Targeted Research on Technician Education: Community College Partnership Models for Workforce Education Sustainability and Integrated Instruction

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Community College Partnership Models for Workforce Education Sustainability and Integrated InstructionSRI International's Center for Technology in Learning, Ames & Associates, and four Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Centers (The National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies (NWCET) at Bellevue Community College in Washington, the National Center for Manufacturing Education (NCME) at Sinclair Community College in Ohio, the National Center for Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Center at Springfield Technical Community College in Massachusetts, and the Center for Information Technology Education (CITE) in Nashville, Tennessee) join forces in a four-year research study. The goals of the targeted research study are to (1) describe partnership models to integrate industry goals in the classroom; (2) characterize approaches for guiding and transforming instruction; (3) disseminate useable tools and materials for partnership building and workforce-integrated instruction; and (4) create a framework to inform future research into the mechanism that lead to a learning college culture. Intellectual Merit: The targeted research study takes a multi-method, multi-site approach to examine the effectiveness of industry-community college partnerships and workplace relevance of ATE-sponsored instructional approaches. The results of the research have the potential of producing an analytic framework to guide the design of future studies into the mechanisms that community colleges use to support continuous improvement in curriculum and instruction. Broader Impact: This effort results in the production of usable tools and materials for practitioners to deepen industry-community college partnerships and to integrate industry goals into both technician and transfer-credit classrooms through specific instructional techniques. The addition of case studies provides an in-depth examination of how industry-community college partnerships prioritize the needs of underrepresented groups and address them through classroom instructional practices.