UC Davis Launches PD, Research Program for Community Colleges
The University of California, Davis, School of Education, in partnership with California Community Colleges, has launched Wheelhouse: The Center for Community College Leadership and Research,
a new professional development and research program designed to support
current and future leaders of California community colleges.
Community
college presidents and chancellors often have to travel out of state
for professional development and support, according to Brice W. Harris,
chancellor of California Community Colleges, and the turnover rate for
community college leaders is double that of leaders of four-year
universities. "These leaders are responsible for some of the most
important gears in California's economic engine," said Harris in a news
release. "But their average rate of turnover is just too high. We need
more ways to support them and prepare their successors for the
challenges ahead, and we need to do it here."
Each year,
Wheelhouse will bring together 20 sitting and aspiring CEOs and senior
executives of California community colleges for a year-long
professional development institute on leadership. The institute on
leadership experience will convene four times annually in October,
January, April and July. At the conclusion of each program in July,
participants will receive a Wheelhouse Leadership credential from the
USD School of Education.
In addition to the professional
development program, Wheelhouse will also "conduct, translate and
disseminate rigorous, timely, independent research briefs to inform
policy development for college leaders, trustees and state
policymakers," according to a news release from UC Davis.
Wheelhouse
is funded by UC Davis, the Hearst Foundations, the Foundation for
California Community Colleges and a United States Department of
Education Institute for Education Sciences grant to a research team led
by Michal Kurlaender, lead researcher and associate professor for the
UC Davis School of Education.
Further information about Wheelhouse: The Center for Community College Leadership and Research can be found on the UC Davis School of Education's site.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].