College Enrollment Rates Research Articles

Unemployment: Stumbling Block to Economic Growth

Future economic growth of India largely rests into skilled and capable workforce. An increasing share of the youth population with increased school and college enrollment rates is not less than an asset for Indian Economy. However, due to inelastic employment opportunities, a high proportion of educated youth does not find suitable work and hence adds to the problem of educated unemployment. What causes unemployment is regularly a subject of substantial open deliberation in the scholastic and strategy exploration. It is the ingrained certitude that each nation needs to accomplish complete avocation for its developing populace. In a significant number of nations, including India, the unemployment rate is still alarming. Many examinations have been directed till date to comprehend the real drivers of unemployment. This paper aims at giving a deep insight into the nature of unemployment in India, its various causes, impact on the economy and major steps taken up by government for reducing rates of unemployment in India.

The Risks and Benefits of School Integration for Participating Students: Evidence from a Randomized Desegregation Program

This paper studies the impact of a lottery-based desegregation program that allows minority students to transfer to seven school districts serving higher-income, predominantly-white families. While prior research has studied the impacts of such a program receiving students, this paper studies the effects on participating students. In the short run, students who receive an offer to transfer are more likely to be classified as requiring special education and their test scores increase in several subjects. In the medium run, college enrollment increases by 8 percentage points for these students.This is due to greater attendance at two-year colleges. There is no overall effect on the likelihood of voting. However, the offer to transfer significantly increases the likelihood of arrest. This is driven primarily by increases in arrests for non-violent offenses. Almost all of these effects - both the risks and the benefits - stem from impacts on male students. Male students have higher test scores, college enrollment rates, and are significantly more likely to vote, but they also experience nearly all of the effects on arrests.

Information and College Decisions: Evidence From the Texas GO Center Project

We study GO Centers, a college information program that is run by student peers and provides information about all aspects of the college-going process to academically prepared students on the margin of attending college. We use the semi-random rollout of the program along with detailed panel data on the universe of Texas public school students to identify both short- and long-term program impacts. GO Centers led to a large increase in college application rates and a small increase in college enrollment rates, yet no increase in college completion rates. These results underscore the need to assess long-term outcomes in evaluations of educational interventions targeting college enrollment, and suggest that students at the margin of enrolling in college may require additional supports during college to successfully complete college degrees.

The college earnings premium and changes in college enrollment: Testing models of expectation formation

This paper studies how students build expectations of the future price of college skills when making college enrollment decisions. I compare several possible proxies for students’ expectations of the lifetime earnings gains from college. Students may base their expectations on the earnings of current workers or they may have some information about future earnings. Since 1970, a forecast of future earnings based on static expectations has been a poor predictor of the ex post college premium for successive cohorts. Nonetheless, high relative earnings for college-educated workers at the time a student graduates high school increases his probability of enrolling in college, while his cohort’s future realized earnings do not. A 10 percentage point increase in the contemporaneous college premium is associated with a 1 percentage point rise in college enrollment rates, controlling for tuition and student characteristics.

Families and Counselors Taking Action to Transform Culture: An Action–Inquiry Case Study of an Urban High School

Federal initiatives place school counselors at the forefront of increasing college access for students in underserved communities. Although college enrollment rates have increased, low attainment rates persist in low socioeconomic communities and communities of color. Families in these communities aspire for their children to go to college but rely on the school counselor to help their child navigate the complex path to college. Although the high school counselor is ideally positioned to reduce barriers and engage families in the postsecondary process, they often lack the capacity and resources to do so. Thus, this action-oriented qualitative case study was conducted over 8 months, and explored how urban high school counselors engaged families as collaborative partners to address the metanarrative of low postsecondary attainment rates. Findings suggested that building trust within the school community as foundational to engaging families, taking simple actions were catalysts to transforming school culture, and leveraging family engagement increased school site capacity and affected the broader school community.

