21st Century Skills: Two Decades Later

In 2000, the League published Learning Outcomes for the 21st Century, a report of a study designed to help community colleges define and clarify the knowledge, skills, and abilities students would need for success in the new millennium. Juxtaposing findings from that study against descriptions compiled from more recent publications about 21st century skills offers a view of how defining and clarifying these skills has changed, or not, in the last twenty years.

Both lists include certain skills deemed necessary for success in a work environment, variously called workplace, soft, interpersonal, or power skills. These include such skills as the ability to communicate effectively or to collaborate with colleagues, and are distinct from the specialized knowledge, skills, and abilities required for a particular job.


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Spotlight: Creating a Community College Culture of Health

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21st Century Skills: Two Decades Later

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Spotlight: Creating a Community College Culture of Health

Since 2012, the League for Innovation in the Community College has led its Community Colleges and Public Health Project with an overarching goal of involving community colleges in education for public health. Throughout the project, the League has worked closely with the Association of Schools and Programs in Public Health, initially convening a panel of experts to examine the needs, opportunities, and barriers that exist to the development of public health courses and programs in community colleges. 

Following the panel’s recommendations, the project’s second phase focused on developing prototype curricula for community college programs that could fulfill workforce needs and provide career ladders for graduates. The models were produced in consultation with Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, National Association of County and City Health Officials, Society for Public Health Education, Association of University Programs in Health Administration, and Association of Environmental Health Academic Programs, and were vetted by the community college and public health communities.

In the third phase, the League recognized 14 innovative community colleges for developing or enhancing courses, certificate programs, and associate degree programs in public health with Riegelman Awards, sponsored by Richard and Linda Riegelman and Jones & Bartlett Learning and presented at the Innovations Conferences from 2016 to 2019.

The fourth and current phase of the project focuses on Creating a Community College Culture of Health, with an emphasis on increasing community college student awareness of career opportunities in public health. Colleges are encouraged to make connections between public health careers and existing certificate and degree programs, such as nursing, allied health, first responder, environmental studies, engineering, and HVAC. To support public health career awareness activities, the League awarded 21 small grants for events held in April 2019 during National Public Health Week (USA) or on the World Health Organization’s World Health Day. Thirty-seven additional grants were awarded to the following community colleges to support public health career awareness activities this spring.

2020 Public Health Grant Recipients

For more information about the League’s Community Colleges and Public Health Project and Creating a Community College Culture of Health, including resources, please visit http://www.league.org/ccph.


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Issues That Keep Community College CEOs Awake at Night

As part of its recent strategic planning process, the League for Innovation in the Community College Board of Directors brainstormed a list of current challenges facing community colleges—challenges the League could use in its programming to help its full membership develop and share solutions. The total list included almost 70 issues and challenges from Board members and League representatives, who serve as liaisons between the Board colleges and League staff. A subset of these challenges became what the group termed “issues that keep us awake at night.”

League staff analyzed the list and the nine major themes that emerged are presented here, along with a link to descriptions and other resources about the types of challenges community colleges are facing within each theme. For example, the Equity and Inclusion theme includes challenges such as ensuring access and opportunity enrollment strategies and meeting the needs of underrepresented students. Other themes focus on issues and challenges around courageous leadership, the effects of declining resources on organizational capacity, and educating students for careers that align with business and industry needs.

This exercise was the first phase of an iterative process, so this list is not, nor it is intended to be, final, complete, or exclusive. Community colleges face numerous challenges every day, and the League is committed to increasing awareness of these challenges and helping faculty, staff, and administrators share their experiences as we all work to find innovative, effective solutions that benefit our students and communities.

The second phase of the process is being conducted this spring. The League is vetting the issues on this list with its full membership, initially through discussion sessions at the Innovations Conference, March 1-4, 2020, in Seattle. Additional member input will be sought through a membership survey after the conference.

