely, the majority of states with Tribal community colleges did not have IRBs. Further, while no association was found between states that allow community colleges to confer baccalaureate degrees, states with an articulation agreement were more likely to have an active IRB at their community colleges. Trends potentially unique to community college IRB implementation appeared evident, including one IRB to oversee a district or state of community colleges. Future research is needed to clarify the rationales behind these decisions. Creating an IRB is one way in which community colleges might claim a more active leadership role in being both subject and producer of scholarship in the literature.

Reviewed by: International Reform Efforts and Challenges in Community Colleges. New Directions in Community Colleges, No. 138 Patricia Somers, Associate Professor Edward J. Valeau and Rosalind Latiner Raby (Eds.). International Reform Efforts and Challenges in Community Colleges. New Directions in Community Colleges, No. 138. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007. 112 pp. Paper: $29.00. ISBN: 978-0-470-17688-7. This monograph provides a basic overview of the issues, challenges, and models involved in internationalizing community college education. The editors wrote this book to fill the post-September 11 void about information on international education reform for community colleges. However, 9/11 was a double turning point: Americans understood the need to be more globally connected yet monies were diverted to national safety and security programs rather than educational activities. Eleven chapters form the monograph, with three common threads: (a) the role of new community college leaders in providing leadership for international programs, (b) how some community colleges have embraced globalization, and (c) how international education can become a catalyst for educational revitalization in community colleges (pp. 2–3). The book is aimed at relatively novice practitioners. The first three chapters have a good, but at times redundant, general overview of internationalization in community colleges. Two interesting chapters deal with the globalization of workforce development and technical/occupational programs. Six chapters review specific details of how to internationalize. Two of these chapters discuss consortial efforts. Consortia provide key support for international programs, particularly study-abroad efforts, which need a critical mass of students to be financially viable. Other chapters present examples of on- and off-campus programs and profile international faculty in community colleges. The most useful part of the monograph is two case studies. The first is a cautionary tale about how international education programs can become politicized, especially in a localized setting such as a community college. This case included charges of "pork barrel" trips by administrators for recruiting students and administrators who are junketing on "inspection visits" to colleges abroad. The final chapter is a case study of the successful Asia-Pacific Emphasis at Kapi'olani Community College in Hawai'i. While this volume seeks to help practitioners, it also contains useful research. For example, a study of 700 community college students found that they acknowledged financial barriers to study abroad, yet family and job considerations were even more important in their decision not to study abroad. Further, one of the consortia did a pre- and post-study of intercultural sensitivity, with mixed results depending on the program location. The monograph could be very helpful to community colleges just beginning an international effort. There are some omissions, however. A more detailed description of visa issues for international students and faculty would provide a realistic understanding of the effort involved in bringing international scholars to campus. Additional case studies would be useful. One author mentions that a community college has successfully used local immigrant communities to help develop its international program; a description of this program would be interesting. Further, a case study of a successful program at a "border" college (U.S/Mexico or U.S./Canada) would provide another model for globalizing the community college. On the whole, Valeau, Raby, and associates provide good basic information on internalizing the community college. The addition of a few more case studies would make the volume outstanding. [End Page 521] Patricia Somers, Associate Professor Higher Education and Women's/Gender Studies, University of Texas at Austin, and Fulbright New Century Scholar Copyright © 2008 Association for the Study of Higher Education

