Higher education choice-making in the United States: freedom, inequality, legitimation

This paper examines how the process of making higher education choices in the United States – whether to enter higher education, attend a particular college, or follow a particular route – reproduces and legitimates social inequality. The paper’s central thesis is that a societal regime of many choices – while widely seen as serving individual freedom and producing social well-being – actually builds on and extends societal inequality but in a way that obscures that process of social reproduction to virtually all who participate in that regime. As the paper argues, the provision of many choices produces social inequality. People often make choices that do not serve their interests as well as they might wish, particularly if students are faced with many choices and do not have adequate information. Secondly, the incidence of those suboptimal choices is not random but is socially stratified. It is higher for less advantaged people, and societal factors – such as the unequal distribution of economic resources, unequal provision of good information, and unequal exposure to discrimination – play a crucial role in producing those socially stratified suboptimal choices. Finally, the provision of many choices legitimates social inequality. The more one thinks in terms of choices the more one tends to blame the unfortunate, including oneself, for their circumstances. Seemingly offered many choices in life, both the winners and losers in society come to feel that much of the inequality they experience is due to their own actions and therefore is legitimate. The paper concludes by offering various prescriptions for reducing the socially stratifying consequences and ideological impacts of a high-choice regime. In making these arguments, this paper draws on the research literature in sociology of education, behavioral economics, and social psychology of inequality

Student Choice in Higher Education—Reducing or Reproducing Social Inequalities?

A hallmark of recent higher education policy in developed economies is the move towards quasi-markets involving greater student choice and provider competition, underpinned by cost-sharing policies. This paper examines the idealizations and illusions of student choice and marketization in higher education policy in England, although the overall conclusions have relevance for other countries whose higher education systems are shaped by neoliberal thinking. First, it charts the evolution of the student-choice rationale through an analysis of government commissioned reports, white papers, and legislation, focusing on policy rhetoric and the purported benefits of increasing student choice and provider competition. Second, the paper tests the predictions advanced by the student-choice rationale—increased and wider access, improved institutional quality, and greater provider responsiveness to the labour market—and finds them largely not met. Finally, the paper explores how conceptual deficiencies in the student-choice model explain why the idealization of student choice has largely proved illusionary. Government officials have narrowly conceptualized students as rational calculators primarily weighing the economic costs and benefits of higher education and the relative quality of institutions and programs. There is little awareness that student choices are shaped by several other factors as well and that these vary considerably by social background. The paper concludes that students’ choices are socially constrained and stratified, reproducing and legitimating social inequality

English and American higher education access and completion policy regimes: similarities, differences and possible lessons

Abstract or Description: England and the United States provide a very interesting pairing as countries with many similarities, but also instructive dissimilarities, with respect to their policies for higher education access and success. The purpose of this paper is to explore these similarities and dissimilarities with an eye to what each country can learn from the other with regard to reducing social class and racial/ethnic differences in higher education access and success. We focus on seven policy strands affecting higher education access and completion: student information provision; outreach from higher education institutions; student financial aid; affirmative action or contextualisation in higher education admissions; higher education efforts to improve retention and completion; performance funding; and degree of reliance on sub-baccalaureate institutions. While not exhaustive, this list of interventions is meant to focus on key policies affecting the undergraduate student experience and to give a sense of their range. We explore possible lessons that England and the United States might draw from each other’s experiences, mindful of the dangers of uncritical “policy tourism”. In the case of the United States, we note why and how it might benefit from following England in the use of Access Agreements to govern the outreach efforts of its universities, making more use of income-contingent loans, and expanding the range of information provided to prospective college students about the programmes and institutions they are considering. Meanwhile, in the case of England, we examine how it might benefit from greater focus on the role of further education colleges, sceptical consideration of proposals to make greater use of for-profit higher education, greater use of grant aid in its financial aid system, more policy attention to decisions students are making in primary and early secondary school that affect their preparation for higher education, greater use of contextualised admissions, and very careful consideration of the possible downsides of performance funding

Implementation of College In-State Tuition for Undocumented Immigrants in New York

