Description
Book SynopsisBeyond Free College outlines an audacious national agendaconsistent with, but far more comprehensive than, the current free college movementthat builds on the best of US higher education's populist history such as the G.I. Bill and the community college transfer function. The authors align a wide constellation of higher education trendsonline learning, prior learning assessment, competency-based learning, high school college-credit with a rapidly shifting student transfer environment that privileges college credit as the pivotal educational catalyst to boost access and completion. The book's agenda seeks greater productive investment in postsecondary education by privileging a single metriclower-cost-per-degree-grantedas the animating driver of a transfer pathway that will fulfill the potential of its historical, progressive innovators. Beyond Free College's goal is as simple as it is urgent: To galvanize higher education advocates in an effort to reorganize, reorient, and reignite
Trade Review
Although written before the pandemic of COVID-19, Beyond Free College: Making Higher Education Work for 21st Century Students outlines a compelling, research-informed pathway forward for our country. Inspired by models such as StriveTogether and the G.I. Bill, Strempel and Handel issue a clarion call for an immediate strategic national reinvestment in our higher education infrastructure. With a clear focus on degree completion and the cost of producing those degrees, we as a nation are called to re-enact the support provided to our veterans returning from World War Two. The G.I. Bill garnered bipartisan support, and provided tuition dollars, alongside essential life supports for food, housing, and childcare. At this critical time in our nation’s history, as we confront a pandemic and a racial reckoning, the research is unassailable: Education, properly supported and strategically focused, can transform lives, families, and our society.
-- Nancy L. Zimpher, Chancellor Emeritus, State University of New York
After reading Strempel and Handel’s inspiring book I come away all the more convinced that people who get bachelor’s degrees need to go to colleges that give them. We also need to strengthen our transfer systems and mandate that all public four-year colleges keep at least 20% of their overall enrollment open to two-year college transfers. A “must-read” for those wanting to know how to make higher education work better in the 21st century.
-- Anthony P. Carnevale, research professor and director, Center on Education and the Workforce, Georgetown University
Table of ContentsTable of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Chapter 1. Transfer Contradictions: Bridging the Academic Divide
Chapter 2. The Flickering and Largely Untold History of Transfer
Chapter 3. Second Chances Are Good, But First Chances Are Better: The Role of K–12 in Transfer
Chapter 4. The Rise of Dual Credit
Chapter 5. Prior-Learning Credit: Honoring Transfer Students Who Work for a Living
Chapter 6. Competency-Based Education: Promises, Potential, and Proof
Chapter 7. Online Learning in the Twenty-first Century: Possibilities and Promises
Chapter 8. The Shifting Higher Education Landscape
Chapter 9. Tomorrowland: Proven Pathways Forward
Chapter 10. Beyond Traditional Transfer: Findings and Recommendations
About the Authors
