Bridging the Town & Gown Divide: Community Consultation in Higher Education Strategic Planning

In higher education, the concept of "town and gown" is often used to describe the relationship between a college or university (the gown, symbolizing academic life) and the surrounding community or city (town). Historically, this relationship has been complex, with higher education institutions sometimes seen as isolated or separate entities from their local communities. In modern higher education strategic planning, however, the concept plays a significant role in shaping institutional priorities and fostering collaboration between the college and its community for mutual benefit.

By setting clear objectives for community consultation, engaging diverse stakeholders, employing mixed methods, and creating transparent feedback loops, colleges can cultivate an environment where community voices shape the path forward. This not only strengthens the plan itself but also deepens trust and commitment across the town and gown divide, laying the groundwork for successful plan implementation.

Here’s a breakdown of an approach to community consultation that ensures an inclusive, transparent, and actionable strategic plan.

1. Setting Clear Objectives

The first step in effective community consultation is defining its purpose and scope. Is the college looking for input on academic program offerings, new or enhanced community partnerships, or donor development? The clarity of purpose not only shapes the tools and techniques we choose but also sets expectations for stakeholder engagement. Our team collaborates closely with college leadership to outline these goals, ensuring alignment with the institution’s broader mission and strategic priorities.

2. Identifying Key Stakeholders

Colleges are inherently complex ecosystems with a range of stakeholders, each bringing unique perspectives and priorities. A stakeholder list for a community college usually includes students, faculty, staff, administration, K-12 partners, local industry representatives, and community organizations. Each group’s input is essential for building a well-rounded strategic plan.

The importance of inclusive engagement cannot be overstated. Students can highlight barriers to academic success, while faculty and staff offer insights into operational and pedagogical challenges. Industry partners and K-12 school districts provide valuable perspectives on skills alignment and pipeline development. By reaching out to these groups, we lay the foundation for a plan that reflects the entire community’s needs.

3. Designing the Engagement Strategy

A robust consultation plan leverages a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. Surveys provide breadth, capturing a wide array of viewpoints with data that can be analyzed for patterns and trends. Focus groups, on the other hand, offer depth, allowing for nuanced discussions that unearth issues that might be missed in a survey format. Town halls offer another alternative, providing an open forum where all voices are heard in real time, facilitating dialogue and fostering a sense of shared purpose.

4. Creating a Conducive Environment for Dialogue

Successful consultations rely on trust and a genuine invitation to participate. In facilitating focus groups and town halls, we create a neutral "safe space" where participants feel they can share openly without fear of reprisal. Stakeholders also must feel their input is valued and impactful. This means managing sessions where quieter voices are encouraged to share, dominant speakers are balanced, and responses are free from judgment. In town halls, interactive technology, such as live polling tools, encourages real-time feedback and maintains engagement. This approach can help bridge the gap between in-person attendees and virtual participants, ensuring that everyone can participate regardless of location.

5. Analyzing and Synthesizing Feedback

The consultation process doesn’t end with gathering data—it extends to thorough analysis and synthesis. Quantitative survey results are segmented by stakeholder group to identify trends, and qualitative data from focus groups, town halls, and open-ended survey questions are coded for themes and key insights. This dual approach reveals where different stakeholder priorities align or diverge, guiding decision-making. Feedback might show, for example, that students and faculty both emphasize the need for enhanced support services, whereas industry partners prioritize updates to technical training programs. Such insights allow the college to develop targeted strategic initiatives that cater to these needs without compromising overall institutional goals.

6. Communicating Findings

Transparency is key to maintaining trust. After synthesizing feedback, we recommend that findings are communicated back to stakeholders in an accessible format, whether through reports, presentations, or online dashboards. Highlighting how stakeholder input has been used to shape strategic directions reassures participants that their involvement has made an impact.

7. Integrating Consultation into Plan Development

Community consultation shouldn’t be a one-time event but rather an embedded practice within the institution’s planning cycle. Using a planning committee composed of diverse stakeholder representatives, for example, is another method to ensure that the college's strategic plan is responsive to community needs. We also advocate for mechanisms that allow colleges to continuously engage with stakeholders, adjusting their strategies as the landscape evolves. This dynamic approach ensures that the college remains responsive and proactive in fulfilling its mission.

Final Thoughts

A college can bridge the town and gown divide by embedding community consultation and involvement throughout its strategic planning cycle. This approach not only strengthens the plan itself but deepens trust and commitment across the community, laying the groundwork for successful institutional growth.

Our sister firm, Gaston-Shaffer, specializes in community-driven strategic planning services. Contact them today to learn how they can enhance your strategic planning processes.