The nine themes are:

• Equity and Inclusion

• Funding and Revenue Generation

• Leadership Development

• Organizational Capacity

• Politics and Policy

• Safety, Security, and Civility

• Student Success and Completion

• Technology

• Workforce Development

To learn more about these issues and to join the conversation, visit http://www.league.org/node/22250.


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Spotlight: Creating a Community College Culture of Health

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21st Century Skills: Two Decades Later

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Challenges Community College Students Face


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Competence vs. Completion: Does Passing Equate to Learning?

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We’ve Come A Long Way, Baby: 21st Century Apprentices Set Up for Success at SAIT

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Innovative to Address Food Insecurity as a Barrier to Graduation

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Challenges Community College Students Face

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From Speed Bump to On-Ramp: Holistic Assessment and the Reinvention of Placement

The last decade has seen a remarkable and much-needed wave of innovations in developmental education, and the mechanisms for placement are no…

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50 Years of Innovation

A Selection of League Projects, Initiatives, and Events Over Five Decade


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Spotlight: Celebrating Excellence

Richard and Linda Riegelman Awards
For Excellence in Public Health and Health Navigation Education in Community Colleges

Anne Arundel Community College, Maryland

Health Communications Enhancement to Existing Associate of Science in Public Health

Montgomery County Community College, Pennsylvania 

Expansion of Existing Associate of Science in Public Health to

First Responders: Emergency Medical Technicians

Palo Alto College, Texas

Development of Associate of Arts, Public Health

________________________________________________________________________

Terry O’Banion Student Technology Awards

Student Developer Champion

Ethan P. Pawelski, Southwestern Michigan College

Student Technology Champions

Emilie C. Robertson, Anne Arundel Community College

Michael Vazquez, Moraine Valley Community College

________________________________________________________________________

Educational Testing Service O’Banion Prize

Josh Wyner 

Vice President, Aspen Institute, and Executive Director, College Excellence Program

________________________________________________________________________

John & Suanne Roueche Excellence Awards

Excellence in Community College Teaching and Leadership

Congratulations to this year’s 458 faculty, staff, and administrator award recipients!

Visit www.league.org/node/18164 to access the Excellence Awards Program, which includes recipient names.


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Faculty Voices: How Well Is Your College Doing on Completion?

At least half of community college faculty say their institution is doing a good job in five areas supporting improvement of student completion rates, according to a survey conducted for the League for Innovation’s Faculty Voices Project and fielded by Public Agenda. The fall 2017 survey was conducted among U.S. community college faculty to gain insight into faculty perceptions about efforts at their colleges to increase the percentage of students who complete. Completion was defined in the survey as students who “earn a certificate or degree or transfer.” Of the 1,179 respondents, 782 were full-time and 397 were part-time community college faculty.

The graphs on these pages illustrate responses to questions about how well faculty think their college is doing in:

a. engaging faculty in decision making around completion efforts;

b. planning thoroughly for successful implementation of completion efforts;

c. supporting coordination and collaboration among completion efforts;

d. providing sufficient time and resources for full implementation and evaluation of impact; and

e. adequately preparing faculty to fulfill their roles in completion efforts.

In all cases, half or slightly more than half of the total number of respondents indicated their college was doing a “very good job” or “somewhat good job.” 

Complete information about the survey and methodology, as well as topline data for all survey items, is available at www.league.org/node/18137. Responses reported here are from QE4a-4e.

How well do you think your college does at: 

a. Including faculty in decisions about how to increase the percentage of students who earn a certificate or degree or transfer?

b. Planning the support and resources that are needed to ensure that initiatives to increase the percentage of students who earn a certificate or degree or transfer are implemented successfully?

c. Ensuring that all the initiatives to increase the percentage of students who complete are coordinated and work together?

d. Ensuring that initiatives to increase the percentage of students who complete are supported long enough to have an impact?

e. Ensuring that faculty are prepared to efficiently carry out initiatives to increase the percentage of students who complete?


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