BENCHMARKING BEST PRACTICES IN THE LEARNING COLLEGE
Kay M. McClenney
Across North America, increasing numbers of community and technical
colleges are committing themselves to an important and timely challenge:
the transformation of good or even excellent institutions into colleges
that are powerfully and effectively focused on student learning. An example
of this commitment is found in the work of 12 Vanguard Learning Colleges*
that have been part of the Learning College Project at the League for
Innovation.
Reflecting on their progress in becoming more learning-centered
institutions, the faculty, staff, and administrators of these colleges
strongly affirm the importance of benchmarking as a tool for
transformation. Widely used in the private sector, benchmarking is
generally defined as a process for identifying, understanding, and adapting
outstanding practices from other organizations in order to help one's own
organization improve its performance. In the case of the learning college,
of course, the central focus is on improvement of student learning and
persistence.
According to the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC), some key
themes characterize successful benchmarking and best-practice adoption
efforts. Among them are these two:
1. Transfer is a people-to-people process; meaningful relationships precede
sharing and transfer.
2. Benchmarking stems from a personal and organizational willingness to
learn. A vibrant sense of curiosity and a deep respect and desire for
learning may be the real keys. [See <www.apqc.org>]
The founder of APQC, Jack Grayson, says that benchmarking requires "being
humble enough to admit that another [organization] is better at something
and being wise enough to learn how to match or surpass it." The Vanguard
Learning Colleges seized the opportunity to identify among their fellow
institutions the exemplary programs and practices that seemed worthy of
examination, adaptation, and then, perhaps, adoption on their own campuses.
Unquestionably, there are other community colleges whose work deserves
similar mention and similar attention in benchmarking work. The community
college field needs to hear also about their practices-and the evidence of
their effectiveness.
PROMISING PRACTICES
Given the number of intriguing initiatives underway at the 12 Vanguard
Learning Colleges, it is challenging to name a few that particularly stand
out. However, a sampling of programs and practices that deserve serious
attention would surely include the following:
Organizational Structure to Support Learning. Cascadia Community College
(WA), organized around four major learning outcomes, and Community College
of Denver, organized into "centers" that cut across traditional boundaries.
Strategic Plan Integration and Follow-Through. Moraine Valley Community
College, Valencia Community College, Community College of Baltimore County
(CCBC).
Cross-Functional Teams and Other Inclusive Approaches to Institutional
Transformation. "Learning Dialogs" at Sinclair Community College and
Moraine Valley Community College; the Council for Innovation and Student
Learning (CISL) at Community College of Baltimore County; Valencia
Community College's "Goal Teams," formed to monitor and report progress
toward achievement of goals set forth in the college's strategic plan,
titled "Learning First;" Kirkwood Community College's Student Success
Council, which has been a significant force in establishing direction and
follow-through for a variety of initiatives, including those focused on
student orientation and advising.
Learning Strategies. Learning communities at Community College of Denver,
Lane Community College, and elsewhere (e.g., the average retention rate for
students in learning communities at CCD for spring/fall and fall/spring was
71 percent, compared with the college average of 55 percent); linkages
between credit and noncredit programs and staffing pioneered at Moraine
Valley; Process Learning at Kirkwood Community College, Madison Area
Technical College, and Sinclair Community College; the College 101 (student
orientation) course at Moraine Valley; and LifeMap, the outstanding
academic advising model at Valencia.
Learning Outcomes and Assessment. Community College of Baltimore County
(GREAT Project - GeneRal Education Assessment Teams); Cascadia Community
College (building learning outcomes into the fabric of the institution;
work on cross-cutting core "literacies"); the Community College of Denver's
Computerized Study Skills Assessment Test (CCSAT), now being pilot tested
at two other colleges; Kirkwood's Essential Skills Institute, a faculty-led
institute that is exploring the option of offering vocational students a
certificate in Essential Skills when they show competence in communication,
teamwork, and computation skills; CCD's cross-functional curriculum
development work, which addresses curriculum duplication among Information
Technology, Graphic Design, Multimedia, Communication (radio/film/video)
and Graphic Technology programs and which started with the question, "What
competencies do students need?"; Humber College's Generic Skills Resource
Manuals, developed for Communications, Writing Across the Curriculum,
Personal Skills, Interpersonal Skills, Thinking Skills, Mathematics, and
Computer Skills; CCBC's and Kirkwood's learning outcomes assessment
projects, engaging faculty in design and implementation of assessments; and
the developing culture of evidence at Richland College, where there is a
serious commitment to processes for quality improvement.
