The Community College Research Center (CCRC) was established in 1996 with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and is housed within the Institute on Education and the Economy (IEE). The main purpose of the CCRC is to frame critical questions concerning the fundamental purposes, problems, and performance of community colleges, and chart a course for strengthening scholarly research on the future of these important institutions.
'When we speak of the transition from school to work, we will be speaking more often of the community college,' says Professor Thomas R. Bailey, who is also Director of the Center. 'When we speak of retraining our nation's labor force, we will also be speaking more often of the community college.'
The Center has taken a broad and comprehensive view of the community college over the course of the grant, but focused primarily on the roles of
community colleges in workforce and economic development. The specific purposes of the Center are to: (1) synthesize existing research on the roles community colleges have been playing and the extent and determinants of their effectiveness within those; (2) formulate and answer new research questions on important issues confronting the community college sector; (3) begin exploration of alternative policies and directions for community colleges; (4) attract new researchers to the field and solidify a network of community college practitioners and scholars; and (5) suggest directions for data collection. The Center draws on expertise from a national advisory panel of community college practitioners, policy makers, and research scholars. The Center funds fellowships to doctoral students who are interested in writing dissertations on community college issues. The fellowship recipients work at the CCRC and participate in research projects. Reports of research findings, occasional papers, and non-technical Briefs are available through the CCRC website, or for a nominal cost.

The Hechinger Institute exists to equip journalists with the knowledge and skills they need to produce fair, accurate and insightful reporting. Since its launch in 1996, the institute has sponsored more than 63 seminars for journalists who write, editorialize or edit coverage of education.

More than 1,800 journalists have attended Hechinger Institute seminars, which feature top education experts, including faculty from Teachers College. Held at Teachers College and throughout the U.S., Hechinger seminars are designed to create an intimate, salon-like atmosphere in which all of the participants and presenters are encouraged to participate.

The institute is supported by a variety of private philanthropies, including the John S. and James Knight Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Joyce Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The Wallace Foundation, Harold W. McGraw Jr., chairman emeritus of the McGraw-Hill Companies, the Cotsen Family Foundation, the Lumina Foundation for Education and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It is named in memory of Fred M. Hechinger, a former education editor of the New York Times and a trustee of Teachers College.

The Institute on Education and the Economy (IEE) is an interdisciplinary policy research center that focuses its attention on the interaction between education and the economy. The Institute is dedicated to carrying out research that will help improve educational policy and practice at the local, state, and national levels and to developing an active research community of TC students and faculty interested in these topics. IEE's research agenda includes issues such as the changes in the nature, organization, and skill requirements of work; education reforms designed to address the changing needs of the workplace; the educational value of work; learning on the job; the school-to-work model; the design and effectiveness of work-based learning, employer participation in education; academic and industry-based skill standards; and related education reforms. IEE is directed by Professor Thomas Bailey, an economist in the Department of International and Transcultural Studies. The Institute's permanent staff includes sociologists, economists, and psychologists. Several Teachers College faculty and faculty from other schools at Columbia as well as other universities and research organizations also work with the Institute. IEE also offers many opportunities for graduate students to work on research projects under the guidance of faculty and senior researchers. Recent activities have included the development of joint faculty-student study groups on work-based learning and on community colleges. Staff at the Institute have been influential in the development and implementation of the School to Work Opportunities Act of 1994 and the Educate America, Goals 2000 Act of 1994.Reports of research findings, working papers, and non-technical Briefs are available through the IEE website, or for a nominal cost. The Institute also houses the Community College Research Center (see the description of the Community College Research Center).

Contact: Thomas Bailey
E-mail: tb3@columbia.edu

The Center for Children and Families, directed by Virginia and Leonard Marx Professors Sharon Lynn Kagan and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, advances the policy, education, and development of children and their families. The Center produces and applies interdisciplinary research to improve practice and to raise public awareness of social issues that affect the well-being of America's children and families. This work is accomplished through cutting-edge research and analyses; the systematic training of future leaders, scholars, and policy scientists; and dissemination of information to the media, policy makers, and practitioners on the front lines.

The National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education (NCSPE) serves as a non-partisan venue to analyze and disseminate information about the contentious private initiatives in education that include vouchers, charter schools and educational contracting. Proponents of privatization view the movement as improving school choice, student outcomes and innovation through competition in the marketplace. They point to the poor performance of urban schools and how competition converts failure into success. Opponents argue that the movement undermines already flagging urban public schools, depriving the system of motivated students and scarce resources to bring about reform and runs counter to the establishment clause embodied in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Currently there is no disinterested authority to test and verify the conflicting claims of proponents and opponents, leaving the debate to those who argue on ideological grounds rather than empirical data. In evaluating different privatization plans, the center uses four criteria: the freedom for parents to choose schools that mirror their values and religious beliefs; productive efficiency that maximizes school results; equity that provides access for all to the range of educational opportunities, and social cohesion that prepares youngsters for democratic and civic participation. The Privatization Center is affiliated with the Department of International and Transcultural Studies. Its Director is Henry M. Levin, William Heard Kilpatrick Professor of Economics and Education. The Center disseminates its research, policy analysis through conferences, the World Wide Web, publications and the media. It also has entered a partnership with the education commission of the states to provide information to governors, state legislatures and state departments of education.

Contact: Henry Levin
E-mail: levin@exchange.tc.columbia.edu