College Graduation Rates Research Articles

Going to College to Avoid the Draft: The Unintended Legacy of the Vietnam War

Between 1965 and 1975 the enrollment rate of college-age men in the United States rose and then fell abruptly. Many contemporary observers (e.g., James Davis and Kenneth Dolbeare, 1968) attributed the surge in college attendance to draft-avoidance behavior. Under a policy first introduced in the Korean War, the Selective Service issued college deferments to enrolled men that delayed their eligibility for conscription. These deferments provided a strong incentive to remain in school for men who wanted to avoid the draft. For example, the college entry rate of young men rose from 54 percent in 1963 to 62 percent in 1968 (the peak year of the draft). Moreover, both the college entry rate and the number of inductions dropped sharply between 1968 and 1973 as the draft was being phased out. Although these parallel trends are suggestive, they do not necessarily prove that draft avoidance raised the education of men who were at risk of service during the Vietnam War. Such an inference requires an explicit specification of the “counterfactual”: What would have happened to schooling outcomes in the absence of the draft? In this paper we use trends in enrollment and completed schooling of men relative to those of women to measure the effects of draftavoidance behavior during the Vietnam War. Our maintained hypothesis is that, in the absence of gender-specific factors such as the draft, the relative schooling outcomes of men and women from the same cohort would follow a smooth trend. In light of the sharp discontinuity in military induction rates between 1965 and 1970, we look for similar patterns in the relative enrollment rate of men, and in the relative college graduation rate of men from cohorts that were at risk of induction during this period.

From High School to Teaching: Many Steps, who Makes It?

In this paper, we focus on the roles that race, ethnicity, and academic skills play in predicting whether high school students persist along each of the various steps of the path into teaching. We show that the challenge of creating a racially and ethnically diverse teaching force is not primarily one of influencing the occupational decisions of minority college graduates. Instead, the critical challenge is to increase the high school graduation, college enrollment, and college graduation rates of minority youth. We use a sequence of four samples originating in the sophomore cohort of High School and Beyond (1992). We explore high school sophomores’ career transitions along each step of the path into teaching—high school graduation, entry into college, college graduation, and entry into teaching.

From High School to Teaching: Many Steps, who Makes It?

In this paper, we focus on the roles that race, ethnicity, and academic skills play in predicting whether high school students persist along each of the various steps of the path into teaching. We show that the challenge of creating a racially and ethnically diverse teaching force is not primarily one of influencing the occupational decisions of minority college graduates. Instead, the critical challenge is to increase the high school graduation, college enrollment, and college graduation rates of minority youth. We use a sequence of four samples originating in the sophomore cohort of High School and Beyond (1992). We explore high school sophomores’ career transitions along each step of the path into teaching—high school graduation, entry into college, college graduation, and entry into teaching.

Determinants of College Completion: School Quality or Student Ability?

We investigate whether the match between student ability and college quality is an important determinant of college graduation rates. We jointly estimate a multinomial probit model of college attendance decisions in which the alternatives are no college and attendance at college in four quality categories, and a binomial probit model of subsequent graduation decisions. By allowing the error terms to be correlated across alternatives and time periods, we identify the effects of observed factors net of their correlation with unobservables. We find that students of all ability levels have higher chances of graduating if the quality level of their college matches their observed skill level.

Do neighborhood conditions affect high school dropout and college graduation rates?

This article estimates the effects of neighborhood conditions on the educational attainment of young people. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to measure the background characteristics of young people and their educational attainment at age 25 and the U.S. Census to describe the characteristics of the neighborhoods in which respondents lived between ages 14 and 18, the paper estimates neighborhood effects separately for blacks and whites and tests for nonlinearities and important interactions in these effects. We find that neighborhood characteristics influence educational attainment among young people, but do so differently for black and white youth. Among black youth, growing up in neighborhoods with wealthier residents, more two parent families, and a greater percentage of workers in professional or managerial occupations leads to a substantial decrease in the high school dropout rate. These neighborhood characteristics do not affect the probability of graduating from college, however. Neighborhood effects among black youth occur primarily among those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Among white youth, neighborhood conditions positively affect the probability of graduating from college but do not significantly affect the high school dropout rate. These effects are concentrated among those from relatively advantaged backgrounds.

