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Community College Symposium

Initiated by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education, the symposium brought together academics, practitioners, and policy experts to hear, discuss and learn about key issues related to student transitions.

2008 Community College Symposium

Community colleges are a key part of the American higher education system. As these century-old institutions grow and change for the 21st century, new opportunities are emerging to study innovations and improvements in a dynamic field. In 2006, in a series of 23 wide-ranging essays, the Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education addressed questions dealing generally with higher education's affordability, access, and ability to prepare students to compete in the new global economy. As a follow-up to the Commission's work, and to thecommunity college virtual summits in 2005 and 2007, the U. S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), hosted a "Community College Symposium" on June 19, 2008.

The symposium brought together academics, practitioners, and policy experts to hear, discuss, and learn about key community college initiatives in terms of practices that appear to improve student transitions, views on what is needed to know to validate and further refine these practices, and strategies for building a more complete and valid understanding of practices that educators can use to improve student transitions. To view the symposium summary please go to download files PDF (120KB)

As a follow-up to the 2008 symposium, OVAE hosted an expert panel on November 20, 2008, to agree on key issues and ideas related to community colleges and OVAE’s role in supporting community colleges in the coming months and years.

This work was funded by an $890,000 award by OVAE to Synergy Enterprises Inc. (SEI) in Maryland and the Community College Research Center (CCRC), Teachers College at Columbia University in New York. The award is from April 2007 through January 2009.

For more information, please contact the project manager, Gisela Harkin, at gisela.harkin@ed.gov. To view the symposium agenda please go to http://www.sei2003.com/ovae/


 
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Last Modified: 07/31/2014