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Rethinking Cooling Out at Public Community Colleges: An Examination of Fiscal and Demographic Trends in Higher Education and the Rise of Statewide Articulation Agreements

By Gregory Anderson, Mariana Alfonso & Jeffrey C. Sun
A large proportion of students entering community colleges identify terminal certificate or occupational associate degrees instead of academic majors or transfer as their short-term goal. Despite this, throughout much of the 1980s and 1990s, states established articulation agreements as policy instruments to enhance the transfer of students from public two-year to four-year institutions. This conundrum raises an interesting two-part question: In the absence of a significant increase in the demand for transfer by community colleges entrants, why have states enacted these agreements, and what potential impacts may arise from these legislative trends? Applying the state relative autonomy theory, the authors contend that the rise of articulation agreements constitutes a new state strategy to cope with the stagnation of higher education appropriations, the spiraling costs of tuition, and an excess demand for affordable higher education. This article was published in the Teachers College Record, vol. 108.
View article (subscription may be required)
March 2006
  • Multiple Missions and Roles of Community Colleges

Related Publications

June 2008

Making the Transition to Four-Year Institutions: Academic Preparation and Transfer

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For more policy briefs and fact sheets, visit CCRC’s Policy Resources page.

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