In the early 1990s a handful of states created independent public charter schools, providing opportunities for teachers and others to develop innovative schooling options. Unlike private schools funded through vouchers or tuition tax credits, these new public schools practice open admissions, accepting all students as space permits. In exchange…

Community colleges enroll nearly half the undergraduates in the U.S. These institutions play a significant role in the academic, social, political, and economic future of our nation. As historically open admission institutions, with a primary focus on providing access to higher education, they have been pressed in recent decades--as has all of…

More and more families are willing to go to any lengths to get their children into the right schools, even if it means crossing the line between right and wrong. Boundary hopping--falsifying residency status to attend a particular school--has been around for years. In a handful of states, it has been alleviated by open enrollment, choice programs,…

Recent national budget shortfalls in the United States have caused many states to evaluate various ways to cut their budgets--including cutting education expenditures--while community college enrollments have continued to explode. The combination of these 2 factors threatens the traditional open door policy of public community colleges.

The battle over open admissions and remedial education at the City University of New York (CUNY) in the 1990s garnered national attention and marked a shift towards greater selectivity in America's public, four-year higher education institutions. After launching open admissions in 1970, CUNY transformed from a majority-White system to one that had…

Explains the City University of New York's reversal of its 1970 Open Admissions Policy and discusses the ramifications of that reversal. (NH)

In this article, the authors present two stories that depict the best and worst of times experienced by today's community college students. Within these narratives are both vestiges of the past--pieces that some colleges have yet to fully discard--and exemplars of a potentially brighter, more engaging future. While they are fictitious, these…

America's community colleges have a unique mission to provide open access and affordable education to all who desire to learn. Unfortunately, this core mission is being threatened by myriad economic, social, and political challenges that community college leaders must confront and overcome.

In 1976, Indiana University began offering a General Studies degree to open degree opportunities to those who are not necessarily able to return to the campus and meet residency requirements for other degrees. As a cornerstone of the program, a flexible admission policy was included for those 21 years or older. (JOW)

Community colleges must deal with the academic weakness of students upon admission as well as their competency at graduation. Describes a program at North Iowa Area Community College designed to help students see life as a whole, gain basic skills needed in the world of work, and produce grades reflecting the attainment of those skills. (JOW)

Acton (Massachusetts) Public Schools' open enrollment experience shows that a system can develop a common curriculum while allowing individual schools and teachers considerable instructional latitude. Confronting open enrollment pitfalls such as intensified competition, pressures for curriculum standards, and enrollment dilemmas helped this…

A trend is emerging to open enrollment for honors and AP classes to all students who wish to take them. Teachers of these open enrollment classes may be facing several dilemmas. How can the high standards and academic rigor of the course be maintained? How can students who struggle to learn be supported in their endeavors to keep up with the…

In the last century, public schools changed in ways that dramatically reduced the control that parents have over their local schools. Regaining that control is one key to improving the quality of our schools, and giving students a choice of schools is one way of increasing the influence that parents have over the way schools are run. Several…

An intensive advising program for entering freshmen at the College of Staten Island was designed to provide information, personal interaction, clarification or development of immediate and long-range goals, and direction in attaining them. Analysis of the advising session content and program results is presented. (MSE)

Home-schooling students in the Cupertino Union School District, California, are enrolled at one alternative school. Each home-schooling family is assigned a resource teacher who is responsible for meeting with students and parents at least once a month. The district provides a variety of materials and services. (MLF)