Follow the Leader: Student Strikes, School Absenteeism and Long Term Implications for Education Outcomes

The 2011 Chilean student strikes, led by university students but promptly joined by hundreds of thousands of secondary school students, triggered a significant drop in public secondary school attendance (a decline of about 15 percentage points in all four grades). Attendance returned to normal levels in 2012. Using the type of school that students attended in 2011 as an instrument for school absenteeism, I show that school absenteeism has negative effects on secondary school students’ results in a post-secondary high-stakes math exam and university enrollment rates. Instrumental variables estimations suggest that a 10 percentage point decrease in attendance during secondary school is related to a 9.5 percent of a standard deviation decline in the math exam score, and a 3.2 percentage point reduction in the associated probability of university enrollment. I do not find any significant effect on the high-stakes language exam at the 5 percent level. A key finding is the persistent negative effect of school absenteeism on students' academic performance: this negative effect is present even for those students who sat the high-stakes exams three years after the strikes had ended, that is, after three years of regular schooling following the negative shock to their attendance. These results are not driven by inputs to the education production function that might have been affected by the student strikes, such as disruptiveness at the time of the high-stakes exams, school environment, teachers, class instruction, or class size.

College Talent Cultivation Model Reform: Transcending Its Predicament

With the rapid development of higher education and a surge in college enrollment rate, higher education in China is undertaking changes in quality, level, structure and administration. In this context, talent cultivation model is becoming more diverse and complicated. To escape from cultivation model reform predicament and to constantly improve teaching quality, measures must be taken to overcome the inherent inertia of talent cultivation model, to prevent the tendency of cultivation convergence, to infuse talent cultivation with humanity care and concern, and to strike a balance between teaching and research.

The Education and Employment Effects of DACA, In-State Tuition and Financial Aid for Undocumented Immigrants

Many undocumented immigrants come to the U.S. as children. Undocumented immigrant children have a legal right to attend free public primary and secondary schools. However, in most states undocumented immigrants are treated as out-of-state students in public colleges and universities, and are therefore required to pay substantially higher tuition than other state residents. Since 2001, 21 of 50 U.S. states have implemented policies that allow undocumented immigrants to qualify for in-state resident tuition (ISRT) at public colleges and universities. In 12 of these states undocumented immigrants are also eligible for financial aid. In this study we present strong evidence that both ISRT policies and access to financial aid significantly increase the college enrollment and graduation rates of undocumented immigrants but have no impact on the college enrollment or graduation rates of U.S.-born youth. Another important change in immigration policy that affects many undocumented immigrant children is the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). DACA allows undocumented individuals who came to the U.S. as children to obtain legal employment. The potential of being able to work legally in the United States could represent a significant increase in earnings as well as a substantial increase in the perceived benefits of higher education. Our findings present evidence that DACA led to an increase in youth employment and a decrease in college enrollment rates. Further, we find no evidence that the introduction of DACA reduced or increased the positive impact of ISRT and financial aid policies.

Non-Citizen Mexican Youth in US Higher Education: A Closer Look at the Relationship between State Tuition Policies and College Enrollment

This paper examines state policies that extend or deny in-state tuition to children of undocumented immigrants in the United States. Using the Current Population Survey (1997–2010), we assess changes in college enrollment among Mexican-born non-citizens — a proxy for the undocumented population. In contrast to previous analyses, we find that policies extending in-state tuition to undocumented youth do not directly affect rates of college enrollment. However, we find that Mexican-born non-citizen youth residing in states that deny in-state tuition have a 12.1 percentage point lower probability of being enrolled in college than their peers living in states with no such policies.

