Dive Brief:

• Long Beach City College is the first community college in California offering tiered pricing, under a plan approved by the state last fall.
• The program allows the school to offer courses in high demand at higher prices, some nearly five times the normal cost.
• An instructor in one of the classes being offered at a higher price says she can tell by the students' punctuality and test scores that they really want to be there, quite possibly because it cost them more.

Dive Insight:

While the legislature authorized the tiered pricing at six schools, Long Beach City College is the only school in California — and likely one of a few in the country — to have implemented it, and as such will be watched closely.