It is both the best of times and the worst of times for America's community colleges. In the 100 years since their creation, these colleges have spread across the United States to become the largest sector of higher education, representing nearly 1,200 regionally accredited institutions within commuting distance of over 90 percent of the…

Last May, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce and its 21st Century Competitiveness Subcommittee, which are responsible for the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, introduced H.R. 4283, the College Access and Opportunity Act (superseded in 2005 by H.R. 609). None of the debates over this proposed…

Over the past decade, the understanding of student mobility patterns has increased considerably through research based in the analysis of longitudinal data sets. A significant challenge to crafting effective policies on student mobility emerges from most states focusing on full-time, 18-to-24-year-old students. While fewer than half of…

Social and economic changes in recent decades have meant significant changes in the mission, quality, and cost of public colleges; and an elite public higher education structure is emerging. A major overhaul of public higher education's economic policies and financial strategies is needed if it is to become affordable again. (MSE)

The Higher Education Research Program, 19 educational practitioners invited by The Pew Charitable Trusts to help take stock of higher education's strengths and weaknesses, its challenges and opportunities, is discussed. Three principal issues facing higher education include costs, the quality of teaching and learning, and making higher education…

Some thoughts on higher education in the 1980s are presented. The commitments made to higher education by Congress have included: education accessible to those likely to be excluded either by economic or physical disadvantage, research, support of institutions of culture, and strengthening of international studies. (MLW)

David Breneman's "The Coming Enrollment Crisis: What Every Trustee Must Know" is discussed by Wharton, L. Edward Allemand, Barbara S. Uehling, Irving J. Spitzberg, Jr., Oscar E. Remick, Thomas V. Litzenburg, Jr., and John W. Pocock. Implications for reversals of social and political policy, student retention, developing compensatory…