Students benefit from this project because the energy of the organization is now directed in an even more focused way on making sure we provide the best possible learning environment and services for students.  For example, our participation in this project has:

• Led to a long-needed reorganization and consolidation involving twenty-one areas of the college working with “under-prepared” students, and will continue to provide focus for the creation of the Center for Learning Advancement. Also stimulated critical discussion on the meaning of “preparedness” and “underpreparedness.” 
• Created increased awareness, as a result of the stakeholder meetings and research, that “underprepared” students are a collective population and not just many small groups. This in turn helped increase communication among stakeholders and will help eliminate overlap in services in the future. 
• Planted the seeds for a comprehensive and ongoing college-wide discussion of what it means to “put learning at the center,” including thus far extended discussion by the Leadership Team, an in-service meeting with classified staff, and a staff-wide re-examination of the General Education Requirements.
• Provided impetus to badly-needed efforts to recognize and address the critical role played by classified staff in creating an effective learning environment for students.
• Provided an anchor for bringing together and focusing the numerous initiatives Lane has established for the professional development of the entire staff, including the redesign of the “personnel” function into a Human Resources Department whose functions are designed fully in support of learning and the learning environment.
• Provided a conceptual foundation – learning-centeredness - for the implementation of the upcoming administrative software (LASR), which will be the largest-scale introduction of new technology in the history of college.
• Provided invaluable opportunities to learn from other leading community colleges about their best ideas and practices in changing organizational culture, developing staff, using technology for learning, new forms of assessment, and working with “underprepared” students.

• The project aligns many issues and efforts within the positive and productive learning-centered framework. A common value is established for institutional success and the bases of unity to tackle complex issues are enlarged.
• We have been prompted toward more systematic self-examination. The five areas of emphasis in the Learning College Project have helped us focus our own attention and efforts. In each area we have found existing strengths and new opportunities. At the same time, systems thinking is encouraged because the five areas have an underlying unity.
• Because we are already “in motion” on the projects’ objectives, we are able to focus on strengthening bottom-up processes for them.
• The project’s objectives are enabling across-college contact among staff in a reasonably-sized context. Another set of cross-departmental ties are being created in issue areas.
• Internal team-building within the VLC team and issue areas contributes to the overall and strengthening of the leadership capacity of the whole college.
• Our innovation efforts are validated nationally. Lane’s efforts in building a critical mass for innovation, in particular, the Strategic Learning Initiative, have been of great interest to the teams from the other colleges.
• We contribute to a national discussion. Through this project, some of the most forward-thinking community college leaders are tackling complex issues of the design of the learning environment. We have offered substantive and influential ideas to that discussion, such as not opposing teaching to learning and focusing change efforts on the architecture of the learning environment. 

Conclusion and Recommendation

Although there is always room for improvement in ambitious projects such as this, the Vanguard College Project has allowed us to gain additional ground, faster, in our efforts to strengthen the learning environment for students. We add momentum to our own efforts to align and improve the learning environment, gain direct access to some of the best thinking and practices in the community college world, and influence the national discussion on improving learning. We are reducing the cost of travel by sending representatives instead of the whole team to national seminars. The costs we have borne and the time spent should be considered an investment in “research and development” as it deepens, strengthens, and broadens our innovation efforts. 
 
 Project Area Summaries
 

Objective:   To cultivate an organizational culture in which policies, programs, practices, and personnel support student learning as the major priority.

Goals and Status

1. Sound work plan. The team developed a sound plan for work.  However, during the last year, all team members changed their relationship to the college, so that this team did not provide all the leadership or effort called for in its plan.

2. Initial extensive conversation.  As part of the Organizational Culture plan, the whole VLC Leadership Team carried out an extensive, structured conversation over several meetings on key elements of moving the college to put learning at the core of what the college does and how we evaluate our selves.  When summed up, this conversation will provide the starting point for broader college conversation, the establishment of a common language, and systematic review of policy throughout the college.

