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Cognitive Effects Of Community Colleges And Four-Year Colleges: Further Evidence From The National Study Of Student Learning., Ernest Pascarella, Marcia Edison, Amaury Nora, Linda S. Hagedorn, Patrick Terenzini

Linda Serra Hagedorn

The two-year community college has become one of the major institutional configurations in the American postsecondary system. It has undoubtedly increased both the access to higher education and the social mobility of numerous individuals whose education world otherwise have ended with high school (Cohen & Brawer, 1989; Nunley & Breneman, 1988). However, critiques of the community college posit that, although it may largely guarantee equality of opportunity for access to higher education, it has not, in relationship to four-year colleges and universities, provided equal opportunity in terms of the outcomes or benefits of higher education (Brint & Karabel, 1989; Grubb, …