Congratulations to the faculty, staff, and administrators who are this year's recipients of the League's Innovation of the Year Award!

The League launched the award three decades ago to recognize local community college projects and initiatives that reflect extraordinary achievement and the spirit of innovation and experimentation on which the League was founded. The competition provides an opportunity for member colleges to showcase their innovative programs, practices, policies, partnerships, and resources; to celebrate the dedicated educators who are responsible for such exceptional work; and to promote a culture of innovation at their institutions.

Forty-two League Alliance member community colleges participated in the 2013 Innovation of the Year Awards. Selection is based on established criteria of quality, efficiency, cost effectiveness, replication, creativity, and timeliness. Award winners are determined through a nomination and selection process at individual member colleges. The League presents Innovation of the Year Award certificates to each participating college's winning innovation team, who are offered opportunities to present at League conferences and to share their stories through League publications. In addition, winners are recognized by their colleges through award ceremonies, press releases, articles, and Web announcements.

Click here to see the full list of 2013 Innovation of the Year Award recipients, and to:

• Learn about member college innovations that have improved student success, retention, and persistence.
• Find out how institutions are implementing systems for institutional accountability, tracking graduates, and improving online education.
• Read about service learning experiences that are integrating real-world training with public service provision.
• Review what colleges are doing to ensure hands-on, relevant workforce training in simulation labs and similar active learning environments.
• Discover how colleges are reorganizing and combining programs, courses, and curriculum to better serve today's community college students.