3. Survey.  As required by the League of Innovation, we facilitated a survey at Lane to provide benchmark data throughout all participating colleges.  We do not think the survey was particularly valuable for us, and expect to develop a climate survey which will be more supportive of our work and provide more valuable information.

4. Consolidation of information/outlook.  The team, or members, contributed to several tasks organized by the League, which helped consolidate, focus, and distribute information about Lane; including, the Organizational Culture Information packet for the first Scottsdale conference, the workshop on organizational culture around partnership for the Atlanta conference, and the summation of challenges and key questions facing Lane for the preparation of the second Scottsdale conference.

Key Contacts/ Best Practices/Issues and Ideas

1. Lane is ahead in having reached critical mass of faculty participation.  In terms of reaching a critical mass of faculty engaged in systemic improvement of the learning environment, Lane is far ahead of other colleges.  Even many of the other Vanguard Project colleges see themselves as having less than a critical mass of faculty involvement at this time. The Strategic Learning Initiative has been well validated by the reactions of our VLC partners. Our leveraging of collective bargaining this way is a model, which is appreciated by others as a success and a move that entailed considerable risk.

2. Valuable feedback and models.  While Lane has much to share and to get feedback on, other colleges provide us with many role models to consider for elements of a culture and organization that supports broad participation in putting learning more at the center.  Such examples include 

• The budget processes of Community College of Denver, which has made progress in developing open, transparent budget data infrastructure; 
• Valencia Community College which has instituted a Planning Council with key constituencies, including the union leadership, that engages in the highest levels of strategic planning and budget development; 
• Chancellor-led initiatives at Community College of Baltimore County, which have produced increases in state funding based on a budget framework which clearly puts learning first, and which have supported faculty-led efforts like learning communities involving under prepared students; 
• The faculty union-administration partnership at Madison Area Technical College which developed a new workload formula to support transformation of professional-technical programs, make professional development an integral part of faculty work, and better integrate professional-technical and transfer credit faculty; 
• The initiative at Valencia Community College to strategically focus resources on students early in their time at the college; 
• Humber College’s work to establish a regional partnership for expanding the influence of the VLC project and local financial support for its aims
• Specific efforts at many colleges that can be incorporated into existing or future Strategic Learning Initiative projects. 

3. Clarity on crucial role of support staff.  Participation in the project has given us greater clarity that educational support staff (classified staff) play a key and crucial role in fully transforming the college, as part of the college which needs to be involved in its own transformation and as a significant partner in the transformation of the whole college.  While we have outlined efforts to move ahead in this area, many of the other colleges have not begun to take up this task and do not have even token participation of support staff on their teams.

4. The value of putting learning first and connection to exemplary practice.  Lane’s recent restructuring of our programs for under prepared students was positively influence by the VLC project focus on underprepared students and our connection with exemplary practice through the project.  In terms of organizational culture, this experience shows that putting learning first and having connection to exemplary practice can provide conditions for smooth transitions in areas that are otherwise politically stalemated and fragmented.

Staff Development

Objective: To create or expand (a) recruitment and hiring programs to ensure that new staff and faculty are learning centered and (b) professional development programs that prepare all staff and faculty to become more effective facilitators of learning.

Goals and Status

1. Support the Classified Staff's proposal to develop a Strategic Learning Initiative for support of classified staff initiatives centered on learning college principles.  Status: This proposal is in the beginning stages and needs additional support from the college. 

2. Integrate learning-centered principles and objectives into Faculty Connections, a new faculty orientation process. 
Status: Faculty Connections, an SLI project that has been mainstreamed presently covers a great deal of introductory and material and meeting time in two days for new faculty and their experienced mentors. The program was designed to be a three-year program with some built-in release time for new faculty to pursue professional and curriculum development but lack of funds shuttled those plans.  The project could be extended to focus on learning centered principles.  The project could also be transformed for classified and management staff.

3. Focus this year on the hiring of a Human Resources Director who exhibits clear understanding and support of learning college values, goals, and outcomes.
Status: The Restructuring recommendation to create a Human Resources Department to include Training & Development has been approved by the Board. 