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Competency-Based Education: A Transformative Program Model in Higher Education

Competency-based education (CBE) has emerged as a transformative model in higher

education, focusing on the demonstration of skills and knowledge rather than time spent in a classroom. This approach allows students to progress at their own pace, ensuring that they master specific competencies—skills, knowledge, and abilities—before moving on to the next level. Unlike traditional higher education, which is structured around credit hours and semesters, CBE is built on measurable learning outcomes and mastery. It is particularly well-suited to adult learners, career changers, and students seeking flexibility in their educational journey.

Why is Competency-Based Education Important?

The shift towards CBE is driven by the need for education systems to align more closely with the requirements of the modern workforce. In a competitive job market, employers are looking for graduates who possess specific, demonstrable skills. CBE meets this demand by ensuring that students acquire a clearly defined set of competencies before they complete their programs. According to the American Institutes for Research, CBE can help close the skills gap by emphasizing real-world application and performance over theoretical knowledge (AIR, 2016). Furthermore, CBE offers a more personalized learning experience, allowing students to accelerate through areas where they are already proficient and spend more time on challenging concepts.

Key Factors in Designing a Competency-Based Education Program

Designing a CBE program involves several key considerations, each crucial to the program's success:

1. Defining Clear Competencies: The foundation of any CBE program is a well-defined set of competencies. These should be specific, measurable, and aligned with industry standards. The Lumina Foundation's research emphasizes the importance of collaborating with employers and industry leaders when developing competencies to ensure relevance (Lumina Foundation, 2017).

2. Assessment of Mastery: CBE relies on robust assessment methods to ensure students have mastered each competency. This can include performance-based assessments, portfolios, and practical projects. A study by RAND Corporation highlights that formative assessments, which provide feedback throughout the learning process, are particularly effective in CBE environments (RAND Corporation, 2015).

3. Flexible Learning Pathways: To accommodate diverse learners, CBE programs should offer flexible delivery modes, such as online modules or hybrid courses. This flexibility is especially beneficial for working adults or those with family responsibilities. Research published in The Journal of Competency-Based Education found that flexibility is a key factor in improving retention and completion rates in CBE programs (JCB, 2019).

Successful Examples from US Community Colleges

Several community colleges across the United States have adopted CBE to better serve their student populations. For example, Salt Lake Community College in Utah offers CBE programs in fields like Business Management and Cybersecurity. These programs have been successful due to their focus on practical skills that align with regional industry needs. Similarly, Sinclair Community College in Ohio has developed a robust CBE framework in partnership with local employers, allowing students to gain workplace-relevant skills at their own pace. These colleges serve as models for how CBE can be tailored to local labor markets, providing students with a direct pathway to employment.

Benefits of Competency-Based Education for Students

The benefits of CBE for students are numerous. First, it offers a more personalized learning experience. Students can progress through material at a pace that suits their needs, whether that means accelerating through familiar content or taking additional time with challenging concepts. This flexibility can lead to greater student satisfaction and a more efficient path to degree completion.

Second, CBE often results in reduced time to graduation, which translates into lower overall costs for students. A study by the National Center for Education Statistics found that students in CBE programs can complete their degrees up to 30% faster than those in traditional programs (NCES, 2018). This is particularly advantageous for working adults who are balancing education with other commitments.

Finally, CBE’s emphasis on real-world skills provides students with a clearer understanding of how their education applies to their chosen careers. Graduates of CBE programs often enter the job market with a portfolio of demonstrated competencies, making them more attractive to employers who value job-ready skills. This alignment between education and employment outcomes is a significant advantage in a competitive job market.

Conclusion

Competency-based education represents a promising shift in higher education, emphasizing mastery of skills over seat time and offering a more flexible, student-centered approach to learning. By focusing on clear competencies, rigorous assessments, and personalized learning pathways, CBE can bridge the gap between education and employment, making it an ideal choice for today’s diverse student populations. With successful models already in place at community colleges across the United States, CBE has the potential to reshape the future of higher education, offering students a more efficient and relevant pathway to their career goals.

Looking for an evaluator to assess the benefits of your institution's competency-based education program? Please contact Shaffer Evaluation Group at seg@shafferevaluation.com for a free 30-minute consultation.

Evaluating Teacher Professional Development

By: Patricia Moore Shaffer, PhD

Principal & CEO

Professional development for teachers is essential for improving student outcomes and keeping up with the latest educational practices. But how do we know if these training investments are yielding results? One of the most important aspects of any teacher professional development program is its evaluation. As Thomas Guskey, a leading expert on professional development, highlights in his work, evaluating professional learning is more than just checking off a list of completed workshops. It’s a thorough process that considers multiple layers of impact, from teacher satisfaction to student achievement. In this blog post, we’ll explore an effective approach to evaluating teacher professional development, incorporating principles from Guskey’s model and other established training evaluation frameworks.