Customized Nudging to Improve FAFSA Completion and Income Verification

For most students from low- or moderate-income families, successfully completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a crucial gateway on the path to college access. Yet, researchers have long recognized that the complexity of the FAFSA can serve as a barrier to students applying for — and in turn receiving — financial aid. We investigate the impact of a texting campaign specifically to address the informational and behavioral barriers associated with initial FAFSA filing. We advance beyond prior work by designing a texting system that leveraged regularly-updated administrative data on the status of students’ FAFSA submissions to provide students with personalized outreach and updates on their FAFSA completion status. Students were able to write back for one-on-one, text-based assistance. We implemented the intervention in two distinct locations. In partnership with a set of eight school districts in Texas that together serve over 17,000 high school seniors, we tested the impact of this intervention through a school-level randomized trial. In partnership with the state of Delaware, we offered the text-based outreach to all high school seniors in Delaware public high schools, and we tested the impact of this statewide effort using a quasi-experimental matching strategy. Evidence from both sites indicates that the text-based outreach serves to improve FAFSA filing outcomes. In Delaware, rates of FAFSA completion were improved overall. In Texas, students filed the FAFSA earlier as a result of the outreach. In Texas, where we are able to observe subsequent college enrollment, the outreach impacted immediate college matriculation by four percentage points. We consider two potential mechanisms beyond simply completing the FAFSA through which the intervention could have improved rates of college enrollment. First, as a result of earlier filing, students may have accessed more generous financial aid. Second, the messaging may have made more salient the income verification process for the sizeable share of filers selected for verification. Earlier filing also may have afforded these students more time to navigate the verification process. We provide evidence to support both of these potential channels.

Does Happiness Matter? The Effect of Teacher Job Satisfaction on Productivity

This paper investigates how teacher job satisfaction affects productivity as measured by the high school graduation and four-year college enrollment rates. Using data from the Schools and Staffing Survey, this study implements multiple estimation methods to determine the effect of teacher job satisfaction on student outcomes. The findings indicate a positive relationship between the average level of teacher job satisfaction within a school and the graduation and college enrollment rates. The teacher job satisfaction is inversely related to diversity in opinion regarding job attributes.

Bureaucratic Dysfunctions in the Education of Latino Immigrant Youth

Scholarship on Latinos’ lagging US high school graduation and college enrollment rates has focused on systematic biases and inequities in schooling. This article argues for an additional complementary explanation for underachievement and school failure. Namely, it suggests that high school underachievement in Latino children of immigrants can be attributed in part to the bureaucratic nature of schooling and a constant onslaught of bureaucratic errors and omissions. Based upon a 5-year multiple-case study in the southeastern United States, it finds that bureaucratic dysfunctions figured prominently in the education of Latino immigrant youth. The article calls for more research on the impact of bureaucratic errors on educational paths of immigrant students and argues that educators might profitably draw from work on organizational failure to help Latino children of immigrants navigate school bureaucracies more successfully.

Empowering Latino Parents to Transform the Education of Their Children

This article emphasizes the role of parental involvement in the college preparation of Latino elementary and secondary school students. Although literature shows that education is highly valued in Latino families, actual college enrollment rates for Latino youth are below average. This has been attributed to barriers including lack of financial resources, problems in communication with schools, and low familiarity with the college planning process. The American Dream Academy is a university outreach program that is designed to help Latino families overcome these barriers. We conducted a qualitative analysis of speeches that were prepared and delivered by parents at graduation ceremonies of the program from 2007 to 2009. Our analysis revealed six themes: facing challenges, envisioning success, understanding the school system, taking ownership, community raising a child, and creating a supportive home environment. The findings enrich existing literature and help understand the complex systems that are at play with parental involvement in Latino families.

First-Year Seminars

Research has revealed a gender gap where male students have higher rates of academic difficulties and lower college enrollment and graduation rates compared with females. This study measured the relationship of male student (including first-generation and minority students) participation in a first-year seminar and their first-term grade point average and first-year persistence for two cohorts ( N = 828; 683) and third-year persistence for one cohort. There were significant differences in first-term grade point average (as high as 0.7 grade points greater) and first- and third-year persistence for all participants (including subgroups) in both cohorts as compared with nonparticipants. There were strong statistical findings where the range of differences in persistence between all male participants and nonparticipants was as large as almost 25% (third-year persistence). For male minority students, this difference increased to 34%. The study presents compelling evidence for a three-credit, academic-based first-year seminar to promote male student success over the short and long term.

Early Childhood Behavior Problems and the Gender Gap in Educational Attainment in the United States.

