Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to identify professional development needs of community college administrators in relation to the 45 competencies set forth by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). Essential competencies set forth by the AACC were classified into Organizational Strategy, Resource Management, Communication, Collaboration, Community College Advocacy, and Professionalism (AACC, 2015c). This study sought to determine whether there was a statistically significant difference in the importance of these competencies for administrative positions at community colleges located in the southeastern United States. Professional development needs, based on these competency categories, were considered when administrators were contemplated as one group and when administrators were categorized according to level of administration, including top-level, middle-level, lower-level educational, and lower-level support staff. Administrators were asked to rate the importance of each competency to their administrative position and to rate their self-perceived level of competence. The data were analyzed using a Friedman test, Wilcoxon signed rank test, and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA); triangulation was also conducted with qualitative, open-ended response data. Findings were considered significant at p < .05. The fundamental reasoning was that if a statistically significant difference existed between the self-perceived importance rating and present level of competence of an administrator, based on a weighted discrepancy scoring system and the AACC competency groupings, such discrepancy would serve as a suitable indicator of the need for professional development activities. The major conclusions of this study included (1) administrators were interested in improving their abilities related to certain,selected competencies; (2) several competency areas were identifiable without regard to level of administration, and thus certain professional development needs can be viewed as uniform across all levels of administration; and (3) professional development needs were indicated most often related to organizational strategy, followed in order by resource management, communication, collaboration, and professionalism. Community college advocacy was viewed as least important.