This article examines faculty and administrator support for strategic planning activities at two-year and four-year colleges and universities. Drawing data from public institutions in Kentucky, a state that has pursued fundamental change in its higher educational system since 1997, the study compared faculty and administrator attitudes, and it measured the impact of five predictor variables. Administrators at both types of institutions report more support for strategic planning than do faculty. However, the data also reveal significant differences between faculty and administrators on each of the five predictor variables. The article closes with a discussion of the implications of the findings for the cultivation of support for strategic planning at both two- and four- year institutions in the context of state-driven postsecondary reform. Introduction Strategic planning is one of the most pervasive and, arguably, most important management activities in higher education at the beginning of the 21st century. Given its near ubiquity, it is surprising that little is known about the factors that define and affect successful strategic planning at colleges and universities (Cope, 1987; Kotler & Murphy, 1981; Shirley, 1988; Mintzberg, 1994). It appears particularly important that the sources of faculty and administrative support and opposition to strategic planning become better understood as institutions attempt to navigate difficult and confusing economic, political, and policy environments (Garmon, 1984; Peterson & White, 1992; Welsh & Metcalf, 2003; Rhoades, 2000). One of the factors complicating institutional strategic planning is the effort to reform state higher education systems. In 1997, the state of Kentucky embarked upon an ambitious effort to restructure its higher education system. The Kentucky Postsecondary Educational Improvement Act of 1997 (KPEIA) initiated profound changes in the coordination, governance, and financing of the public universities, community colleges, and technical colleges in the state. At the heart of postsecondary reform in Kentucky is a desire on the part of policy makers to improve the alignment of institutional behavior with state policy goals (Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, 2001). KPEIA forced the public institutions to reinvigorate their strategic planning activities by promoting greater participation and support by campus constituencies, particularly faculty and administrators (Rabuzzi, Carson, & Conklin, 2001; Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, 2001). The purpose of this article is to explore the sources of faculty and administrative support for strategic planning in a reform environment, measuring the impact of institutional type and five attitudinal variables. Drawing from the experience in Kentucky, the research attempts to address three research questions about faculty and administrative support for the implementation and development of strategic planning activities at two- and four-year institutions. First, how do faculty and administrators at two-year institutions compare with their counterparts at four-year institutions in their support for strategic planning? Second, within each type of institution, how do faculty and administrators compare in their support for strategic planning? Third, if there are differences in these two comparisons, what factors help explain them? Factors Affecting Support for Strategic Planning Research and commentary on strategic planning in higher education emphasizes three consistent themes. First, the need for strategic planning has intensified in higher education because of severe resource constraints and increased expectations for accountability from external agencies such as state governments. Anderson (2000), Crittenden and Crittenden (2000), and Mintzberg (1994) studied changing environmental conditions and conclude that all large organizations need sophisticated planning processes to optimize the attainment of organizational goals. …

This study provides a detailed description of revenue and expenditure patterns of the United States community college by state and by institutional type (rural-, suburban-serving, and urban-serving) for each five-year period from 1980-81 to 2000-01. The Katsinas, Lacey, and Hardy classification schema for community colleges is used to analyze data from the National Center for Education Statistics' Integrated Postsecondary Educational Data System (IPEDS) and Higher Education General Information Surveys (HEGIS). Further analysis clusters states into the following groupings: states with/without substantial local funding, large "mega-states" versus all other states (employing the methodology developed by Grapevine at Illinois State University), and the structure of state coordination (as developed by Tollefson and others in their studies of state community college systems). The analysis showed wide differences in the various funding patterns for community colleges as related to revenue streams. As late as 1980-91, 16 states contributed 60% or more of the total budgets for their community colleges; by 2000-01, no state did so. By college type, rural-serving community colleges saw the greatest net negative change in their operating budget margins, from 3.2% to 0.4%, although it should be noted that every one of the community college types also experienced a significant decline in this margin. By type of governance, the statewide coordinating board type experienced the sharpest decrease in the percent of total revenue from state appropriations; revenue fell 18.6%. Yet this governance type, which includes California's community colleges, was the only one to benefit from a positive change in the net margin ratio over the 20-year period covered by this study. States with local funding saw a 2.9% increase in the percent of total revenues from tuition and fees, compared to the 5.9% increase in those states that did not have some form of local funding. State-by-state analyses are included in the appendices.

