The Community College Accountability Network: Understanding Institutional Accountability at Aspen Grove Community College

Harbour, Clifford P.; Davies, Timothy Gray; Gonzales-Walker, Roxanne

doi:10.1177/0091552110364999

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…It is also consistent with federal policy agendas designed to promote degree completion. Indeed, within today’s cultural, political, and economic milieu, accountability may be a defining feature of legitimate public institutions (Alexander, 2000; Harbour, Davies, & Gonzales-Walker, 2010; Lattimore, D’Amico, & Hancock, 2012; Murphy, 2009).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Credentialing Structures, Pedagogies, Practices, and Curriculum Goals

Ayers

2015

Community College Review

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Objective: To examine the discursive strategies deployed by community colleges to sustain legitimacy in an evolving and contradictory institutional environment. Method: Using corpus linguistics software, I compared 1,009 mission statements from 2012-2013 with a reference corpus of 427 mission statements from 2004. Results: Keywords analysis, collocation analysis, and concordance analysis suggest that mission statements have changed along four discourse trajectories: credentialing structures, pedagogies, practices, and curriculum goals. Contributions: These findings situate the community college as a point of entry into understanding the relations among institutional legitimacy and a changing cultural, political, and economic milieu.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Credentialing Structures, Pedagogies, Practices, and Curriculum Goals

Ayers

2015

Community College Review

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“…Although a systematic analysis of the forces compelling DDDM in various educational sectors has not been undertaken, Ewell (2012) suggested that "colleges and universities [are] organizationally distinctive as settings for information use" (p. 2). Furthermore, data use and accountability efforts are shaped by local organizational and political contexts (Dougherty et al, 2011;Harbour, Davies, & Gonzales-Walker, 2010).…”

Section: Data-driven Decision Making In Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Capital in Data-Driven Community College Reform

Kerrigan

2014

Community College Journal of Research and Practice

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The current rhetoric around using data to improve community college student outcomes with only limited research on data-driven decision-making (DDDM) within postsecondary education compels a more comprehensive understanding of colleges' capacity for using data to inform decisions. Based on an analysis of faculty and administrators' perceptions and behaviors at 41 community colleges that participated in an initiative to improve student success, an argument is presented to include social capital as an explicit component of the capacity of community colleges for using data on student outcomes to increase student success. Building on Newmann, King, and Rigdon's (1997) conceptualization of schools' organizational capacity to meet accountability expectations and Smylie and Evans' (2006) exploration of the role of Coleman's (1988) social capital in policy implementation, this study found a relationship between the presence of forms of social capital as part of the organizational capacity for DDDM and the frequency and extent of data use among faculty and administrators. In light of research on organizational learning that suggests that social capital creates opportunities for the creation of new knowledge-such as possible solutions for persistent problems of student success-and research on organizational routines as mechanisms for change and preservation in organizations, this article concludes with recommendations for community colleges undertaking data-driven educational reform.

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“…Long considered a relatively risk-free, peer-driven form of self-reflection, accreditation in the United States has in recent years become a compliance-driven component of an overall shift toward focusing on institutional effectiveness, student learning, and the completion agenda (Harbour, Davies, & Gonzales-Walker, 2010;Mullin, 2012). These changes have been and continue to be controversial as students, faculty, administrators, accrediting agencies, policymakers, and private interests express a myriad of sometimes conflicting interpretations as to what is needed and what is intended from accreditation.…”

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confidence: 99%

Who Guards the Guardians? National Implications of Accreditation at City College of San Francisco

Barber

McNair

2017

Community College Review

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This article addresses the broad context of community college accreditation which surrounds a controversy involving one of the largest community colleges in the United States, City College of San Francisco (CCSF), and its regional accrediting agency, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC). Its purposes are to illuminate the issue of how accrediting agencies are held accountable and to highlight the importance of addressing student equity issues as part of accreditation. Argument/Proposed Model: Rather than focusing on the details of the specific case, we reflect on the situation as a microcosm of the issues facing community college students and accreditors. Themes that emerge include the rise of compliance-oriented accreditation practices, the degree to which accreditation is increasingly subject to political and economic forces, and the dilemmas involved in assuring that educational quality is available to all students. Conclusions/ Contributions: Accrediting agencies must address the barriers that interfere with the success of first generation students, low-income students, and students of color, who are rapidly coming to represent the predominant student demographic in the United States and who constitute the majority of students at CCSF. We conclude that the basis exists in higher education research and practice for the development of accreditation standards that address the student equity agenda.

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The Community College Accountability Network: Understanding Institutional Accountability at Aspen Grove Community College

Cited by 4 publications

References 24 publications

Credentialing Structures, Pedagogies, Practices, and Curriculum Goals

Credentialing Structures, Pedagogies, Practices, and Curriculum Goals

Social Capital in Data-Driven Community College Reform

Who Guards the Guardians? National Implications of Accreditation at City College of San Francisco

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