Disparities in the Likelihood of Earning a College Degree Among Students with Noncommittal, Low, and High Educational Self-Expectations

Abstract

Although studies have investigated educational attainment of groups of students professing low and high educational self-expectations, groups of noncommittal students, rather than being studied as a discrete group, have been treated as missing and ignored. This study investigated the differences between students of noncommittal, low, and high educational self-expectations by comparing their educational attainment 10 years later. The analytical sample was divided into White, African American, and Hispanic student groups, with a total of 13,635 10th graders derived from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002. Results indicated that students with high educational self-expectations tended to have higher odds of earning advanced degrees than students with low educational self-expectations or noncommittal students. Furthermore, noncommittal students had odds of earning advanced degrees equivalent to that of students with low educational self-expectations, regardless of race or ethnicity. This study also found that the educational expectations of parents, and math and English teachers were positively related to students’ odds of earning advanced degrees. We suggested parents and teachers could recognize that the don’t-know response is a warning sign for low future educational attainment and take proactive measures to encourage students.