Are Cost Conscious Community Colleges Sacrificing Quality?

Abstract

Compared to their four-year public counterparts, community colleges have been more successful in holding down the costs of educating students but current research, albeit limited, suggests that this may have come at the expense of quality or at least outcomes. This essay addresses the questions surrounding this issue, including the behavior of costs at public two-year colleges and what the research says about quality and outcomes issues. It is based on my study of community colleges over the past twenty-five years.