The Urgency of Now: Equity and Excellence

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With the student body evolving quickly, and the looming challenge of the completion agenda, community colleges are facing circumstances like never before in serving all students and propelling them to fulfilling their education aspirations. The Urgency of Now suggests a way forward, with students and their learning at the center of what community colleges, and all of higher education, must do to generate graduates in possession of high quality degrees and credentials. Through considering comprehensive assessment, new roles for accreditation, faculty engagement strategies, and competency-based education, The Urgency of Now describes our current challenges and the ways we might meet those challenges for the 21st century institution.

Reviews

The Urgency of Now: Equity and Excellence is an outstanding read that is recommended for anyone concerned with the plight of higher education. This book presents reasoned arguments which support the goal of reforming community colleges chiefly as a matter of sound public policy and implicitly to further the Judeo-Christian imperative which calls for social justice. * Reflective Teaching *
The Urgency of Now assembles some of the most pressing topics facing todays community college leaders, and it serves as a good primer for those issues. [T]he topics are relevant, well researched, and presented clearly in a logical and substantive sequence. Because of this, the book may be useful for administrators, faculty, or board members who are new to the community college arena to become more familiar with these issues. For community college researchers, the book efficiently outlines the major elements of each of the emerging issues for community colleges, and it compiles many current, relevant references on the respective topics.... [I]t may help start meaningful conversations about change on campus or in the boardroom. * Community College Review *

Author Bio

Marcus Kolb is Assistant Vice President for Assessment and Academic Policy at Ivy Tech Community College where he collaborates with faculty and staff to improve student learning. Samuel Cargile is Vice President and Senior Advisor to the CEO at Lumina Foundation, where he served as one of the architects of the initiative Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count and led its transition to an independent nonprofit organization. Lynn Priddy serves as Provost and Chief Academic Officer of National American University following 14 years of service with the Higher Learning Commission. Nassim Ebrahimi is the Director for Learning Outcomes Assessment at Anne Arundel Community College, including launching several campus-wide innovations in teaching and assessment. Jason Wood is President of Southwest Wisconsin Technical College. Prior, he served as Executive Vice-President for Student and Academic Services at Central Wyoming College, including oversight of daily operations and development of new programs and services. Laurie Dodge is vice chancellor of institutional assessment and planning and vice provost at Brandman University. Dr. Dodge is a national leader in competency-based education and is serving as chair of the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN)