Book Review: Gateway to Opportunity: A History of the Community College in the United States:

J. M. Beach Gateway to Opportunity: A History of the Community College in the United States. Herndon, VA: Stylus Publishing, 201 1. 195 pp. $29.95 (paper). ISBN 978-1-57922-452-3J. M. Beach's Gateway to Opportunity? A History of the Community College in the United States explores the formation and historical evolution of the community college to better understand how this social institution has changed and how these changes will affect its future. Although substantial literature exists on the history of American higher education, in general, relatively little attention has been given to the institutional history of the community college. Beach's focus on the community college as an evolving social institution offers a perspective not found in earlier literature.More specifically, the book addresses historical challenges the institution experienced in attempting to realize its commitments to the comprehensive mission, student access, institutional effectiveness, and greater financial security. Beach also examines the community college's experience in addressing racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic issues. Beach considers these challenges and issues from the perspectives of faculty members, administrators, state officials, local communities, and students. This broadbased approach is warranted given his belief that "the ultimate effectiveness of any institution of education is enabled or constrained by the social, economic, and political context in which it operates" (p. 132). As Beach's primary focus is the historical institutionalization of the community college, he does not provide an extensive description of the organization, as is found in other works such as Cohen and Brawer's The American Community College (2008).Gateway to Opportunity is divided into four chapters. In chapter 1, Beach explores the creation and institutionalization of the junior college and focuses on the period from 1900 to 1980. He begins with a brief discussion of the origins of U.S. higher education and the social, political, and economic factors that led to the establishment and development of the junior college under the leadership of political and educational progressives. Beach explains that the nation's educational system was embedded with contradictions that resulted in institutions "created not only to educate but also to sort students into predetermined social classes based on economic status, race, and gender" (p. 8). From this point, the author discusses the differing historical opinions regarding the purpose and mission of the junior college and the dilemma of institutionalizing a college designed to both prepare students for transfer to a 4-year university and deliver vocational training. Chapter 1 includes a discussion of the issues of segregation and equality as the junior college slowly evolved into a comprehensive community institution as centralized state higher education planning emerged in the 1960s.In chapter 2, Beach reviews the period from 1 980 to 2000, specifically the New Left critics and their pointed assessment of the community college. Beach provides concise and thoughtful reflections on research by Clark, Zwerling, London, Weis, Pincus, and Brint and Karabel. Beach then describes the responses to New Left critics offered by several scholars including Dougherty, Levin, and Cohen and Brawer. This presentation of varying views on the institutionalization of the community college offers a unique contemporary account of how this debate unfolded in the literature. Chapters 1 and 2 provide insight into the major themes and debates concerning the institutionalization of the community college and related funding and faculty issues. However, for Beach, it appears that the scholarship of institutionalization had relatively little to do with instruction, and his discussion offers only limited insight into instructional issues. …