Open Admissions, Controversies, and CUNY: Digging into Social History through a First-Year Composition Course

Autor/in	Tsao, Ting Man
Titel	Open Admissions, Controversies, and CUNY: Digging into Social History through a First-Year Composition Course
Quelle	In: History Teacher, 38 (2005) 4, S.469-482 (14 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0018-2745
Schlagwörter	Remedial Programs; Standardized Tests; Social History; Open Enrollment; Community Colleges; Higher Education; Access to Education; Social Problems; Educational Environment; Course Descriptions; Educational History; Writing Instruction; Primary Sources; Social Change; Controversial Issues (Course Content); Personal Narratives; Student Research; Admission Criteria; Writing (Composition); New York + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Förderprogramm; Standadised tests; Standardisierter Test; Sozialgeschichte; Open entry; Offenes Bildungssystem; Community college; Community College; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Education; Access; Bildung; Zugang; Bildungszugang; Social problem; Soziales Problem; Lernumgebung; Pädagogische Umwelt; Schulumwelt; Kursstrukturplan; History of education; Bildungsgeschichte; Schreibunterricht; Primärquelle; Sozialer Wandel; Controversial issues; Kontroverse; Erlebniserzählung; Studentenforschung; Admission; Admission procedures; Zulassungsbedingung; Zulassungsverfahren; Zulassung; Schreibübung
Abstract	In 1999, the City University of New York (CUNY) abolished remedial programs in its four-year colleges and began to rely on standardized test scores as criteria both for exiting remediation and for admission to bachelor's programs. By doing that, the university has in effect eradicated its three-decade-old "open admissions" policy, argue CUNY watchers (Crain; Lavin; Reitano; cf. Beaky). This policy change has also sharpened the distinction between community colleges and senior colleges, and increased roadblocks on the education path from a two-year college to a bachelor's program with CUNY. As a professor at LaGuardia Community College of CUNY, what worries the author most about this large institutional shift is not only the narrowing of access to higher education for New York's diverse populations, but also the general ignorance and nonchalance among students about open admissions as a social policy that over the years has made a difference in the lives of countless people. In response to students' unawareness of open enrollment issues, the author recently developed and implemented a first-year composition syllabus around the history of CUNY's open admissions. Admittedly, this history, which involves a series of thorny, complicated, and entangled social issues over a span of 35 years, makes a very challenging theme for an introductory writing course. In this article, the author describes how he designed the course on this still debated subject and his experience in teaching the course. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Society for History Education. California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90840-1601. Tel: 562-985-2573; Fax: 562-985-5431; Web site: http://www.thehistoryteacher.org/
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10