Why Evaluate Professional Development?

Before diving into the "how," let’s clarify why evaluating professional development is critical. Schools invest significant time and money into training teachers. Yet, without proper evaluation, it’s impossible to determine whether the effort is leading to desired outcomes, such as improved instructional practices and better student learning.

Evaluation ensures that professional development is not just a formality but a meaningful investment. It helps educators and administrators determine what’s working, what needs to be improved, and what future learning opportunities should look like.

Thomas Guskey’s Five Levels of Professional Development Evaluation

Guskey’s model for evaluating professional development provides a structured approach that considers the impacts of training over time. It's not enough to ask whether teachers liked the session or found it useful. Instead, Guskey encourages evaluators to dig deeper and consider multiple levels of impact:

1. Participants' Reactions: The first level involves assessing how teachers responded to the professional development experience. Were they engaged? Did they find the content relevant and the delivery effective? While this level is often focused on immediate feedback (like satisfaction surveys), it’s essential because it sets the stage for deeper engagement in future training.

2. Participants' Learning: The second level moves beyond satisfaction and looks at what teachers actually learned. This can be measured through assessments, reflective activities, or follow-up discussions. The goal is to ensure that participants are gaining new knowledge and skills that can inform their teaching practices.

3. Organizational Support and Change: At this level, the focus shifts to the school or district environment. Are administrators and school leaders providing the necessary support for teachers to implement what they’ve learned? Guskey emphasizes that even the best professional development can fall flat if it isn’t reinforced by supportive policies, resources, and leadership.

4. Participants' Use of New Knowledge and Skills: This level looks at how teachers apply what they’ve learned in their classrooms. Are they adopting new strategies? Are these strategies improving their teaching? This phase requires long-term monitoring through classroom observations, teacher self-reflection, and peer feedback.

5. Student Learning Outcomes: The ultimate goal of professional development is to enhance student learning. At this final level, evaluators assess whether the professional development has led to tangible improvements in student achievement. This can be done by analyzing standardized test scores, student portfolios, or other performance indicators.

   
   

Incorporating Other Training Evaluation Models

In addition to Guskey’s framework, there are other well-established training evaluation models that offer useful insights into evaluating professional development. Kirkpatrick’s Four-Level Model, for example, shares similarities with Guskey’s approach and provides a simple yet effective structure for assessing training programs.

1. Reaction: Similar to Guskey’s first level, this focuses on how participants felt about the training.

2. Learning: This level assesses the knowledge and skills gained during the training.

3. Behavior: Like Guskey’s fourth level, this examines whether participants are applying what they learned on the job.

4. Results: This final stage aligns with Guskey’s focus on student outcomes, looking at the long-term impact of the training on broader organizational goals.

By blending these models, evaluators can ensure they are not only looking at teacher satisfaction and learning but also considering the broader impact on classroom practices and student achievement.

Practical Steps for Evaluation

How can schools and districts put these evaluation models into practice? Here’s a step-by-step guide for evaluating professional development:

1. Pre-Training Assessment: Before the professional development begins, gather baseline data on teacher knowledge, skills, and student outcomes. This sets a starting point for measuring improvement.

2. Post-Training Feedback: Immediately after the training, collect feedback from participants on their reactions. Use surveys, focus groups, or one-on-one interviews to capture their thoughts on the content, delivery, and overall experience.

3. Learning Checks: To evaluate what teachers learned, incorporate knowledge assessments or reflective journals. Have teachers demonstrate new skills or describe how they plan to implement their learning.

4. Classroom Observations and Peer Feedback: In the weeks and months following the training, observe teachers in the classroom. Are they using the strategies they learned? Encourage peer observations and discussions to foster a collaborative learning environment.

5. Student Outcome Analysis: Finally, assess whether the professional development has led to improvements in student learning. Look at test scores, performance assessments, or other indicators of student growth. Keep in mind that changes in student outcomes may take time, so this step requires ongoing monitoring.

Conclusion

Effective teacher professional development doesn’t end when the workshop is over. It’s an ongoing process that requires careful evaluation at multiple levels over time. By using Thomas Guskey’s model or other training evaluation frameworks like Kirkpatrick’s, schools can ensure that their investment in professional development pays off—not just in terms of teacher satisfaction, but in improved teaching practices and, ultimately, better student outcomes.

In the end, the goal of professional development is to create lasting, meaningful change in the classroom. And that can only happen when we evaluate it with the same rigor and attention to detail that we bring to other areas of education.

Are you looking for an evaluation partner for your training or professional development program? Contact us and learn how we can support you.