Community College Leadership for Student Success

This dissertation describes a study that examined the experiences of community college leaders engaged in leading institutional change to improve student success. The study was conducted at a mid-size, public, 2-year institution in Southern California. Eight participants were chosen through purposeful snowball sampling of leaders from across the institution who were facilitating workgroups of a specific transformational change initiative. The study utilized a qualitative case study research design with data collected through one-on-one interviews using a semi-structured interview protocol with each participant. The interviews focused on gathering data related to each participant's beliefs and perceptions about the definition of community college student success, what it takes for an institution to help students be successful, and how they personally were working to influence and lead change to improve student success at the institution. Four findings emerged from the data: community college leaders have inconsistent definitions of student success aside from a common theme of equity, informal leaders work to influence change by sharing examples or stories of what they have seen help students most, formal leaders use data to highlight or expose a problem and establish a shared vision for change, and both formal and informal leaders rely upon a relationship built on a foundation of trust to influence change. From these findings emerged a set of recommendations for policy, practice, and further research in the area of community college change leadership which are also presented. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]