This article describes a private, open-enrollment school in Washington state's agricultural valley which typically serves first-generation college-goers who were actually discouraged from seeking higher education. Heritage University, a 1,346-student commuter university, serves a region and a population that other institutions have historically…

This essay analyzes the ways in which subtly but powerfully racist ideologies of language and literacy shaped the institutional development of one writing program for "high-risk" African American college students during the late 1960s and early 1970s. It further theorizes the value of such institutional analysis for counteracting racism…

This article reports on a Texas charter school network which aims to expand the ranks of disadvantaged students who graduate, not just from high school, but from college as well. To earn a high school diploma, each student at YES (short for Youth Engaged in Service) Prep Public Schools, a growing Houston-area network of charters that predominantly…

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…

Nothing is dearer to community colleges than the belief that they can and should serve all eligible people who seek admittance. For decades, the "open door" community college has been an often-used, much-revered metaphor for equal opportunity in higher education. In this article, the author emphasizes that open access to community colleges is…