4. Review all college policies and practices and align them with Lane's learning-centered vision. 
Status: A college-wide committee is being set up to review hiring practices initiated by the Future Faculty Task Force Report, Affirmative Action/Diversity/ Equal Opportunity Office and Training & Development. The present process needs streamlining and inclusion of learning centered criteria for job applications for all staff hired at Lane.  As COPS is updated this year, policies that effect the recruitment, hiring and professional development of staff need to be reviewed in relation to learning college practices. 

5. Fully implement the recommendations agreed to from the Future Faculty Task Force document: (a) The recruitment and training of Faculty Hiring Guides with an emphasis on learning centered programs and practices.  Consider extending this program, once established to management and support staff hiring. (b) Provide consistent, systematic guidelines for the Faculty Hiring Committee.  Include an update of the present faculty hiring handbook that focuses that handbook on learning-centered principles and objectives.  A separate handbook needs to be created for classified and management hiring. 
Status:  The Faculty hiring guide job description and training program have been developed.  The program awaits implementation.  Guidelines for hiring committees have been established but tare implemented to varying degrees throughout the college.  The handbook exists but needs updating and dispersal.  The interview and selection process developed at the June Vanguard Seminar needs a full review as to its usefulness at Lane.

6. Fully implement the Faculty Evaluation process established in the Faculty/ Administration contract. 
Status: The handbook for this process needs to be updated to include a focus on learning college goals.  Such a handbook needs to be written for classified and managers.  As the classified evaluation process is being rewritten, ensure that learning-centered principles are included.  Review the management evaluation process to ensure the same.

7. Involve the Board in establishing the vision and practice of professional development as integral to the professional lives of all employees at Lane.
Status: Faculty Professional Development has been extended in the contract to include unpaid sabbatical leaves so faculty can plan ahead with some assurance for professional development time.  FPD has also instituted a Great Teaching Seminar to be conducted at least twice a year for interested faculty.  Some of these Seminars will be formulated around the Learning College vision.  Similar programs will need to be established for classified and managers. 

Key Contacts/ Best Practices/Issues and Ideas

Community College of Baltimore County

• On-line training program for search specialists.
• Learning First objectives in all performance review forms.
• Learning First language in advertised and posted positions in order to attract candidates from learning colleges/organizations.
• Learning college introduction in orientation programs.
• Learning First starter kit for new employees.
• Learning First Fairs for classified staff.

• Performance review processes for all staff and faculty that include identification and recognition of diverse skills and abilities.

• Selection committees understand of learning-centered principles and their application to selection process.
• Learning Competencies expected of staff in a Learning College.

• Lunch & Learn -- Employees from across the campus meet in groups of 20 or so for lunch to hear a speaker on a topic focusing on improving and expanding learning.
• Application and interview materials include questions asking how applicants plan to contribute to the learning of others at the college as well as their own.

• Instructor applications include a statement of "Philosophy of Teaching/Learning" to be included with application, including adjunct.
• Professional development leave every five years.

• New faculty release time for learning-centered professional development.

Technology

Objective: To use information technology primarily to improve and expand student learning.

Goals and Status

Replacement/upgrade of the central administrative software for the college (LASR Project).  This new software, called Banner, will dramatically change the purposes and means by which classified staff, managers, and faculty access information about students and business and academic processes. Even moreso, this system will allow students direct and unprecedented access to their personal records, college processes, and learning opportunities. and  This spring we selected a software vendor, purchased hardware and got our multi-year budget approved by the Board. 
Status: Implementation is on underway and on timeline. The Vanguard Project has infused this project with new awareness of the importance of putting the support of student learning at the core of what is otherwise a very technical process. This will impact not only the setup of the physical system but the manner in which it is introduced to the college community.