This qualitative case study explored how New York’s in-state tuition policy is being implemented for undocumented immigrants at two community colleges within the City University of New York (CUNY) system. This investigation discovered that CUNY has devoted its own resources in the development of workshops, training sessions, manuals, and centers to assist in the implementation of this measure. Also, this study found that — while these colleges and CUNY overall have made a commitment towards the successful implementation of this policy — undocumented immigrants still face barriers in obtaining in-state tuition rates. The objective of this investigation is to under-stand how New York’s in-state tuition policy is being implemented for undocumented immi-grants. To explore this phenomenon, two groups of individuals were interviewed, state-3Spring 2010 NYLARNet 9 level officials6 and local-level officials.7 While no undocumented immigrants were requested to participate, the perception of that group was gathered from local-level officials. The in-sights of both sets of officials will provide a glimpse into how each has been involved with or affected by the manner in which this policy has been shaped and implemented for this specific population

Analyzing Neoliberalism in Theory and Practice: The Case of Performance-Based Funding for Higher Education

Neoliberal ideas – whether the new public management, principal-agent theory, or performance management – have provided rationale for sweeping reforms in the governance and operation of higher education. Despite this, little attention has been devoted to how well neoliberal theory illuminates the policy process by which neoliberal policy is enacted and implemented. This paper expands our understanding of the origins, implementation, and impacts of neoliberal policies by examining the case of performance-based funding (PBF) for higher education in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere. With regard to policy origins, neoliberal theory anticipates the key role that top government officials play in the development of PBF but fails to anticipate the important roles of business and higher education institutions in the formation of neoliberal policies. Neoliberal theory notes the important role of monetary incentives as policy instruments and the obstacles posed by gaming on the part of agents, but the implementation of PBF also involves other policy instruments and faces additional obstacles to implementation. Policy outcomes fitting the neoliberal focus on organizational effectiveness and efficiency are only weakly produced by PBF, but PBF is associated with a host of unintended impacts that neoliberal theory ignores

Choice Is Not Always Good: Reducing the Role of Informational Inequality in Producing and Legitimating Higher Education Inequality

This paper examines how the process of making higher education choices in the United States—whether to enter higher education, attend a particular college, or follow a particular path through college—produces and legitimates social inequality. The paper’s central thesis is that a societal regime of many choices—while serving individual freedom and producing social well-being—produces societal inequality in a way that obscures that process of social reproduction for virtually all who participate in that choice regime. Students often make choices that do not serve their interests as well as they might wish, particularly if students are faced with many choices and do not have adequate information. The incidence of those suboptimal choices is not random but is socially stratified. It is higher for less advantaged people, and unequal provision of good information plays a crucial role in producing those socially stratified suboptimal choices. Secondly, the provision of many choices legitimates social inequality. Seemingly offered many choices in life, both the fortunate and unfortunate in society come to feel that much of the inequality they experience is due to their own actions and therefore is legitimate. The paper concludes by offering various prescriptions for reducing the socially stratifying impacts and ideological consequences of a high-choice regime. It lays out how we could more equally distribute high-quality information, nudge students toward better choice making, reduce the costs to students of suboptimal choices, and mitigate blaming self and others by demystifying the nature of choice. In making these arguments, this paper draws on the research literature in sociology of education, higher education, behavioral economics, cognitive psychology, and social psychology of inequality

State Systems of Performance Accountability for Community Colleges: Impacts and Lessons for Policymakers

This policy brief contains an analysis of the intended and unintended impacts of performance accountability on community colleges drawing on the experiences of 15 community colleges in six states in CCRC's National Field Study of Community Colleges

