Jabbar Huriya, Sánchez Joanna, Epstein Eliza
Educational Policy and Planning, Department of Educational Administration, The University of Texas at Austin, 1912 Speedway, D5400, Austin, TX 78751, USA.
Urban Rev. 2017 Dec;49(5):746-776. doi: 10.1007/s11256-017-0420-2. Epub 2017 Jun 15.
Community colleges have received renewed attention from policymakers seeking to increase college attendance and completion rates because they provide open access to postsecondary education for historically marginalized students. Yet, transfer rates from community colleges to 4-year institutions are low. Inequities in opportunity that are shaped by geography and compounded throughout childhood may restrict higher education opportunities for low-income, first-generation college students. Most studies examining how geography constrains college choice focus on high school students' initial decisions about higher education, not community college students. We analyze the spatial distribution of community college students' "choice sets," the 4-year institutions that they are considering transferring to. Using qualitative interviews and geospatial analysis, we examine how these spatial patterns compare between two community-college systems in Central Texas. We find that students' choice sets are geographically constrained, but that for many students, these zones are geographically large, suggesting that interventions and targeted outreach from universities could help students identify and select from greater range of options. Our findings have important implications for college access and completion among first-generation college students, and for policies that seek to interrupt patterns of inequity tied to location.
社区学院受到了政策制定者的重新关注，他们试图提高大学入学率和毕业率，因为社区学院为历来被边缘化的学生提供了接受高等教育的机会。然而，从社区学院转入四年制院校的转学率很低。由地理位置塑造并在整个童年时期不断加剧的机会不平等，可能会限制低收入、第一代大学生接受高等教育的机会。大多数研究地理因素如何限制大学选择的研究都集中在高中生关于高等教育的初始决策上，而不是社区学院的学生。我们分析了社区学院学生“选择集”的空间分布，即他们考虑转学的四年制院校。通过定性访谈和地理空间分析，我们研究了德克萨斯州中部两个社区学院系统之间的这些空间模式有何不同。我们发现，学生的选择集在地理上受到限制，但对许多学生来说，这些区域在地理上面积很大，这表明大学的干预措施和有针对性的宣传可以帮助学生从更多的选择中进行识别和挑选。我们的研究结果对第一代大学生的大学入学和毕业，以及旨在打破与地理位置相关的不平等模式的政策具有重要意义。
