Items related to Changing the Odds – Open Admissions & the...

Changing the Odds – Open Admissions & the Life Chances of the Disadvantaged - Hardcover

Lavin, David E

 
9780300063288: Changing the Odds – Open Admissions & the Life Chances of the Disadvantaged
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0300063288 ISBN 13: 9780300063288
Publisher: Yale University Press, 1996

Synopsis

The open-admissions experiment at the City University of New York was the most ambitious effort ever made to promote equality of opportunity in American higher education. Initiated in 1970, during the heyday of the "great society," it defined college as a right for all who had completed high school, and it especially aimed to create educational opportunities for disadvantaged minority students. This book evaluates that controversial experiment.

Although critics predicted that the open-admissions policy would sweep away academic standards and result in watered-down degrees of little value, David Lavin and David Hyllegard present data to show that students who graduated were able not only to earn postgraduate degrees at non-CUNY institutions but also to obtain good jobs--far better than the jobs they could have expected without the opportunity open admissions gave them. Indeed, in one year in the 1980s, say the authors, open-admissions students earned $67 million more than they would have if they had not gone to college.

Notwithstanding the successes of open admissions, attacks on it have continued, and, as the book shows, minority access to college has been cut back significantly at CUNY and elsewhere. This book provides ammunition for those who want to challenge emerging policies that narrow educational opportunities for minority students and poor people.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author

David E. Lavin is professor of sociology at Lehman College and at the Graduate School of the City University of New York. David Hyllegard is Director of Institutional Research at Borough of Manhattan Community College.

From the Back Cover

The open-admissions experiment at the City University of New York was the most ambitious effort ever made to promote equality of opportunity in American higher education. Initiated in 1970, during the heyday of the "great society", it defined college as a right for all who had completed high school, and it especially aimed to create educational opportunities for disadvantaged minority students. This book evaluates that controversial experiment. Although critics predicted that the open-admissions policy would sweep away academic standards and result in watered down degrees of little value, David Lavin and David Hyllegard present data to show that students who graduated were able not only to earn postgraduate degrees at non-CUNY institutions but also to obtain good jobs - far better than the jobs they could have expected without the opportunity open admissions gave them. Indeed, in one year in the 1980s, say the authors, open-admissions students earned $67 million more than they would have if they had not gone to college. Notwithstanding the successes of open admissions, attacks on it have continued, and, as the book shows, minority access to college has been cut back significantly at CUNY and elsewhere. This book provides ammunition for those who want to challenge emerging policies that narrow educational opportunities for minority students and poor people.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Yale University Press
Publication date
1996
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0300063288
ISBN 13 
9780300063288
Binding
Hardcover
Edition number
1
Number of pages
304