Community College: The Unfinished Revolution; Although Public Two-Year Colleges have Dramatically Improved College Access for Large Numbers of Disadvantaged Students, Serious Deficiencies in How They Operate are Limiting Their Value‪.‬

In the current debate about U.S. economic competitiveness and the need to provide better education for everyone, there is a new consensus that nearly all young people should attend college. Indeed, society's ambitious college-for-all goal has had impressive success. More than 80% of high-school graduates enter higher education in the eight years after high school. Even more impressive, the racial gap in college enrollment has largely disappeared. Despite the continuing racial gap in high-school graduation, 83.5% of white high-school graduates attend college in the eight years after high school; the rates are only 3% lower for blacks and Hispanics, according to a 2003 report from the U.S. Department of Education. Much of the progress has occurred in one institution: community colleges. These colleges have grown enormously, now enrolling nearly half of all college students and providing access for new groups of students. During the past 40 years, enrollment doubled in four-year colleges, but increased fivefold in public two-year community colleges.