Increasing Access to College: Extending Possibilities for All Students (review)

The face of higher education is much more diverse than it was at its origin in this country. "College" initially meant private postsecondary education for white males, and even then only the elite of this population had access. Today colleges and universities are diverse institutions (public, private, four-year, two-year, etc.) that serve diverse people (race, gender, SES, etc.). Diversity in higher education is beneficial to the cognitive and social development of both minority and nonminority students. However, higher education access issues carry the potential threat of confining enrollments again to a narrowly defined population. Tierney and Hagedorn's Increasing Access to College: Extending Possibilities for All Students, is a creative and comprehensive collection of work from renowned scholars that takes a critical look at college access and the efforts to make college enrollments reflective of the college-going population. These works are far more than noteworthy opinion pieces; the contributors go to great lengths to base their work on the salient literature and credible research strategies.

Hagedorn and Tierney report that "despite what might be termed 'gallant efforts' by some programs, there has not been a dramatic increase in college attendance, retention, and graduation for low-income and minority youth. . . . [P]resent practices have neither ameliorated nor quashed the academic divide" (p. 1). Several contributors reported data indicating that African American and Latino students' matriculation rates lag far behind those of their White and Asian American peers, a pattern that continues into the college experience. The editors argue that this reality is unacceptable and objectionable for both moral and practical reasons. The assumption of value of a representative population in higher education sets the stage for this collection of work.

Most college-access programs, despite their diversity across the country, tend to use a deficit model as a foundation for program development. Precollege programs, known as "college prep," can be placed in a four-cell matrix of activity: academic/nonacademic topics and in school/out of school service delivery. Nationally, these programs target a broad spectrum of student characteristics, such as level of achievement, gender, income status, historically underrepresented minorities, and school location. Precollege programs involve both the public and private sectors. Federal dollars for programs such as TRIO and GEAR UP usually address the economic barriers to higher education, while efforts in the private sector such as IHAD, MESA, and MSEN have an outreach element that motivates students to see college as a real possibility.

The discussions on the "real world" of college preparation programs provide substantive arguments for continuing the efforts to unclog the educational pipeline. The authors' use of empirical measures and qualitative analysis send chilling messages about educational inequality (intentional or circumstantial) and how it robs minority students of college as a viable option. The chill of this revelation gives way to the warmth of hope as the authors make convincing arguments for how to foster access for all students. For example, one recurring theme is that students are not one-dimensional and neither is the concept of "access." Contributors argue convincingly for conceptualizing college access from cultural, political, feminist, and social perspectives. Embracing the challenge of access to college from multiple perspectives charts a pathway of moving away from a deficit model of intervention to an affirming model that uses cultural realities as a foundation to build success. Preparing students for college must be a collaborative venture between K-12 and postsecondary institutions to make equity in access an empirical manifestation rather than an observable phenomenon. The authors devote considerable attention to the K-12 side of the collaborative venture, thus providing important input on possible interventions. However, the discussion on the postsecondary side of the collaborative venture was skimpy, and the status quo for those already in college seems likely...