CHARACTERISTICS AND TRAINING OF ADULT EDUCATION PROGRAM LEADERS IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES

As community college leadership changes, there is a need to understand how college leaders accept and embrace programming aimed at adult education leaders. Additionally, there is a need to understand how program managers working with adult and community education interact with their community colleges. Combined with challenging fiscal situations, many community colleges have structured adult learning programs, whether for leisure education or for literacy instruction, to be linked to available funding with decisions to offer or not offer programs based on fiscal criteria. The study profiled community college adult education program managers and then identified what they perceived to be their greatest needed areas of training and how important those areas were. The majority of the managers had worked in community college administration 10-15 years, had been in adult education program administration for that same length of time, held a master’s degree, and, approximately half reported administratively through a division of academic affairs. Their most needed training was in program marketing and in handling administrative issues, and the most important areas identified dealt with administration and assessment. Findings lead to stressing the need for strong leadership that will prioritize programming with the mission of the American community college