Community College Journal - December 2010/January 2011

Innovations and creative faculty, staff, and administrators have always been part of the educational enterprise. There was a time when having students read or solve problems on a blackboard was considered an innovative breakthrough. Innovations today are more broadly dispersed, more widely applied, and more effectively orchestrated, especially when supported by technology. As we steer our way through economic challenges and strive to meet the ambitious goals of the completion agenda, we find ourselves in the midst of a renaissance of innovation in education, an escalation of interest and experimentation that anticipates

THE CASE FOR CHANGE AMID TOUGH CHALLENGES

significant changes in how we conduct the business of learning.

At a time of recognition and attention unmatched in community college history, our institutions are asked to do more: educate more students, retrain more displaced workers, meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population, and expand not only access, but also successful completion of a postsecondary certificate or degree. If ever there were a time for innovation in community colleges, that time is now.

CREATAS/PHOTOLIBRARY

Finding Innovation Community college innovation in some ways mirrors community colleges themselves: open, diverse, encompassing, collaborative, and successful in some areas, while challenged in others. In a 2009 study of 173 award-winning community college innovations organized by researchers into 26 categories, the League for Innovation in the Community College, with support from