February 9, 2012 | Past Issues

  

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 Office of Vocational and Adult Education

OVAE Announces Newly Released Online Reports and Papers From the 2011

Regional Community College Summits and the Community College Virtual Symposium

OVAE announces the online release of two reports—Scaling the Community College Summits: Challenges, Solutions and Commitments and Community College Virtual Symposium: Proceedings Report, as well as four research papers— Promoting College and Career Readiness: Bridge Programs for Low-Skill Adults; Aligning Secondary and Postsecondary Education: Experiences From Career and Technical Education; Connecting Curriculum, Assessment, and Treatment in Developmental Education; and, Integrating Industry-Driven Competencies in Education and Training Through Employer Engagement. These newly released documents are the result of a variety of coordinated efforts that began with the 2010 White House Summit on Community Colleges.

In October 2010, President Obama and Dr. Jill Biden convened the first-ever White House Summit on Community Colleges to highlight the growing role that community colleges must play in preparing students for success in the 21st-century knowledge economy and society, and to elevate community colleges to a new level of national importance and attention. This summit brought federal and state policymakers together with key community college constituent groups—trustees, college presidents, administrators, faculty, students, major associations, employers and industry leaders. Discussions centered on ensuring student success, meeting the workforce needs of the economy, and learning about ways that community colleges are supporting the president's 2020 college completion goal of increasing the number of individuals with degrees, certificates and industry-recognized credentials.

Building on the success of the 2010 summit, the U.S. Department of Education, through OVAE, convened a series of regional community college summits to provide opportunities for the colleges to network and share ideas. These regional summits brought together over 800 attendees from 45 states to discuss critical issues confronting community colleges such as college affordability, transitioning to and through community college and the workforce, developmental education, business and community partnerships, and serving military veterans and their families. The proceedings from these regional events reflect the ideas, views, and suggestions shared by the attendees.

Following the series of regional summits, OVAE held the Community College Virtual Symposium, which reached state and community college leaders, faculty, students, state education agency staff, and workforce development and education organizations. The event included moderated discussions among four panels of higher education researchers centered on the topics of the four issue briefs: college and career readiness for low-skilled adults; the alignment of secondary and postsecondary education, with a focus on CTE; connections among curriculum, assessment and instruction in developmental education; and employer-community college partnerships to promote curriculum change. A proceedings report on the symposium is available. The four research papers reflect refinements made to the drafts based on the discussions that took place during the symposium, and contain strategies for helping community colleges strengthen students’ postsecondary success and meet the needs of the nation’s economy.

• Promoting College and Career Readiness: Bridge Programs for Low-Skill Adults: describes recent approaches to bridge programs and explores promising practices that contextualize and integrate instruction, and strengthen student support and transition services to improve postsecondary transition and completion.
• Aligning Secondary and Postsecondary Education: Experiences from Career and Technical Education: follows the evolution of efforts to align secondary and postsecondary CTE, and outlines several promising CTE practices that may be effective in achieving better alignment for all students.
• Connecting Curriculum, Assessment, and Treatment in Developmental Education: describes recent changes in developmental education and explores promising practices that align curriculum, assessment, and treatment to more effectively tailor developmental education services and improve students’ chances for success.
• Integrating Industry-Driven Competencies in Education and Training Through Employer Engagement: describes partnership efforts between community colleges and employers, exploring models promoting curricular change and innovation.

OVAE encourages interested parties to review and share these reports with their networks. Please continue to visit OVAE's website for news and updates, including upcoming notices about the webinar series that presents in greater detail the Community College Virtual Symposium reports.