The New Economic Development Role of the Community College

Community colleges have long been involved in workforce preparation and economic development—in the form of the occupational education of students. But in the last two decades, community colleges have greatly broadened their economic development role to include contract training, small-business incubation and assistance, and local economic planning. Contract training. Over 90 percent of community colleges offer contract training. Unlike traditional occupational education, contract training involves an outside party—a business or a government agency—rather than the individual student as the primary client. The contractor largely determines who receives the training and the content of the training. Even if the content is little different from a college’s traditional vocational offerings, contract training programs are customized to the contractor’s requirements in other regards, such as where, when, and how the training is delivered. Rigorous studies of the impact of contract training on trainees and their employers are scarce. The studies available do show positive effects on both, but the data are too sparse to allow definitive conclusions. However, more definite findings are available about the impact on community colleges themselves. Contract training boosts enrollments and revenues. It enlarges business's external support for, and internal involvement in, the community college. It changes the content of the vocational courses and the liberal arts courses servicing them. It raises the standing of continuing education faculty, but brings them into conflict with traditional vocational faculty. And more speculatively, there is evidence that contract training may erode the commitment of community colleges to traditional liberal arts values, transfer education, and remedial education. Small-business assistance and incubation. Over a third of community colleges offer advice and training to small firms in such things as management, personnel practices, marketing, finance, and work practices, and a few even provide nascent firms with low-cost space and administrative support. Although small-business assistance brings in little money, it apparently brings community colleges some new students and strengthens their base of political support. The effects on the client firms themselves are less clear, however. Local economic planning. This is the newest and least-charted dimension of the colleges’ new economic role. This new activity includes scanning the environment for economic, social, and political developments and passing this information on to employers, government agencies, and the public at large. Also many community colleges have joined local economic planning organizations and even convened meetings of local political and economic leaders to shape economic development policy. Finally, community colleges have even lobbied local, state, and federal government in favor of certain economic policies. Based largely on anecdotal evidence, this new role seems to help community colleges get more contract training requests and solidify their ties to local business and government agencies. However, it also carries the risk of ensnaring the colleges in local political conflicts. Research and policy recommendations. Data on the impact of the new economic role on trainees, firms, and community colleges are relatively scarce. In particular, we need much more research on the impacts of community college efforts in the areas of small business assistance and local economic planning. Moreover, we should more closely investigate the impact of contract training on the colleges’ commitment to transfer and remedial education and on businesses shouldering their proper share of the cost of employee training. On the policy side, as community colleges deepen their role in workforce preparation and economic development, public policies need to be devised to bolster the colleges’ commitment to general education, baccalaureate preparation, and remedial education

Duplex ultrasound imaging alone is sufficient for midterm endovascular aneurysm repair surveillance: A cost analysis study and prospective comparison with computed tomography scan

ObjectiveEarly in our experience with endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR) we performed both serial computed tomography scans and duplex ultrasound (DU) imaging in our post-EVAR surveillance regimen. Later we conducted a prospective study with DU imaging as the sole surveillance study and determined cost savings and outcome using this strategy.MethodsFrom September 21, 1998, to May 30, 2008, 250 patients underwent EVAR at our hospital. Before July 1, 2004, EVAR patients underwent CT and DU imaging performed every 6 months during the first year and then annually if no problems were identified (group 1). We compared aneurysm sac size, presence of endoleak, and graft patency between the two scanning modalities. After July 1, 2004, patients underwent surveillance using DU imaging as the sole surveillance study unless a problem was detected (group 2). CT and DU imaging charges for each regimen were compared using our 2008 health system pricing and Medicare reimbursements. All DU examinations were performed in our accredited noninvasive vascular laboratory by experienced technologists. Statistical analysis was performed using Pearson correlation coefficient.ResultsDU and CT scans were equivalent in determining aneurysm sac diameter after EVAR (P < .001). DU and CT were each as likely to falsely suggest an endoleak when none existed and were as likely to miss an endoleak. Using DU imaging alone would have reduced cost of EVAR surveillance by 29% ($534,356) in group 1. Cost savings of$1595 per patient per year were realized in group 2 by eliminating CT scan surveillance. None of the group 2 patients sustained an adverse event such as rupture, graft migration, or limb occlusion as a result of having DU imaging performed as the sole follow-up modality.ConclusionSurveillance of EVAR patients can be performed accurately, safely, and cost-effectively with DU as the sole imaging study

The Political Origins of State-Level Performance Funding for Higher Education: The Cases of Florida, Illinois, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington

Performance funding is a method of funding public institutions based not on inputs, such as enrollments, but on outcomes, such as retention, degree completion, and job placement. The principal rationale for performance funding has been that performance funding will prod institutions to be more effective and efficient, particularly in a time of increasing demands on higher education and increasingly straitened state finances. Critics of performance funding have warned that it could potentially provide state officials with an excuse to cut back on the regular state funding of higher education and at the same time provide college officials with an incentive to raise their retention and graduation rates by becoming more selective in their admissions. This report examines in detail the origins of state performance funding in six states: Florida, Illinois, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington. These states were chosen for analysis because they have considerably different state performance funding systems and histories as well as higher education governance arrangements, political systems, political cultures, and social characteristics—all of which enables the authors to look at the formation of state performance funding systems from a wide variety of angles. Interestingly, analysis reveals that there are striking similarities among these six states, particularly in terms of who were the main supporters and opponents, what beliefs animated them, and what political openings allowed policy entrepreneurs to put performance funding on the decision making agendas of state governments. This analysis yields some important lessons for policymakers, which are discussed at the conclusion of this paper