Background/Context: Performance funding finances public higher education institutions based on outcomes such as retention, course and degree completion, and job placement rather than inputs such as enrollments. One of the mysteries of state performance funding for higher education is that despite great interest in it for over 30 years, only half…

Background/Context: Performance funding in higher education ties government funding to institutional performance on indicators such as retention, graduation, and job placement. Performance funding can also be found in state K-12 funding policies and higher education quality assurance programs abroad. One of the puzzles about higher education…

The growing policy interest in community colleges as gateways to the baccalaureate degree naturally raises the question of how equitably transfer opportunities are distributed by student background and what factors may explain background differences that might be found. We analyze two nationally representative data sets to examine how the…

Describes the now widespread community college involvement in contract training, explaining how this involvement arose and analyzing its impact on the community college. Information comes from national data on contract training and from case studies of the forms contract training takes in community colleges in five states servicing five very…

Given the uncertain benefits of universalizing higher education and the possibility of substantial costs, the issue needs to be examined as a social phenomenon and a political proposal. Social and institutional consequences of this type of educational change need to be weighed. (SM)