Introduction: the continuing evolution of the American community college / Terry U. O'Banion. -- Part I: Ideas as National Initiatives : The learning paradigm / George Boggs. -- Community colleges and the ladder of student success / Suzanne Walsh and Mark Milliron. -- The college promise: transforming the lives of community college students / Martha Kamper and Andra Armstrong. -- Guided pathways to college completion and equity / Kay M. McClenney.-- The community college baccalaureate movement: evolutionary and revolutionary / Deborah L. Floyd and Michael L. Skolnik. -- Part II: Ideas as Internal Functions : Institutional effectiveness: from intuition to evidence / Barbara Gellman-Danley and Eric V. Martin. -- Recognition, reform, and convergence in developmental education / Bruce Vandad. -- The evolving mission of workforce development in the community college / James Jacobs and Jennifer Worth. -- Eliminating the gap between high school and college: what the next generation of transition programs must do / Joel Vargas, Sarah Hooker, Michael Collins, and Ana Bertha Gutierrez. -- Demography as opportunity / Nikki Edgecombe. -- Part III: Enabling Ideas : Catching the waves: technology and the community college / Mark Milliron and John O'Brien. -- Transformative leadership wanted: making good on the promise of the open door / Margaretta B. Mathis and John E. Roueche. -- Using data to monitor what matters: a new role for trustees / Bryon McClenney. -- Epilogue: the missing transformative idea / Terry U. O'Banion.