Analysis of an Issue, Trend, Challenge, or Best Practice
Use attachment
The previous question attached gave you the opportunity to investigate and analyze the impact of issues, trends, challenges, and best practices in-depth in community colleges.
Now, develop an articulate and reasoned thesis addressing your chosen topic, integrating the content of the previous question that is attached with key issues, trends, challenges, and best practices from scholarly literature. Integrate significant trends into planning for the delivery of programs and services to community college students and community college leaders in the future.
Complete the following for this Question:
Following the required paper format, integrate the previous question attached, adding revisions. Include an explanation of the significance of your chosen issue or topic for community colleges.
Conduct a scholarly literature review that analyzes the impact of key issues, trends, challenges, and best practices in community colleges over the previous decade.
Include the origin of the issue and impact on global, social, technological, political, economic, and educational outcomes.
Include the role that leaders play in the success or failure of community colleges.
Provide examples of how these trends or issues are impacting a chosen community college, including the effect on programs and services.
Next, integrate significant trends, challenges, and best practices into planning for the delivery of programs and services to community college students in the future.
Recommend how to respond to your chosen future trend, challenge, or best practice as a community college leader.
How should the issue be addressed by community college leaders internally and externally?
Propose how to respond to future trends and issues as a community college leader.
Include the role that community college leaders play in preparing for effective change within community colleges.
Propose how community college leaders should prepare their college and external communities for upcoming changes, due to your identified anticipated local and national trends.
Explain your action plan that community college leaders should consider for creating best practices for community colleges.
Lastly, your conclusion should summarize your literature review findings.
Submission Requirements
Written communication: Communicate logical scholarly ideas, using proper writing mechanics, grammar, and spelling. Written communication must be free of errors that detract from the overall message.
APA formatting: The paper, including citations and references, are formatted according to APA current edition style and formatting.
Number of references: Minimum of eight scholarly references from appropriate periodicals, newspapers, and journals. Leading community college periodicals and journals are to be used as references.
Length of paper: 1012 double-spaced, typed pages.
Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.
Paper Format:
Title page.
Table of contents.
Abstract.
Introduction and purpose.
Method used to determine appropriateness of issue, trend, challenge, challenge or best practice chosen as topic.
Results of findings from the literature. Follow APA headings and sub-headings format for the content of the body of the paper.
Discussion and analysis.
Summary, conclusion, and recommendations.
Reference list.
Running Head: COMMUNITY COLLEGES PROPOSAL
Community Colleges Proposal
Xavier Williams
Unit 3 Assignment 1
It is apparent that a significant number of students attending community colleges have to deal with various challenges that impede their goal of graduating. This puts them in a unique position relative to their predecessors. As an example, technology has changes much of the aspects of community colleges besides making the job market very competitive for those graduating from such institutions (Levin & Kater, 2012). This means that students anticipating to join community colleges should be conscious of the issues, challenges and trends affecting community colleges today. These are discussed below;
Issues, Challenges and Trends Facing Community Colleges
Work-School-Life Balance
The life demands of the 21st century means that individuals have to grapple with high living costs. As such, individuals, including community colleges students have to seek for employment to earn their means of survival and cater for their living expenses. Data shows hat about two-thirds of these students work at-least on a part-time basis. This implies that they spend at least approximately 35 hours each week working (Wyner & Carnevale, 2014).
While work offers these students a means of meeting their living expenses and even paying for their tuition fees, it takes a toll on some of them. Thus, some find themselves working for so many hours that they struggle with allocating adequate time to attend to their class assignments, attend classes and study for their examinations. Hence, busy work schedules for most students prevents them from allocating quality time to gain knowledge and skills as per their chosen academic study (Kelsay & Bulger, 2014).
Low Completion Rates
Most community colleges are faced with the analogy of the revolving door; implying that a significant number of students who attend these colleges rarely finish their coursework and graduate. The main reasons why such students fail to graduate is the relatively expensive tuition fees as well as the demands and pressures of life that confines them to busy work schedules. As such, a staggering 61% of students in these community colleges do not graduate within six years of enrolling for their courses. The lower completion rates translate to a low-quality professional base of the country as well as diminished earning potential due to low employability. This also makes the job market more competitive for community colleges students as opposed to those graduating from universities (Boggs & McPhail, 2016).
Image Issues
For those graduating from community colleges, the general perception is that they are of less quality than their peers who graduate from universities and other colleges. This is because the stereotypical perception of community college studies is that they are less intensive than university education. Thus, this is a factor affecting their employability index from the eyes of prospective employers. Hence, the bias against community college students is a stumbling block for their earning potential after graduation (Cohen & Brawer, 2013).
Community colleges will continue to be a critical part of higher education, especially in the USA. Below are the trends expected to reflect in community colleges over the next decade;
Future Trends and Best-Practices for Community Colleges
Increased enrollment into Community Colleges by High School Students
More and more students who are still in high school are likely to enroll in community colleges nearly. Such early enrollment places high school students at an advantage as they are able to earn college credits and thus able to increase earn prospects for completing their college degrees in the future. Thus, early enrollment empowers high-school students to be prepared for collegiate education (Levin & Kater, 2012).
Increase in Online Programs
Going to the future online programs shall continue to offer convenience for college students. Online programs are increasingly the preferred mode of study for students in higher education. It empowers them to undertake distance learning while still tending to their busy work and life schedules. Therefore, more and more community colleges should adapt their programs to enable online learning (Boggs & McPhail, 2016).
Student-Directed Learning
As more and more community-college students enroll for online learning, the learning process will be defined more by the students than the administrators of the programs. This implies that self-pacing as well as competency programs shall become critical aspects of courses offered by community colleges. Student directed-learning is expected to enhance the practicability of the courses taught in the professional lives of the students (Boggs & McPhail, 2016).
References
Boggs, R, G., & McPhail, J, C. (2016). Practical Leadership in Community Colleges: Navigating Todays Challenges. Jossey-Bass.
Cohen, M, A., & Brawer, B. F. (2013). The American Community College (6th Ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Kelsay, S, L., & Bulger, R, S. (2014). Working with Students in Community Colleges; Contemporary Strategies for Bridging Theory, Research and Practice (Higher Education). Stylus Publishing Lane.
Levin, S, J., & Kater, T, S. (2012). Understanding Community Colleges (Core Concepts in Higher Education (1st Ed.). Routledge.
Wyner, S, J., & Carnevale, P, A. (2014). What Excellent Community Colleges Do: Preparing All Students for Success. Harvard Education Press.
