Caitlin Ahearn

College for All: New Institutional Conflicts in the Transition to Adulthood

This chapter examines how community colleges shape the life course of individuals transitioning into adulthood, and whether alternative institutional structures and better informed students might reduce some of the unintended conflicts between education and other life domains. We focus on several conflicts. We examine simultaneous role conflicts between life domains, simultaneous time conflicts between educational and life timetables, and sequential conflicts that occur during transitions. Mortimer and Kruger (Pathways from school to work in Germany and the United States. In: Hallinan MT (ed) Handbook of the sociology of education Springer, New York, pp 475–497, 2000) contend that clear school-work connections may help shape youths’ career plans and outcomes so they can anticipate and prepare for future demands. We examine how educational institutions shape these connections and how the lives of low-income and disadvantaged students may be particularly affected. We conclude by suggesting that improved transition structures may reduce conflicts and avoid the problems imposed by extended educational timetables.

Improving High School–College Alignment: A Sociological Reform and New Challenges

Abstract This paper analyzes teacher responses to a distinctive reform that sought to implement alignment between high schools and colleges. A survey of 225 teachers is used to examine teachers’ perceptions of the reform’s effectiveness, further resources needed, and how perceptions changed over time. The reform was perceived as effective for college-bound students, but not for non-college-bound students, magnifying the discrepant needs of these groups. Steps to improve the program are suggested.

College-for-All: Alternative Options and Procedures

This chapter discusses how the status attainment model has been integral to our understanding of the factors affecting average educational attainment, but it poorly describes institutional procedures and individual strategies that lead to academic success. We pose new issues for understanding the experiences of the growing populations of disadvantaged students in open-admissions 2-year colleges. We describe the experiences of individuals from a small study to provide evidence of how disadvantaged students manage to beat the odds and attain educational success. While we cannot address issues of generalizability, we describe alternative sequences and pathways to educational attainment, institutional supports and procedures, and their self-identified sources of direction, despite the major obstacles and setbacks. We situate our cases in prior extensions of the status attainment model to consider alternative mechanisms to educational attainment. These analyses are crucial if we are to understand the dynamic processes that drive educational attainment despite major obstacles.

What Educators Should Know about College-for-All Policies.

This study finds that schools are poorly prepared to counsel students about community college certificate or associate degree programs. Instead the mantra of college for all continues to encourage youth to spend time and money on bachelor’s degrees, for which many students are not prepared to do well. Teachers desire more information on college and career options for their low-performing and disengaged students, and the authors show that community colleges offer many college and career opportunities that can serve these students.