{"product_id":"the-diverted-dream-community-colleges-and-the-promise-of-educational-opportunity-in-america-19001985","title":"The Diverted Dream: Community Colleges and the Promise of Educational Opportunity in America  1900-1985","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the twentieth century  Americans have increasingly looked to the schools--and  in particular  to the nations colleges and universities--as guardians of the cherished national ideal of equality of opportunity. With the best jobs increasingly monopolized by those with higher education  the opportunity to attend college has become an integral part of the American dream of upward mobility. The two-year college--which now enrolls more than four million students in over 900 institutions--is a central expression of this dream  and its invention at the turn of the century constituted one of the great innovations in the history of American education. By offering students of limited means the opportunity to start higher education at home and to later transfer to a four-year institution  the two-year school provided a major new pathway to a college diploma--and to the nations growing professional and managerial classes. But in the past two decades  the community college has undergone a profound change  shifting its emphasis from liberal-arts transfer courses to terminal vocational programs. Drawing on developments nationwide as well as in the specific case of Massachusetts  Steven Brint and Jerome Karabel offer a history of community colleges in America  explaining why this shift has occurred after years of student resistance and examining its implications for upward mobility. As the authors argue in this exhaustively researched and pioneering study  the junior college has always faced the contradictory task of extending a college education to the hitherto excluded  while diverting the majority of them from the nations four-year colleges and universities. Very early on  two-year college administrators perceived vocational training for \"semi-professional\" work as their and their students most secure long-term niche in the educational hierarchy. With two thirds of all community college students enrolled in vocational programs  the authors contend that the dream of education as a route to upward mobility  as well as the ideal of equal educational opportunity for all  are seriously threatened. With the growing public debate about the state of American higher education and with more than half of all first-time degree-credit students now enrolled in community colleges  a full-scale  historically grounded examination of their place in American life is long overdue. This landmark study provides such an examination  and in so doing  casts critical light on what is distinctive not only about American education  but American society itself.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44966464978997,"sku":"ByrdShop_0195048164","price":32.03,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780195048162.jpg?v=1770563338","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-diverted-dream-community-colleges-and-the-promise-of-educational-opportunity-in-america-19001985","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}