With an open door policy and the influx of non-traditionally oriented students, community colleges face one of the most critical issues in education today--educating the academically underprepared student. A large percentage of the Chicago City Colleges' enrollment scores in the lowest third on tests of academic ability. These students are not…

Despite some initial hesitancy in the first half of the twentieth century to award associate degrees, since the end of World War II, the associate degree has become as widely accepted by two-year colleges as the baccalaureate degree is by four-year colleges. This is evidenced by the steady increase in the number of associate degrees awarded…

Information on establishing and running a free university is presented in this handbook. A free university is defined as an organization offering ungraded, unaccredited classes, activities and programs to the general public. Information on starting the free university includes: how to determine the needs of your community; deciding on a name and…

Conceived by the British Labor Government in the 1960's the Open University was viewed as a way to extend higher education to Britain's working class, but enrollment figures in classes that represent traditional academic disciplines show that the student population is predominantly middle class. Bringing education into the home presents numerous…

The rhetoric of the community colleges presents them as democratizing agents, enabling the underprivileged to move upward in society through education. While this is their purpose, the community colleges also aspire to gain acceptance as regular members of the system of higher education. In Connecticut, the image of the community colleges suffers…

This report begins with summaries of the ten popular desegregation plan strategies implemented after the 1954 Supreme Court decision. These strategies encompass the following: neighborhood schools, educational parks, voluntary transfer, gerrymandering attendance zones, closing minority schools, pupil assignment, organization by grades (Princeton…

A state-wide study of transfer students moving from two-year to four-year colleges in 1974 was conducted in order to describe the extent to which the New Jersey County Colleges were serving as the entry point for students seeking a baccalaureate degree, to enhance the understanding of the impact of two-year college transfer students on the…

This report chronicles the East Hartford, Connecticut, Parents' Choice Project--an education voucher plan. The plan was intended to dovetail with the school system's already-existing open enrollment policy and was to include the area's private and parochial schools, as well as all the public schools. The feasibility and implementation studies…

Comparisons were conducted to assess the impact of levels of communication apprehension (CA) on students in a traditional hybrid basic course against students placed in freshmen interest group (FIG) settings. This investigation assessed the impact of the FIG classroom at an open admissions 4-year college on reduction of communication apprehension…

The Open University Younger Student Pilot Scheme, a five-year research project is discussed. Project objectives included: testing the suitability of students in the 18 to 20 year age group, developing predictive indices of success and failure, and assessing the level and nature of the demand for places. (Author/MLW)

A program officer at the Ford Foundation traces her experiences as student and "young trustee" at Vassar, graduate student at Columbia University during the early '70s, and teacher at Staten Island Community College. The challenge of diversity that she encountered in the '70s is seen as still prevalent today. (MLW)

Middletown High School is a comprehensive high school with 1,970 students, located in the environs of Washington, DC. It is distinguished by an open enrollment policy for all courses; a strong emphasis on inclusion of students with learning disabilities (LD) in general education classrooms; block scheduling that allows for more in-depth and…

This paper presents findings of a study that analyzed participation patterns and the movement of students and state funds in Ohio during the 1993-94 school year, the first year during which Ohio's interdistrict open-enrollment law was fully implemented. The theoretical framework for the study was drawn from economics and business theories of…

A study and analysis was done of the contributions that open-admissions at City University of New York (CUNY) have made to the development and growth of a college educated class of men and women, especially minorities. In particular the analysis examined the marital, education, and economic contexts in which the children of participants in…

This study examined the student characteristics of Athabasca University (AU), Alberta, Canada, a distance and open university, and asked whether AU serves the student clientele that its mission proposes and to what the AU graduates attribute success. Established to make it possible for people to earn a university education regardless of where they…