Charge
The Implementation Team on Redefining Institutional Roles and Functions will address Recommendation 4 and the first associated implementation strategy, and Recommendation 5 and the first associated implementation strategy:
- Refocus the community college mission and redefine institutional roles to meet 21st century education and employment needs.
- Ensure that students can learn what they need to learn, when and how they need to learn it, by shifting community colleges from playing the restricted role of local provider of direct instructional services to an expanded role as broker of educational access, connecting students to learning opportunities available through multiple providers and multiple modes of delivery. Of necessity in an increasingly open learning environment, the brokering role will require expanding community college work in academic advising, learning assessment, and credentialing.
- Invest in support structures to service multiple community colleges through collaboration among institutions and with partners in philanthropy, government, and the private sector.
- Create partnerships or consortia for the development and support of student data systems, data analytics, educational diagnostics, learning management systems, institutional research, and professional development.
Primary tasks are:
- Develop a set of detailed and provocative scenarios describing in concrete terms a variety of ways that community colleges might redefine their roles to meet 21st century education and employment needs.
- Identify and describe examples of community colleges or other organizations that have established institutional forms and functions suggestive of potential 21st century approaches for community colleges.
- Identify policy constraints and opportunities that may hinder or advance redefinition of institutional roles, and recommend strategies to address them.
- Identify venues in which these scenarios and examples may be discussed and debated across the community college field.
- Recommend information resources to be provided through AACC’s online 21st Century Center.