Khan offers self-paced, online remedial help

Self-paced online courses backed by data analytics could help community colleges get students up to speed, said Khan Academy founder Salman Khan at the San Francisco convention of the American Association of Community Colleges. “About six million people around the world watch Khan’s free online tutorials each month, writes Paul Fain on Inside Higher Ed.

Khan thinks his nonprofit website can help community colleges, which he said are in the academy’s “sweet spot.” And he views community colleges as potential allies rather than competition.

“We’d love to work with any of you,” said Khan, apparently broaching the suggestion for the first time.

Free online courseware could help remedial students advance at their own pace, Khan said.

AACC leaders talked with Khan about collaborations, said Walter G. Bumphus, the association’s president. “It’s going to be good for community colleges and good for AACC,” Bumphus said.

Many conference sessions focused on using online courses — massive and otherwise — to serve more students, Fain writes. Some community colleges are creating their own online tutorials, often geared to remedial students.

In Louisiana, Bossier Parish Community College offers free, online study guides that teach grammar, skill by skill. Students can prepare for placement tests or brush up on the basics while taking college-level courses.

North Carolina’s Wake Tech Community College is using a Gates Foundation grant to create a massive open online course (MOOC) in remedial math. College instructors create the tutorials; Udacity provides the platform.

Prior-learning credits help vets graduate

Helping veterans get college credit for skills learned in the military – speeding their way to a degree or credential — is the aim of the Maps to Credentials project, reports Community College Times. The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), the American Council on Education and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) are working with three community colleges to develop a prior learning assessment model.

Inver Hills Community College (IHCC) in Minnesota evaluated the most common military occupations for Minnesota National Guard members and “cross-walked them to our coursework,” said Anne Johnson, dean of business and social sciences, at an AACC Workforce Development Institute in San Diego.

. . . a combat engineer might get three credits for the supervisory techniques in a business course at IHCC and three credits for construction management. A unit supply specialist could get three credits each for introduction to computers, introduction to business in society, and principles of management.

The average veteran or active military student is awarded 6.8 prior-learning credits, listed on the transcript by the community college course titles.

Miami Dade College (MDC) gives credits for military experience toward associate degrees in criminal justice, electronics engineering technologies and office administration, as well as certificates in medical assisting. More degrees will be added.

Fayetteville Technical Community College (FTCC), located near Fort Bragg, North Carolina, has mapped military occupational specialties to courses in general education, culinary arts, surgical technology, radiography and emergency medical science.

 Since FTCC started this program in fall 2010, veteran enrollment has increased 40 percent. The college awarded 214 degrees to veterans last spring, compared to just three in spring 2010.

Faculty are finding that “service members are great students,” said Bridget Petzold, program coordinator for business administration/operations management. “They participate in class. They are excited about learning, they bring a lot of experience to the classroom and they bring the discussion up a notch.”

AACC names 25 finalists for excellence awards

Twenty-five community colleges have been named finalists for the Awards of Excellence sponsored by the American Association of Community Colleges. Awards will be given in five categories: Emerging Leadership, Student Success, Exemplary CEO or Board, Advancing Diversity and Outstanding College/Corporate Partnership.

The finalists and winners will be honored April 23 during the closing brunch of the 2013 AACC Convention in San Francisco.

AACC: Community colleges pay off

Community colleges “launch” students, “relaunch” workers who need new skills and strengthen local economies, concludes a policy brief by the American Association of Community Colleges. Yet community colleges receive 20 percent of state funding for higher education, despite serving 43 percent of undergraduates.

In the  last decade, as states have cut higher education funding, community colleges have cut per-student operating budgets — the only higher ed sector to control costs, the policy brief notes.

Investing in community colleges pays off for students and society, Christopher Mullin, co-author of Community College Contributions, told Community College Times. Graduates with certificates and associate degrees earn more and pay more taxes. “Upskill” training helps workers move up and their employers stay competitive.

Columbus State Community College in Ohio trains workers to become supervisors, the brief notes.

Indian River State College in Florida trains workers for the growing high-tech and energy industries.

In South Carolina, Aiken Technical College trains nuclear technicians for nearby power plants.

A small business development center at Lansing Community College in Michigan provided counseling and job training that resulted in “38 new businesses and $16.5 million in total new capital,” according to AACC. Twenty percent of small business development centers are located on community college campuses.

Some community colleges are developing economic impact studies to show how their contributions to economic growth. Broward College in Florida produces a $1.40 return on every $1 invested by taxpayers, the college’s report claims.

Preventing pregnancy raises graduation odds

Preventing unplanned pregnancy can raise graduation rates, reports Community College Times. Sixty-one percent of women who have children after enrolling in a community college don’t graduate, according to the Make It Personal: College Completion (MIPCC) project.

American Association of Community Colleges and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy are educating students, faculty and staff at six community colleges about the impact of unplanned pregnancies.

The report calls for including discussions about pregnancy prevention and healthy relationships in courses such as English and sociology.

At Montgomery College in Maryland, information about postponing pregnancy was integrated into more than 20 different courses. A professor at Hennepin Technical College in Minnesota restructured her developmental psychology courses to include “multigenerational perspectives on the effects of unplanned pregnancy.”

And at Palo Alto College in Texas, a communications instructor had students write sample press releases promoting National Campaign resources.

The report also suggests including pregnancy prevention discussions in orientation and first-year experience courses and providing online resources about pregnancy prevention with other student services links.

Sociology students at Georgia’s Chattahoochee Technical College held two campus-wide events to distribute information and watch videos created by students.

At Mesa Community College in Arizona, student leaders in the Phi Theta Kappa chapter launched Project HOPE (Healthy Outcomes through Prevention and Education).

Student leaders at Georgia Perimeter College held discussions on the topic while watching episodes of MTV’s “16 and Pregnant.”

CC presidents earn $167K — more for minorities

Community college presidents average $167,000 in base pay, but blacks and Hispanics earn more, according to an American Association of Community Colleges survey. The median total compensation, which includes base salary plus other pay for fulfilling presidential duties, was $177,462.

That compares to $421,395 for public four-year college presidents in 2010-11, reports the Chronicle of Higher Education. For four-year private-college presidents, the median total compensation was $385,909 in 2009.

Hispanic presidents reported the highest median base salary of any ethnic group, at $201,553, the study found. Black presidents had a median base salary of $190,000, and white presidents had a median base salary of $167,200.

. . .  black and Hispanic presidents were more likely than their white counterparts to work at large colleges and in urban areas, and both factors are associated with institutions that pay higher salaries.

Female leaders of community colleges reported a median base salary of $170,000, slightly higher than male presidents, but men took a slight lead in total cash compensation.

Most presidents receive additional compensation.

Sixty-six percent said they received a college-provided car or car allowance, 58 percent said they received allowances for professional club dues, and 32 percent said they received college-provided housing or a housing allowance. Only 15 percent reported that their spouse or partner also received allowances.

Some 75 percent of community-college presidents plan to retire in the next 10 years.

Graduation + transfer = new success rate

Graduation or transfer should be counted as success for community college students, recommends the Committee on Measures of Student Success (CMSS). The federal panel voted to approve its 26-page report (pdf) to the U.S. Education Department this week.

The committee recommended including part-time, degree-seeking students in the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), which currently counts only full-time students, and collecting data on federal student aid recipients and remedial students.

The combined graduation-and-transfer rate will increase “completion” from the current 22 percent to 40 percent, predicted the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) in a statement.

Committtee member Linda Thor, chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District in California, said the panel’s recommendations would not be overbudensome and are consistent with the Voluntary Framework of Accountability (VFA), a system of voluntary measures developed by AACC to help college determine how well they are serving students and to help them improve.

Both the CMSS and VFA call for including part-time students in graduation measures and “extending the time that students are given to count as completers.”

However, AACC did not agree with the committee’s recommendations on tracking students in developmental education and student transfers. Defining developmental education students would be difficult, as more colleges are using new strategies to address developmental education, such as including remedial students in regular college-credit courses, according to two-year college advocates.

AACC also opposes tracking community college transfers only if they enroll in  four-year institutions. “Lateral transfer to a two-year college is frequently a path to achieving education success,” the association said.

CCs award more short-term certificates

Community colleges awarded 127  percent more degrees and certificates over the last 20 years, while enrollment grew by 65 percent, reports the American Association of Community Colleges in titled, The Road Ahead: A Look at Trends in the Educational Attainment of Community College Students.

That’s not as impressive as it sounds, responds the Institute for Higher Education Policy at Sacramento State.  Most of the growth came in short-term (less than one year) certificates that provide little value to students. In addition, “minority rates of improvement . . . lag the improvement rate among white students.”

AACC: Completion rates are improving

Community college students earned 127 percent more certificates and degrees from 1989 to 2010, while enrollment grew by 65 percent, according to a report by the American Association of Community Colleges. In addition, transfer rates to four-year institutions increased by 11 percent.

Minority students did especially well. Hispanic enrollment grew by 226 percent, but credentials increased by 440 percent.

Despite the narrowing graduation gap, blacks and Hispanics graduate at about half the rate of white students.

CCs, for-profits compete for training funds

As for-profit career colleges expand,  community colleges must compete more aggressively for job training funds, advised James Jacobs, president of Macomb Community College in Michigan, in a panel at the American Association of Community Colleges meeting in New Orleans.  From Inside Higher Ed:

In Michigan, more federal job training money goes to for-profit colleges than to community colleges, Jacobs said. Macomb lobbied its local workforce investment board for grants, arguing that community colleges are more cost-effective and more likely to produce workers with meaningful credentials.

At the federal level, community colleges risk “collateral damage” from the attacks on for-profit colleges, said David Baime, AACC senior vice president of government relations and research.  Community colleges need to ensure that different “sectors receive different treatment,” he said.