Programs and Services for Underprepared Students. Valencia's focus on
student experience at "the front door" of the college; comprehensive
academic and support programs for first generation students at CCD; the
Kirkwood Community College Learning Services department, nominated as one
of the best programs in the country; and an intensive focus on improvement
of programs and services for underprepared students at Madison Area
Technical College.
Tracking Student Progress. Student tracking systems at CCBC and at Humber
College; Community College of Denver's (CCD) student tracking database (a
work still in progress); information provided to faculty about students in
their classrooms at Richland College.
Technology to Support and Enhance Learning. The Center for Interactive
Learning at Sinclair; Cascadia Community College's Student ePortfolio and
Employee ePortfolio (note that Palomar College has also done some work in
this area); CCBC's Virtual Academy (for faculty who wish to teach distance
learning courses); Kirkwood's use of learning technology to improve
Surgical Technology student and program performance (all exams for the
three-semester Surgical Technology program will be imported into the
Perception online test-authoring system, and then test data on acquisition
of program competencies will be analyzed and online tutorials created to
address areas of weak learning); the new AtLas portal at Valencia, an
online portal that connects students to tools needed to succeed at
Valencia, enabling them to register and pay for classes, check their
grades, email professors and classmates, see campus announcements, and
search job sites. AtLas also connects students to the resources of LifeMap,
Valencia's comprehensive system of student services and academic planning.
Faculty and Staff Recruitment and Development. A splendid new faculty
orientation program at Moraine Valley; innovations in role definitions and
staffing patterns at Richland College; Humber's impressive staff
development program; MATC's revision of recruitment and selection processes
to reflect learning-centered principles; CCBC's Virtual Academy, for
faculty who wish to teach distance learning courses; the "teacher
formation" program at Richland, based on Parker Palmer's Courage to Teach;
CCD's faculty performance appraisal and pay-for-performance system.
RAISING THE BAR
Benchmarking is a strategy particularly beneficial in colleges where people
are willing to focus their efforts on selected aspects of institutional
practice, with an eye toward improvement; where value is placed on evidence
of effectiveness; and where such evidence is an important factor in
decisions about institutional policy, programs, and practices.
If benchmarking is to play its part in quality improvement, the community
college field must increasingly insist on a meaningful benchmarking
process, which particularly includes a rigorous definition of the term best
practice. Reference to best practices in education quite clearly should be
based on evidence that the practices produce improved results.
Unfortunately for those who seek it, the evidence we need does not always
exist or may not endure rigorous scrutiny. In those cases, of course,
community college people press ahead, relying still on critical judgment,
the wisdom of experience, and a willingness to innovate. But the serious
pursuit of quality in undergraduate education highlights the acute need for
rigorous evaluation of educational practices, yielding models and
strategies that are proven effective. The hallmark questions for the
learning college are the two posed by Terry O'Banion: "How does this
action promote and expand student learning?" and the tough one, "How do we
know?"
Kay McClenney (<mailto:k.mcclenney@verizon.net>) is Director of the Community
College Survey of Student Engagement and Adjunct Professor in the Community
College Leadership Program at The University of Texas. She was the
external evaluator for the League's Learning College Project.
* The colleges that have participated in the Learning College Project are
Cascadia Community College; Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC);
Community College of Denver (CCD); Humber College; Kirkwood Community
College; Lane Community College; Madison Area Technical College (MATC);
Moraine Valley Community College; Palomar College; Richland Community
College (TX); Sinclair Community College; and Valencia Community College.