JUNIOR COLLEGE ARTICULATION: ADMISSION, RETENTION, REMEDIATION, TRANSFER

Abstract

The “open‐door” policy, which described admissions into the public junior college, was an expression of the ideal of universal access to postsecondary education. The intention was that disadvantaged high‐school graduates would be given another chance to break the poverty cycle, and minority students an opportunity to extend their skills and realize wider career choices. As the number of applicants thus becoming eligible for a college education increased, so did the problems of the two‐year institutions. The open door was beginning to look like a revolving door, when more and more of these students could not perform satisfactorily in any college program. The state boards of education began to realize that not only admissions policies, but also retention standards, degree requirements, and transfer credits would need review.