Presidential Perceptions About Graduate-Preparation Programs for Community Colleges

Abstract

Community colleges are facing a growing need for well-trained leaders. These colleges have often looked to university-based preparation programs for their labor pools, yet few attempts at evaluating their effectiveness in leadership preparation have been undertaken. The current study was designed to explore both the current state of these university-based preparation programs in preparing community college leaders. It also tried to gain insights from current community college presidents about what should be included in graduate-preparation programs. Using a national sample of community college presidents, nearly 400 responses were obtained. Findings indicated that preparation programs, while well perceived, need to do a better job of interacting with the practitioner community and using real-world cases in their instruction.

Preparing Community College Leaders to Meet Tomorrow's Challenges

“…A focus on practice was central in these programs, but at the time the specific AACC competencies were not incorporated into these programs' curricula. Even though a direct link does not exist between the respondents to Brown et al's (2002) study, Hammons and Miller's (2006) research, and the university programs studied by Amey (2006), it is apparent that a disconnection exists regarding the usefulness of graduate programs as sites for leadership development. On the one hand, Amey (2006) found an emphasis on links to practice in the university programs, whereas on the other hand, when graduates are queried about their experiences they are unequivocal in their conclusion that a mismatch exists between their needs and the program's curricula.…”

“…Further, only three of the respondents' top 10 skills for leaders were included in their doctoral curriculum. With similar intentions, Hammons and Miller (2006) surveyed 400 sitting presidents to ask about their assessment of doctoral preparation programs and found that a stronger connection to practice and real-world cases applications was desired. Their findings highlight that the leaders who participated in the survey perceived that the preparation programs were doing a good job, but that improvements could be made.…”

“…As noted by Romano et al (2009), the majority of students enrolled in community college doctoral programs are part-time, thus the bulk of what these students indicated influenced their learning was their current work in a community col-lege. The students stated they received less value from the course readings, reinforcing the curricula disarray in many doctoral graduate programs (Hammons & Miller, 2006;Hull & Keim, 2007). Third, individuals, institutions, and states must intentionally plan for and support leadership development and leadership succession plans.…”

“…Aspiring leaders need to develop their contextual competency (Eddy, 2012b) via environmental scans, learning about the institution's culture, developing a management dashboard to guide decisions, and understanding the national landscape (Fowler, 2013). Likewise, graduate programs should reevaluate doctoral programs targeting community college leaders so that opportunities for practice and application of theory to real-world cases become central within curricula (Friedel, 2010;Hammons & Miller, 2006).…”

No Longer Junior Colleges: Integrating Institutional Diversity in Graduate Higher Education Programs

“…Rather we argue that the needs of students and new practitioners in all specializations of higher education should be at the forefront of curricular and programmatic reforms. Across several studies, surveys of higher education graduates have provided an abundance of recommendations to better prepare new professionals such as incorporating more practical experiences through internships, field-based curriculum, and real-world case studies involving the types of institutions in which they will seek or have employment is consistently mentioned (Brown, Martinez, & Daniel, 2002;Hammons & Miller, 2006;McNair & Phelan, 2012). Graduates from student affairs programs cited that an understanding of institutional diversity was particularly important as new professionals were often frustrated and confused by the organization of institutions that were different from their graduate institutions (Renn & JessupAnger, 2008).…”