State Level Leadership in the Development of Non-Traditional Programs

Nontraditional education is based on three basic tenets: (1) a student should have responsibility for, and control over, his own education; (2) a student's education should be directed toward the acquisition of competencies rather than the accumulation of credits; and (3) traditional limits of time and space should not constrict student development. It can be carried out on a formal campus, or on no campus at all. It can provide college credit, or no credit at all. Although it stresses student determination of his own goals, it provides for competent teacher supervision. It allows for flexible grouping and scheduling, independent study, continuous progress curricula, hands-on experience, and community internships. There are at least two methods by which the leader of a state or regional community college system can stimulate the capacity for change and the capabilities for introducing nontraditional approaches to instruction. The first method entails the establishment of system-wide goals and objectives that will require some reorganization within the college, the classroom, and the curriculum. The second method involves establishing a nontraditional unit within the system. Such a unit is a Metropolitan Community Colleges' proposed fourth college, a college without walls which will encompass all existing community services programs and activities currently offered by the existing three District colleges. (Author/NHM)