According to Venezia, Kirst, and Antonio (2003) and Barth’s 2002 Thinking K16 Ticket to Nowhere report, the disconnect between K-12 and postsecondary education was a contributing factor to high attrition rates. Since mathematics emerged as a primary concern for college readiness, Barth (2002) called for improving student transitions from K-12 to postsecondary institutions through the use of state or local data. The purpose of the present study was to analyze mathematics course-taking patterns of secondary students in a local context and to evaluate high school characteristics in order to explore their relationships with Associate degree attainment or continuous enrollment at an urban community college. Also, this study extended a national study conducted by Clifford Adelman (The Toolbox Revisited, 2006) as it specifically focused on community college students that were not included his study. Furthermore, this study used the theoretical framework that human capital, social capital, and cultural capital influence habitus - an individual’s or a group’s learned inclination to behave within the parameters of the imposed prevailing culture and norms. Specifically, the school embedded culture as it relates to tracking worked as a reproduction tool of ultimate benefit for the privileged group (Oakes, 1994). Using multilevel analysis, this ex post facto study examined non-causal relationships between math course-taking patterns and college persistence of public high school graduates who enrolled at the local community college for up to 6 years. One school-level variable (percent of racial/ethnic minorities) and 7 student-level variables (community college math proportion, remedial math attempts, race, gender, first-year credits earned, socioeconomic status, and summer credits earned) emerged as predictors for college persistence. Study results indicated that students who enter higher education at the community college may have had lower opportunities to learn and therefore needed higher levels of remediation, which was shown to detract students from degree completion. Community college leaders are called to partner with local high schools with high percentages of racial/ethnic minorities to design academic programs aimed at improving the academic preparation of high school students in mathematics and promote student engagement during the first year and summers of college.

Studies in state and local public finance

Help wanted: Preparing community college leaders in a new century (New Directions for Community Colleges Series, no. 123) by William E. Piland and David B. Wolf. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2003. 114 pages. ISBN 0194-3081. Reviewed by Leila Gonzalez Sullivan.In response to a nationwide sense of crisis in community college leadership, authors William Piland and David Wolf have called upon noted current leaders in the field to describe the causes of this crisis, to examine the ways leaders have traditionally been prepared, and to suggest other means for creating new leaders to guide these institutions effectively in the face of dramatically different conditions and challenges.Chapter 1, Leadership Blues, outlines the dimensions of the problem. Those who are brave enough to take on a presidency frequently find their good work blocked by political machinations, legislative intrusions, and fiscal disasters, as well as suffering capricious cruelty (p. 6) and politics of personal destruction (p. 8), according to authors James March and Stephen Weiner. Listing a series of cases that ended or nearly ended a presidency, they note that campus culture and a lack of civility often contribute to a leader's downfall. And once employees lose confidence in the leader or the emotions surrounding an issue rise to an intolerable level, there is little hope of rescuing the presidency or restoring good relations. To avoid what the authors refer to as poisonous (p. 13), leaders should take every opportunity to build trust, to encourage civility, to develop conflict management mechanisms, and to emphasize continually that the community college is a social system in which all members are working toward a shared vision of student learning. This chapter speaks eloquently to the realities of presidential leadership in higher education these days; however, some readers may find the content discouraging enough to set aside the book and perhaps even their aspirations to leadership. This chapter might have served the purpose just as well at a later point in the book.In Chapter 2, Leadership Context for the Twenty-First Century, George Boggs, president and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges, summarizes research conducted by AACC which sounded the alarm regarding the growing leadership vacuum. Not only are nearly half of the current community college presidents planning to retire in the next five years, but their potential successors, upper level administrators, also expect to retire in even greater numbers. Yet community colleges will continue to be in the forefront of higher education as the primary providers of career preparation and lifelong learning, and the rewards of leading these institutions far outweigh the challenges ahead. Looking at the coming leadership turnover as an opportunity for new energy and greater diversity, the AACC board and its staff have identified essential skills and qualities of leaders, have established a web-based resource list of degree and professional development programs, and have begun to offer training for aspiring new leaders. Although little of this material is new or unknown, the chapter does set the stage for much of what follows in the text.Joanne Cooper and Louise Pagotto, the authors of Chapter 3, Developing Community College Faculty as Leaders, base their discussion in a literature review and see a pool of potential leaders already on campuses-the faculty. However, many faculty members are reluctant to step forward, preferring to wait until they receive a clear invitation to move into administrative leadership roles. Still others refuse the invitation entirely. Whatever the means by which faculty are drawn into administration, they generally have little preparation, formal or informal, for their new roles, and they may be apprehensive about making the move because their teacher colleagues will see them as having sold out (p. 30). To make the transition from teaching to administration easier, there must be formal training either through degrees or through workshops such as the model programs in Hawaii that are outlined in the chapter. …

