The New Core Competence of the Community College
Thanks to Judith Kamber of NECC for forwarding the link to David Jacobson's piece in Leadership Abstracts that focuses on the community college's unique opportunity to support learning communities across high schools, community colleges, four-year institutions, businesses and community organizations.
From the abstract:
More than any other organization, community colleges are positioned to take advantage of broad changes in the nature of work and learning that have occurred over the past two decades. They have a striking opportunity not only to become far more effective at their core business of teaching and learning, but also to play major roles both in K-12 education and workplace reform. The community college can fully exploit these opportunities by building a new core competence for the institution and in doing so dramatically increase its educational impact.
...Over the past 20 years, a steady, well-documented shift has taken place across all sectors of society toward more decentralized, networked organizational arrangements. Organizations in all fields are devolving day-to-day decision-making to decentralized teams, creating partnerships with other organizations, and participating in a variety of learning networks. In both K-12 and higher education, this shift is found in the reorganization of teaching and learning around learning communities and the proliferation of education partnerships and networks connecting schools, colleges, businesses, and community organizations.
To view the abstract in its entirety click on the following link:
The New Core Competence of the Community College