Burton Clark在1960年第一次在美國高等教育中提出「冷卻」的概念來解決自由升學下過度發展的大學教育。本研究以「冷卻」的功能來分析社區學院在整個高等教育中的作用。解析的主題包括:（1）高等教育實施「冷卻」功能對個人和社會都有何益處？（2）如何處理一些學生因智力、成績或經濟狀況…等而不允許他們完成所期望的大學課程？（3）「冷卻」功能對本身能力有限、成績不佳或低收入家庭子女有什麼實際作用？

　　　　　This research focuses on the issue of "cooling out" in US community college education. It first traces the origins of this concept (by Burton Clark ) as applied to community colleges and then leads to more recent works by Brint and Karabel, and ends with Kevin Dougherty's research. The researchers interpret these works as a framework of considering the following analysis: Does "cooling out" benefit society or the individual student in any way? How do we as educators deal with students who have high aspirations for college yet because of their ability level, grades, economic situation, we would not expect these students to ever go to college? What are the implications of "cooling out' for low-income minority students? The ultimate objective is to afford a permanent stimulus to the desire to learn. One must, in our changeable society, be prepared for any thing, not for some specific something that could be obsolete by the time the graduate enters the world of work.