Keep Out the Poor, the Huddled Masses…

By Matt Reed. I don’t often do this, but I’ll devote two posts to the same book. In this one, I’ll respond to the larger conceptual issue highlighted in the IHE account of the book. In a week or two, after having actually read the book itself, I’ll respond to its specifics more closely.
Juliet Lilledahl Scherer and Mirra Leigh Anson have written a new book, Community Colleges and the Access Effect, in which they apparently argue that community colleges would be better off if they adopted selective admissions.  From the IHE account -- and again, stipulating that a detailed reading has yet to come -- they argue that open admissions policies and a focus on degree completion have contributed to a sort of false hope among the truly incapable that they’ll be able to get a degree. Read more...