Feb. 14, 2013: 'Community Colleges: Opening or Closing Doors for Students?'

Thursday, Feb. 14, 12-1 p.m.
Diplomacy Building, Fifth Floor, Conference Room

The Center for Alaska Education Policy Research (CAEPR) was established within ISER in 2010, to conduct non-partisan research on a broad range of education policy issues, including access to education and equity and excellence in Alaska education at all levels, from early childhood through higher education.

Joanna Karet is a new member of the CAEPR faculty, holding a Ph.D. in education from Colorado State University. At this event, she'll talk about her findings on whether attending two-year community colleges encourages or discourages students from going on to get four-year or advanced college degrees. Two-year colleges now serve almost half of all undergraduates in the United States, but critics--supported by some previous qualitative research--claim that attending community college causes many students to lower their expectations and goals.

Karet developed a quantitative model to predict educational achievement for students who begin their college education at two-year or four-year institutions. She looked at how the same student was likely to achieve in different educational settings. Come to ISER and learn what she found out. If you can't attend in person and would like to call in to hear the talk, get in touch with Diane Hirshberg at dbhirshberg@alaska.edu.

The Diplomacy Building is at 4500 Diplomacy Drive, at the corner of Tudor Road and Tudor Centre Drive. Parking is free. Call (907) 786-7710 if you need directions.