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National Community College Symposium
Improving Student Transitions at Community Colleges
June 19, 2008
7:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Registration and Continental Breakfast
9:00 a.m. – 9:15 a.m. Welcome and Opening Remarks
Speaker: Dr. Pat Stanley, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE)
Drawing from recent national community college initiatives, panelists will be asked to: 1) describe practices that are known to improve student transitions; 2) offer thoughtful views on what we need to know to validate and further refine these practices; and 3) propose strategies for building a more complete and valid understanding of practices that educators can use to improve student transitions.
9:15 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. Panel #1: Student Support Services
Moderator: Dr. James Jacobs, Associate Director, Community College Research Center (CCRC)
Discussants: Dr. John McKay, South Piedmont Community College, Dr. Christine McPhail, Morgan State University, Dr. Dolores Perin, Columbia University
Discussion questions:
- What student support services are known to improve transitions at community colleges?
- How do we know? What makes us believe in these services?
- What was the context in which such services appear to have made a difference? What other benefits did students receive as part of the intervention?
- How confident are we in their impact?
- What are the cost implications?
- What practices do not appear to improve transitions? What practices appear to be unreasonably costly?
- What do we still need to know in order to improve student support services? How could we go about acquiring this knowledge?
10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Break
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Panel #2: Career and Technical Education (CTE) and Workforce Development
Moderator: Dr. Thomas Bailey, Director, CCRC
Discussants: Dr. Keith Bird, Kentucky Community and Technical College System, Dr. Jose Millan, California Community Colleges, Dr. Diane Troyer, Lone Star College-CyFair
Discussion questions:
- What practices in CTE and workforce development are known to improve student transitions at community colleges?
- How do we know? What makes us believe in these CTE practices?
- What was the context in which such CTE practices appear to have made a difference? What other benefits did students receive as part of the intervention?
- How confident are we in their impact?
- What are the cost implications?
- What practices do not appear to improve student transitions? What practices appear unreasonably costly?
- What do we still need to know in order to increase the impact of career and technical education, and workforce development programs on student transitions? How could we go about acquiring this knowledge?
12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Lunch
2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Panel #3: Institutional Innovations
Moderator: Dr. Melinda Mechur Karp, Senior Research Associate, CCRC
Discussants: Dr. Walter Bumphus, University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Deborah Floyd, Florida Atlantic University, Dr. Linda Hagedorn, Iowa State University
Discussion questions:
- What innovations in institutional practice and structure are known to improve student transitions at community colleges?
- How do we know? What makes us believe in these institutional innovations?
- What was the context in which such institutional innovations appear to have made a difference? What other benefits did students receive as part of the intervention?
- How confident are we in their impact?
- What are the cost implications?
- What practices do not appear to improve student transitions or appear unreasonably costly?
- What do we still need to know about institutional practice and structure to improve student transitions? How could we go about acquiring this knowledge?
3:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. Break
3:45 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. Summary and General Discussion
Speakers: Dr. Pat Stanley, Deputy Assistant Secretary, OVAE
Dr. Ron Williams, Vice President, The College Board
4:45 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Reception and Networking