The relations between access, diversity and participation - searching for the weakest link?, J. Huisman, et al access to university in Australia - who misses out?, I. Dobson higher education in a divided society - Northern Ireland, B. Osborne, T. Gallagher educational exclusion and inclusion in higher education in South Africa - creating a new national framework/consensus, Y. Sayed managing to exclude? manager-academic and staff communities in contemporary UK universities, R. Deem student financial support in higher education - access and exclusion, C. Callender the prejudicial papers? press treatment of UK higher education performance indicators, 1999-2001, M. Yorke qualitative difference in university teaching, K. Trigwell, M. Prosser a disciplinary perspective on university teaching and learning, R. Neumann naming academic knowledge - what is included within the university?, M. Tight.

Online education is the fastest growing form of course delivery of higher education in the United States. It has revolutionized how students and instructors interact in the educational process. Yet students in online courses continue to experience higher attrition rates than their counterparts in traditional face-to-face classes despite the advantages offered by the technology. This study examined the impact that institutional policies and practices at community colleges in the state of Texas have had on student persistence in online courses. It also examined how institutions collect and use data in addressing students' attrition. The findings were used to identify the most effective institutional practices to share with community college systems in Texas in an effort to improve student persistence in online courses across the state. The population for the study consisted of the 50 public two-year community college and the technical college systems in the state of Texas. The study used a mixed method. A theoretical model of institutional impact on online persistence was drawn from the literature review. This model's five categories were then used to construct a survey to collect data on institutional practices and measure the effectiveness in addressing student persistence. Four college systems were identified using the survey data that best met the five categories. Interviews were then conducted at these four college systems to produce case studies of these institutions' practices and experiences with online persistence. The results highlighted the roles that institutions play in promoting student persistence in online programs. They revealed differences in the ways institutions define and track student success in online programs and the difficulty these differences pose in comparatively evaluating various institutions' programs. Results lent support to the theoretical model of institutional impact on online persistence that was developed for this study, and results yielded a proposed list of promising practices to enhance student persistence in online programs in public two-year community and technical colleges.

Administrative careers in higher education have typically been examined from an individual orientation, placing attention on the demographics and background characteristics of those holding a particular office. This study follows the structural perspective, examining the sequence of positions held by individuals who currently occupy the position of chief academic officer (CAO) in public community colleges. Six, three-sequence career lines are identified, representing the experiences of 43.9% of the sample. In addition, a faculty position emerges as the most common entry port to the career lines and the community college labor market.

In this study, the organizational intelligence model (OI model) was used as a theoretical framework to explore strategic factors (leadership, strategy, and culture) and several hypothesized variables that influence employee engagement as a proxy for improving individual and institutional effectiveness (Falletta & Combs, 2018). A single case study design and instrumental approach were used to explore 11 variables depicted in this model, with eight AB Community College (ABCC) leaders to conceptualize and refine the variable descriptions in the OI model. More importantly, this study presents preliminary results and support for the OI model's validity and applicability for ABCC. This case study explored three research questions: (a) What models, frameworks, or tools do community college leaders use to assess institutional dynamics, effectiveness, and change? (b) How do community college leaders characterize the factors and variables depicted in the OI model, and which factors are considered the most critical or challenging in the AB Community College environment? (c) How important is the emerging and evolving concept of employee engagement for community colleges? These questions were designed based on three streams of research that framed the exploration of the research questions. The first stream reviewed the implications of strategic factors (i.e., the relationship between leadership, strategy, and culture). The second stream considered the effects of employee engagement and its antecedents (i.e., drivers), and the third stream focused on institutional effectiveness and change. The results of this study indicated that a variety of tools are used but student success metrics-particularly retention and graduation rates-were the most important effectiveness and change indicators. Leadership was regarded as another important factor, and culture was described as dependent on leadership influence. Strategy was also described as dependent on leadership decisions regarding underlying principles and collaborative practices. Optimal leadership was described in a manner consistent with the transformational leadership model, particularly in relation to setting and presenting a clear vision and goals, empowering employees, and leading by example. Employee engagement was regarded as critical because of its influence on student success. However, the meaning of employee engagement as a multi-dimensional concept in the context of human resource and talent management was not fully understood by participants. Keywords: organizational intelligence model, leadership, strategy, culture, climate, employee engagement, organizational change, institutional effectiveness