Distance Education: participation in the Vanguard Project has helped focus our attention on the need to bring together a variety of efforts which have risen primarily from the ground up to incorporate on-line (Internet-based) courses into the learning environment. Further complexity in this area is soon to arise from the availability of live TV broadcast capability. As with the administrative systems, it is critical that the values of learning-centeredness drive the consolidation of our distance learning efforts.
Status: A draft charter for an online education advisory committee has been approved by ELT and is awaiting discussion and approval by SLI. 

Key Contacts/ Best Practices/Issues and Ideas

• Community College of Baltimore County and Community College of Denver have adopted the same Banner system we are implementing. They offer their assistance and warn us to (a) Pay attention to the community education function;  (b) Plan on writing all of our own reports; (c) get broad involvement in the implementation; (d) keep alternate access methods (browser, telephone) available.
• Maricopa College set up a faculty project to decide how new and ubiquitous broadband (multimedia) capabilities should be used.
• Palomar College and Madison Area Technical College have technology components in their “Learning To Learn” Camps for “underprepared” students. 
• Moraine Valley Community College put their Help Desk in the Library.
• The primary technology consultants provided by the League, Mark Milliron and Steve Gilbert, are extremely useful resources.
• Virtually every college reports the same experience are having with online classes: while some faculty want to teach 100% online courses, many others want the “hybrid” model – partly classroom, partly online.
• Colleges are increasingly concerned about the consistency of information that students access by web, telephone, and in-person. A particular target population of concern is those without Internet access at home.
• Faculty training programs are becoming differentiated between short-term immediate technical skills and longer-run “academies” for integrating technology into teaching and learning.
• Many colleges are adding or expanding open access, common space computers terminals with network hookups (and plug-ins for laptops) for students especially for e-mail, accessing their records, etc.
• Colleges are increasingly trying to assess incoming students’ existing technology skills when they enter and provide appropriate avenues for learning, as with other academic skills like writing.

Learning Outcomes

Objective: To agree on competencies for a core program of the college’s choice, on strategies to improve learning outcomes, on assessment processes to measure the acquisition of the learning outcomes, and on means for documenting achievement of outcomes.

Goals and Status
Prior to being named a Vanguard College, Lane had achieved three of the goals specified by O'Banion as essential to learning assessment: 

• we had conducted an assessment of current programs to determine extent to which learning outcomes are currently in use and the effectiveness of such programs; 
• we had a framework for learning outcomes for the institution; and 
• faculty were increasingly aware and open to using a variety of appropriate assessment processes to measure learning achieved. 

• selected Lane's general education programs to focus faculty efforts on developing measurable outcomes
• increased the opportunities for stakeholders to review and revise the draft general education outcomes prepared by the Degree Requirements Review Committee
• achieved faculty ratification of a list of general education outcomes for catalog publication, and agreement to use an expanded list as criteria for designating courses to fulfill the general education requirements
• assisted faculty in the English Department (with SLI support) in plans to assess student writing
• guided and supported faculty work in the Advanced Technology Division and Culinary Arts program to produce and develop systematic reporting of professional/ technical program assessments of student learning

• Community College of Baltimore County uses cross-disciplinary faculty teams to formally review program assessment plans
• Kirkwood Community College classifies faculty efforts in assessment in a developmental matrix, giving faculty feedback about the quality of their assessments—faculty using assessment of individual learning are encouraged to look at aggregate data; those focusing on course assessment are encouraged to look at course sequences or whole programs; those using locally developed assessments are encouraged to seek assessments with external validity
• Madison Area Technical College publicizes eight core abilities in a pamphlet that connects career success with those core abilities
• Community College of Baltimore County includes students and non-teaching staff on a Council on Innovation and Learning 

Underprepared Students

Objective: Lane will create or expand learning-centered programs and strategies to ensure the success of underprepared students.

Goals and Status

1.  Identify Stakeholders.
 Twenty-one areas/ services/ departments at LANE were selected to participate.  These areas included enrollment management, disability services, testing, counseling, research and planning, and other groups who serve, work with or assist underprepared students in a variety of capacities.

