College Choice and Access to College: Moving Policy, Research, and Practice to the 21st Century (review)
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Among the most vexing challenges we face as a society is social inequality, for which our education system is at once the problem, by propagating disadvantages through disparate access to opportunities, and the solution, by delivering programs and services that aim to eradicate disadvantages. Over the past half-century, the American education system has witnessed steady growth in educational aspirations, postsecondary participation rates, and the variety of educational options available to college students.
Despite these gains and the sustained concentration among policymakers, there remain socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in college access, and the literature offers surprisingly few examples of research that reviews and synthesizes extant theory and evidence on this important topic. Amy Bergerson’s 2010 ASHE Higher Education Report titled College Choice and Access to College: Moving Policy, Research, and Practice to the 21st Century, responds to this need by summarizing trends in current research and discussing ways to increase access to higher education for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The report makes at least three notable contributions. First, Bergerson synthesizes college choice research from the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century with a concentration on low-income students and students of color. Bergerson adds clarity to the large body of research on college choice that has emerged over the past 20 years by building on and delivering an important companion piece to Paulsen’s 1990 ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report and Perna’s 2006 chapter in the Higher Education Handbook.
Second, the monograph describes theoretical perspectives that inform research on student decision-making and access to educational opportunity. [End Page 669] Bergerson introduces, defines, and often revisits sociological perspectives including theories of class reproduction in ways that are accessible to a range of audiences, although a comparable examination of economic perspectives related to consumer decision-making and human capital theory is essentially absent.
Third, by focusing on equity and access, Bergerson channels readers’ attention to those students most worthy of equity-focused policy intervention. College Choice and Access to College was not written for a policy audience, yet Bergeron’s efforts to summarize the literature in ways that could inform policy represents one of the monograph’s most important accomplishments.
Bergerson delivers in each of these areas within seven primary chapters. Two introductory chapters develop the context surrounding the monograph, comprised of the history of college choice research in combination with current research trends. In the opening chapter, Bergerson does particularly well in distinguishing between the concepts of college access and college choice and in explaining why understanding the factors that determine students’ access to college is a necessary precursor to delving into the complexities of the choice process. By also presenting current trends in college choice research, Bergerson sharpens the monograph’s focus by directing readers’ attention to the impacts of policy—primarily financial aid policy—on students’ postsecondary decisions. The third chapter examines research built on Hossler and Gallagher’s (1987) classic three-phase model. By drawing distinctions between “comprehensive” models versus models that are conditional on specific student characteristics (such as race/ ethnicity and socioeconomic backgrounds), she brings issues of access and equity to the forefront. The chapter next turns its focus to “alternative lenses for viewing the college choice process” (p. 41) with a review of critical topics related to social reproduction and cultural wealth perspectives. This brief section marks an important advancement for conceptualizing and interpreting models of college choice and access, and sets the stage for the subsequent chapters on socioeconomic and racial/ ethnic differences in college choice.
Chapters 4 and 5 discuss college choice processes among specific subpopulations, including lower-socioeconomic students and students of color. Bergerson examines college access and choice for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds through the lens of social and cultural capital, and the related concept of habitus, by reviewing studies that demonstrate...