Why do men in the United States today complete less schooling than women? One reason may be gender differences in early self-regulation and pro-social behaviors. Scholars have found that boys' early behavioral disadvantage predicts their lower average academic achievement during elementary school. In this study, I examine longer-term effects: do these early behavioral differences predict boys' lower rates of high school graduation, college enrollment and graduation, and fewer years of schooling completed in adulthood? If so, through what pathways are they linked? I leverage a nationally representative sample of children born in the 1980s to women in their early-to-mid-20s and followed into adulthood. I use decomposition and path analytic tools to show that boys' higher average levels of behavior problems at age 4 to 5 years help explain the current gender gap in schooling by age 26 to 29, controlling for other observed early childhood factors. In addition, I find that early behavior problems predict outcomes more for boys than for girls. Early behavior problems matter for adult educational attainment because they tend to predict later behavior problems and lower achievement.

Surprise, Sensemaking, and Success in the First College Year: Black Undergraduate Men's Academic Adjustment Experiences

Background Much has been written about Black undergraduate men's out-of-class engagement and social experiences, identity development, participation in intercollegiate athletics, and college enrollment and completion rates. Too little is known about their academic readiness and first-year college adjustment. Purpose The purpose of this study was to understand Black male students’ academic transition experiences in the first college year, with a particular emphasis on how they resolved academic challenges with which they were confronted. Setting This study was conducted at 42 colleges and universities in 20 states across the United States. Six institution types were included: private liberal arts colleges, public research universities, highly selective private research universities, public and private Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and comprehensive state universities. Participants The sample was comprised of 219 Black undergraduate men, mostly juniors and seniors, who maintained high cumulative grade point averages, were extraordinarily engaged in a range of student organizations, held multiple leadership roles on campus, cultivated meaningful relationships with faculty and administrators, participated in enriching educational experiences (e.g., study abroad programs), and earned numerous merit-based awards and honors for their college achievements. Research Design Qualitative research methods were used in this study. Specifically, phenomenology was used to understand what Black male students experienced in the first college year and how they experienced the transition phenomenon. Data Collection and Analysis Individual, face-to-face interviews were conducted with all 219 participants. Each interview was 2-3 hours. Moustakas’ (1994) process for phenomenological data analysis and Harper's (2007) trajectory analysis technique were used to analyze data collected for this study. Findings Two thematic categories of findings are presented in this article. First are reflections from students who experienced turbulence in their transitions from high school to higher education. Being underprepared for the academic rigors of college, the surprising mismatch between academic effort and first-year grades, the racial composition dissimilarities between their high schools and college campuses, and feelings of cultural misfit were factors to which participants attributed their initial adjustment challenges. The second category includes insights from achievers who transitioned seamlessly to college. They attributed their successful starts to strong academic preparation, prior experiences in demographically comparable educational environments, participation in summer bridge and college transition programs, and academically profitable relationships they cultivated in student organizations. Recommendations This article ends with several suggestions for helping Black undergraduate men adjust more seamlessly and resolve surprising academic transition issues encountered in the first college year.

Juxtaposing the Black and White Gender Gap: Race and Gender Differentiation in College Enrollment Predictors*

ObjectiveThis research examines the factors influencing the reverse gender gap in college enrollment between Black men and women and compares them to the factors affecting the gender gap between Whites.MethodsWe use data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) and logistic regression to address our research questions.FindingsThe results reveal that Black male students fare worse than all other race‐gender groups on virtually all predictors of college enrollment. The strongest determinant of the Black gender gap proved to be the lower academic performance of Black male students. In addition, our results support the hypothesis that returns on academic, social, and family economic characteristics differ along race and gender lines, though the strongest differences in returns appear to be between racial groups rather than between men and women of the same race. Blacks benefit less from higher GPAs, positive peer influences, and parental economic resources than Whites, though Black women benefit least from positive peer influences than any other race‐gender group.ConclusionsIn order to improve rates of college enrollment among Black males, policymakers should develop strategies to improve their academic performance. However, policymakers must also recognize that academic performance offers less payoff for Black students and must therefore find ways to equalize these returns for them.

