School Models

By Sean TrainorCommunity colleges have been at the forefront of nearly every major development in higher educationIn January of 2015, President Obama unveiled his “American College Promise” program – a plan to make two years of community college education available free of charge to “everyone who’s willing to work for it.” In offering the proposal, the president did not just venture a partial solution to the student debt crisis. He joined a growing community of thinkerswho see the community college as central to solving a wide variety of problems in higher education, from cost and inclusivity to career-preparedness and community engagement.

Three decades ago, Chinese cities began turning rural land into industrial parks to attract foreign investors. Today, a new kind of project is blooming in China’s countryside: the vocational education park.Cities around China are carving out tracts of land for school parks – dubbed “education factories” – designed to train hundreds of thousands of students.