2.  Define who the underprepared students are at LANE.
In our second meeting with the stakeholders, we identified best practices (such as cohorts) and obstacles (lack of early intervention systems, student advocates and mandated orientation) to serving underprepared students and created the UPS Team (Underprepared Students Team).  We explored changing the name for our group, but chose to keep “underprepared” students.

3.  Address fragmentation through college restructuring.
Former President Jerry Moskus and the restructuring team recommended that several components of the Underprepared Students Team (Adult Basic and Secondary Ed, Academic Learning Skills, ESL and Tutoring) create the Center for Learning Advancement.

4.  Conduct Assessments for Guided Studies, Core College Connections and Math 10
We worked with Research and Planning to assess completion rates, GPA, credits successfully completed, persistence. This assessment was continued during the 2000-01 school year.

5.  Identify other programs/ courses to assess.
None identified.

6.  Work with Research and Planning to develop qualitative assessments.
None created.

7.  Examine placements of underprepared students to determine appropriateness.
Faculty were surveyed to determine whether students were placed “too high”, “too low” or “just right” for their ability level.  It was determined that with the current system of testing and counseling, the majority of students are being placed appropriately.

8.  Create programs of assessment, advising, orientation.
Lane’s Testing Department is open to collaboration.  A possible Retelling test might be researched.  The open invitation to visit Community College of Denver was not pursued due to budget limitations.

9.  Expand the options for learning.
The UPS team invited 15 representatives to make summary presentations of the services and options they provide for underprepared students.  The reports included information on demographics, completion rates, assessment and tracking done in each area or program.  We are continuing to explore other time options (ex.  Reading 80 was offered as a summer course both in 2000 and 2001.)

10. Professional Development Programs.
Future research area.

Key Contacts/ Best Practices/Issues and Ideas

• Invitation from Community College of Denver to visit their campus and observe the existing programs for underprepared students. 
• Valencia Community College created a small resource notebook for students to reference resources to help them navigate the community college experience.
• Palomar College and Madison Area Technical College have Learning to Learn Camp, a “bridge” program to prepare students for their first college classes.
• Richland College has an exit test for developmental students…Should Lane do this???
• Community College of Baltimore County’s Master Learner program pairs a reading course with another high enrollment class (such as Psychology).  A third faculty member becomes a master learner and runs a seminar for the cohort participants.  Possible Learning Community for Lane?
• Cascadia Community College pairs a Multicultural Communication class with a reading class.  Could this help Lane to focus on diversity and support underprepared students of color?

Appendix A

Vanguard Learning College Project
Participating Colleges

Cascadia Community College (WA)
Community College of Baltimore County (MD)
Community College of Denver (CO)
Humber College of Applied Arts and Technology (ON)
Kirkwood Community College (IA)
Lane Community College (OR)
Madison Area Technical College (WI)
Moraine Valley Community College (IL)
Palomar College (CA)
Richland College (TX)
Sinclair Community College (OH)
Valencia Community College (FL)

Appendix B

Lane’s VLC Leadership Team

Current members (10/1/01)
Alen Bahret, Programmer, Computer Services
Bob Barber, Computer Information Technology Faculty
Margaret Bayless, English Faculty
Mary Brau, Coordinator, Student Outcomes/Assessment & Curriculum Development.
Beth Frye, Academic Learning Skills Faculty
Jim Garcia, Diversity Coordinator
Dennis Gilbert, Science Faculty
Donna Koechig, Associate Vice President for Student Services and Instruction
Patti Lake, Division Chair, Adult Basic and Secondary Education
Stephen Pruch, Associate Vice President for Information Technology
Cheryl Roberts, Vice President for Instruction and Student Services
Adrian Rodriguez, Diversity Counselor
Mike Rose, Lane Board Member
Steve Selph, Math Faculty
Russell Shitabata, English Faculty
Mary Spilde, President

Earlier participants
Joan Benz, Academic Learning Skills Faculty
Bill Griffiths, Math Faculty
Cheryl Kempner, Academic Learning Skills Faculty
Jerry Moskus, President
Larry Warford, Vice President for Instruction