Differential predictors of academic achievement: individual and familial factor interactions with community poverty

ABSTRACTWe present an analysis of the contexts within which adolescents graduate from high school and enroll in college. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health show that adolescents’ school engagement, maternal academic monitoring, and community poverty significantly interact to explain differences in high school graduation and college enrollment rates (n = 7100). To examine this association, we performed weighted logistic regression analyses, controlling for gender, race, block level unemployment, and block level median income. Findings suggest that protective factors can help youth overcome the challenges associated with community poverty and achieve academically in low and medium levels of poverty, but that youth in high-poverty contexts may need more resources to reach higher levels of academic attainment.

특성화 고등학교 의상과의 현황 및 전문교과교육

Abstract A Clothing Department is a major fields of specialized vocational high schools. Specialized high schoolswith clothing related departments are located in Seoul (4 schools), Busan (2), Incheon (3), Daejeon (1), Ulsan(1), Kangwondo (1), Kyungkido (1), Kyungsangbukdo (1) and Chungcheongbukdo (1). In these 15 speciali-zed high schools, 92 classes of clothing departments are run by 72 clothing teachers with 2,459 students en-rolled. The range of object of this study is 15 clothing related departments of specialized high schools andtheir titles are department of Fashion Design, Clothing Design, Clothing Art, Multi Fashion Design, FashionTextile Design, and Global Design. They were investigated by literature from previous research and educa-tion statistics from the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI). Websites such as ‘School Infor-mation’, ‘portal site of Specialized High School’, ‘Ministry of Education-Education Statistics and Informa-tion’ were also searched. The homepages of specialized high schools with clothing department were also in-vestigated respectively. In this study, current scale, employment rate of graduates, major courses, scale of tea-chers of clothing major of clothing department of specialized high school were analyzed. In 2015, employ-ment rate and college enrollment rate of vocational high schools were 46.6% and 36.6% respectively, whereasemployment rate and college enrollment rate of clothing departments four specialized High Schools were39.9% and 45.8% respectively. The number of major courses of clothing departments are 12-15, and themain subjects of the curriculum were Fashion Design, Construction of Western Clothing, Construction ofKorean Clothing, Textile Materials and Mangement and Computer Graphics. Major courses consist of 90-108 weekly lesson-hours for 6 semesters. Thanks to government projects to encourage specialized high sch-ools, the educational environment has improved in areas of practice room equipment, industry connections,field training, internship, and scholarship funds. However, despite government projects to encourage educa-tion at specialized high schools, there is a need for a more flexible education system to enhance student cre-ativity at specialized high schools.Key words: Vocational high schools, Clothing department, Ratio of employment, Curriculum, Major co-urses; 특성화 고등학교, 의상과, 취업률, 교육과정, 전문교과

More than Dollars for Scholars: The Impact of the Dell Scholars Program on College Access, Persistence and Degree Attainment

Although college enrollment rates have increased substantially over the last several decades, socioeconomic inequalities in college completion have actually widened over time. A critical question, therefore, is how to support low-income and first-generation students to succeed in college after they matriculate. We investigate the impact of the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation Dell Scholars Program which provides a combination of generous financial support and individualized advising to scholarship recipients before and throughout their postsecondary enrollment. The program’s design is motivated by a theory of action that, in order to meaningfully increase the share of lower-income students who earn a college degree, it is necessary both to address financial constraints students face and to provide ongoing support for the academic, cultural and other challenges that students experience during their college careers. We isolate the unique impact of the program on college completion by capitalizing on an arbitrary cutoff in the program’s algorithmic selection process. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that although being named a Dell Scholar has no impact on initial college enrollment or early college persistence, scholars at the margin of eligibility are significantly more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree on-time or six years after high school graduation. These impacts are sizeable and represent a nearly 25 percent or greater increase in both four- and six-year bachelor’s attainment. The program is resource intensive. Yet, back-of-the-envelope calculations indicate that the Dell Scholars program has a positive rate of return.