Higher Ground Project

The power of community is at the center of a series of musical plays created by the Higher Ground Project, which is composed of students at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College and residents of Harlan County, Kentucky, and is spearheaded by Robert Gipe, director of the college’s Appalachian Program. The plays begin with oral histories gathered by Appalachian studies students and other Harlan County community members as part of grants awarded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Appalachian Regional Commission; from these interviews, Higher Ground participants create musical theater. Playwright Jo Carson worked with the project for its first play....

Robert Gipe

Robert Gipe was reared in Kingsport, Tennessee. After earning a BA from Wake Forest University and an MA from the University of Massachusetts–Amherst, Gipe worked in marketing and educational outreach at Appalshop, a grassroots media production company in Whitesburg, Kentucky, a position that foreshadowed the synthesis of community outreach and the arts that has characterized his career. Beginning in 1997, Gipe served as the director of the Appalachian Program at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Harlan County....

Implementation of Open Textbooks in Community and Technical College Biology Courses: The Good, the Bad, and the Data

One challenge facing students today is high textbook costs, which pose a particularly difficult obstacle at community and technical colleges, where students typically have lower incomes and textbooks constitute a larger proportion of the overall cost of education. To address this, many advocate for using open-source textbooks, which are free in a digital format. However, concerns have been raised about the quality and efficacy of open textbooks. We investigated these concerns by collecting data from general biology classes at four community and technical colleges implementing traditionally published (non-open) and open textbooks. We compared student outcomes, textbook utilization methods, and perceptions of textbooks in these courses. In generalized linear statistical models, book type (open vs. non-open) did not significantly influence measured student outcomes. Additionally, survey results found that students and faculty perceived the open textbook as equal in quality to other textbooks. However, results also suggested that student textbook use did not always align with faculty expectations. For example, 30% of students reported reading their textbooks compared with 85% of faculty expecting students to read the textbook. Finally, faculty who implemented open textbooks expected the textbook to be used more often for reference and review compared with faculty who use traditional textbooks.

Predictors Associated With Paid Employment Status of Community and Technical College Students With Intellectual Disability

The present study sought to identify predictors associated with paid employment outcomes for community and technical college students with intellectual disability (ID). Data used were collected from the Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students With Intellectual Disabilities (TPSID) implemented in two community and technical colleges in the upper Midwest. The participants included 228 students with ID attending college who received supports based on the Check & Connect model. Results using logistic regression showed that students who only took inclusive classes, participated in campus events, had prior paid work experience, and participated in volunteering and/or community service were more likely to earn at or above minimum wage during their most recent year in the TPSID program. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Estimating the social value of higher education: willingness to pay for community and technical colleges

Much is known about private financial returns to education in the form of higher earnings. Less is known about how much social value exceeds this private value. Associations between education and socially-desirable outcomes are strong, but disentangling the effect of education from other causal factors is challenging. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the social value of one form of higher education. We elicit willingness to pay for the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) directly and compare our estimate of total social value to our estimates of private value in the form of increased earnings. Our earnings estimates are based on two distinct data sets, one administrative and one from the U.S. Census. The difference between the total social value and the increase in earnings is our measure of the education externality and the private, non-market value combined. Our work differs from previous research by focusing on education at the community college level and by eliciting values directly through a stated-preferences survey in a way that yields a total value including any external benefits. Our preferred estimates indicate the social value of expanding the system exceeds private financial value by at least 25% with a best point estimate of nearly 90% and exceeds total private value by at least 15% with a best point estimate of nearly 60%.