Globalizing the Community College: Strategies for Change in the Twenty-First Century by John S. Levin. Palgrave, New York, NY. 2001, 248 pages. $35, hardcover, ISBN 0-312-23906-8. Reviewed by Paula Zeszotarski. In his comparison of seven case studies from two nations, John S. Levin provides a revealing portrait of the community college as a late twentieth-century organization. Levin accurately depicts some of the key influences on contemporary higher education through the lens of globalization theory. By focusing on the descriptive rather than the predictive, Levin improves on many theoretical discussions of globalization. However, the author could have made a further contribution to globalization theory by demonstrating how his evidence challenges certain central beliefs about globalization. The purpose of Levin's study is to demonstrate the effect of certain external forces on internal changes in community colleges. Levin asserts that globalization is chief among these forces in the late 1990s. For Levin, globalization is multidimensional. While the global economy played a dominant role in institutional behaviors and actions, other global flows such as culture and information technology affected institutions (p.xviii). To this end, Levin studied a total of seven colleges in the United States and Canada. Beginning in April 1996, Levin conducted formal and informal interviews with students, faculty, and staff; observed institutional activities; and analyzed governmental and institutional documents. Levin devotes one chapter of analysis to each of the four, interrelated domains: economic, cultural, information, and political. Drawing on the literature of the effect of globalization on higher education, Levin identifies behaviors associated with the impact of globalization on higher education and examines them within the context of the four domains. These behaviors were not present in all organizations studied, nor were they unilaterally observable in any one organization. The result of this study is an accurate and insightful portrait of contemporary community colleges. The changing role of the state was the primary influence on community college behavior in the economic domain. Most colleges experienced a decrease in state funding and the loss of their primary economic support sent colleges scrambling to do more with less and to seek other (private) sources of revenue. At the same time, states actively promoted productivity, often through establishing performance measures. College responses were characterized by internationalization, marketization, productivity and efficiency, restructuring, and commodification. Marketization and internationalization (see below) occurred partially as a result of decreased state support. Colleges sought new sources of revenue from contract training partnerships with local and foreign businesses and governments, increasing tuition fees for local students and admitting more international students, and donations from the private sector. Marketization meant curricular changes in the form of a new focus on vocational programs. Productivity and efficiency became the buzz words of education in the last decades of the twentieth century. Individual colleges responded to this external pressure differently. Some expanded course offerings in high demand areas and other systematized program reviews that resulted in program revision or reduction. Most colleges became more reliant on part-time faculty, a trend that was widespread throughout American community colleges at the time. A related behavior, organizational restructuring, was motivated by financial, personnel, and cultural considerations. Financially, colleges responded to revenue shortfalls by laying off workers and downsizing operations. Personnel changes came as a result of reclassification of employees and the use of team instead of autonomous structures for faculty. In response to this new economic environment, commodification of programs was demonstrated by the marketing of special programs such as distance and international education and the infusion of marketable skills into traditional education. …

The author describes the process for developing a new Community College Leadership (CCL) curriculum for a certificate, master's, and doctoral degree in adult and higher education. The article details the research strategy in learning about Oklahoma's community colleges, existing national community college leadership programs, relevant courses needed for a leadership emphasis, and the desired methods to deliver such courses. The author describes the additional steps undertaken to create a relationship with Oklahoma's community colleges and their leaders. A qualitative study was conducted to learn from the community college presidents what challenges, knowledge, and skills future leaders needed to possess. The overarching theme that emerged from the study was the political nature of community colleges and leadership. This political theme placed all other themes secondary to the necessity of leaders being cognizant and skilled at being political beings. Even the theme of inadequate funding was linked to politics. The article concludes with detailed information on the new curriculum and future research and practical application.