Community Colleges and the Access Effect: Why Open Admissions Suppresses Achievement

by Juliet Lilledahl Scherer, M. Anson

Taking on the cherished principle that community colleges should be open to all students with a high school education, Scherer and Anson argue that open access policies and lenient federal financial aid laws harm students and present the case for raising the minimum requirements for community college entry.

269 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Jonna Higgins-Freese · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating and thought-provoking argument regarding the need to more clearly signal to high school students the true requirements to being credit-bearing work at community colleges in the United States.

Interesting bits:

-- community college education is, in a financial sense, already almost completely accessible to U.S. citizens. Average 2012-2013 tuition was $3,130; the maximum federal Pell Grant of $5550 completely covers this, likely along with the cost of other supplies and fees. A Manhattan Institute for Policy Research Study found that "there were about 1,299,000 college-ready 18-year-olds in 2000, and the actual number of persons entering college for the first time in that year was about 1,341,000. This indicates that there is not a a large population of college-ready graduates who are prevented from actually attending college" (2). [This would be true except that 30% of community college students are non-traditional students, i.e. not fresh from high school. Therefore there may be a gap of half a million students who just graduated high school who didn't enroll -- though there's a good argument to be made that perhaps they didn't wish to, aside from financial aid (2).

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written and informative book that explains the problems of open admissions and offers solutions. A must read for every taxpayer that wants the best value for their tax dollar.