A Comprehensive Guide to Black Student College Graduation Rates

A Comprehensive Guide to Black Student College Graduation Rates

African-American College Graduation Rates: Blacks do Best at the Nation's Most Selective Colleges and Universities

African-American College Graduation Rates: Blacks do Best at the Nation's Most Selective Colleges and Universities

Impressions: African American First-Year Students' Perceptions of a Predominantly White University

This article describes a study of African American first-year students' impressions of a predominantly White public university. Participants (N = 10) were asked to take photographs illustrative of their perceptions of the campus environment and to discuss their photographs in individual and small group interviews. Six themes emerged from these data: the physical beauty of the campus, the immensity of the campus, participants' consciousness of being Black on campus, the influence of Greek-letter organizations, the prevalence of voluntary racial/ethnic separation, and participants' concerns about preparing for their futures. Implications of these findings for collegiate policies and practices are discussed. Recommendations include continuing support for initiatives such as TRIO's Student Support Services program, which promote minority student recruitment and retention. INTRODUCTION Historically, African Americans have been underrepresented as a proportion of the total enrollment of students at institutions of higher education in the United States. Prior to the 1960s, African Americans participated in higher education primarily at institutions known as HBCUs (historically Black colleges and universities) (Blackburn, Gamson, & Peterson, 1978; Fleming, 1984; Willie & Cunnigen, 1981). By the close of the 1960s, the majority of African American students enrolled at institutions of higher education were attending predominantly White colleges and universities (PWCUs) (Fleming, 1984; Willie & Cunnigen, 1981). Today, most African American students continue to attend institutions of higher education where the racial/ ethnic composition of the students, faculty, and staff is predominantly White. Also, most U.S. college and university students, including African Americans, are enrolled at public institutions, or those that are controlled at some level by the government of the state or municipality in which they are located and that receive some financial assistance from that governmental body (Carter & Wilson, 1997; National Center for Education Statistics, 1995). graduation rates of African American students at public PWCUs historically have been and continue to be low when compared to those of White American students (Allen, 1991; Astone & Nunez-Wormack, 1990; Carter & Wilson, 1996,1997; Fleming, 1984; Gose, 1997; Mow & Nettles, 1990; Willie & Cunnigen, 1981). Carter and Wilson (1996) contend that a more than 20% gap in overall college graduation rates exists between Blacks and Whites. Fisk-Skinner and Gaither (1992) report a dropout rate for White undergraduates of 55% compared to 71% for Black undergraduates. majority of U.S. students who leave institutions of higher education have been found to do so during or immediately after their first year of study (Feldman & Newcomb, 1969/1994; Levitz & Noel, 1989; Tinto, 1993). As Tinto notes, The character of one's experience in that [first] year does much to shape subsequent (p. 14). In addition to the underrepresentation of African American students in persistence and graduation at PWCUs, many Black students have reported perceiving the environments of these campuses as unwelcoming, if not hostile or even threatening (Allen, 1991, 1996; Astone & Nunez-Wormack, 1990; Clay & Sherrill, 1991; Crosson, 1988; Dalton, 1991; D'Souza, 1992; Ehrlich, 1990; Fleming, 1984; Green, 1989; Hurtado, 1992; Malaney & Shively, 1995; Mow & Nettles, 1990). Near the end of the 1980s, incidents of campus ethnoviolence, or physically or psychologically harmful acts targeting persons because of characteristics related to their ethnicity or race, began to appear more often in the media (Ehrlich, 1990). Between fall 1986 and the end of 1989, the National Institute Against Prejudice and Violence noted that approximately 250 publicly reported incidents of ethnoviolence took place on U.S. college campuses, with the majority of these incidents involving Black students as their victims (Ehrlich, 1990). …

Remediation Real Students, Real Standards

the May/June 1995 Change, Bruno Manno described the decline of admissions standards and the concomitant growth of remedial education at the college level. Manno clearly articulated the effects of admitting poorly prepared students to college increased costs to college budgets, devaluation of degrees, disincentives for high school students to study hard and take core courses at the precollege level, and a lengthening of the time required to obtain a degree. Many policy analysts would agree with Manno's analysis. The implementation of admissions requirements promises to improve education at the secondary level; hike college graduation rates; reduce costs for counseling, tutoring, and remedial instruction during college; and improve employer and public perceptions of the value of a college degree. However, Manno's message largely addresses the relationship between higher education and today's and tomorrow's elementary and secondary students. What is missing is a recognition that many students attending college today are not young people. They are adult students, seeking a college degree for the first time, returning to school after an absence to raise children or support a family, or taking courses in an attempt to retool after a job displacement. Let me reflect on three real students I encountered this past year. Student No. 1 is 32 years old, a wife, a mother, and with her husband, a small-business owner. She recently completed her freshman year (albeit over several terms) with a perfect 4.0 GPA in accounting. She took two correspondence courses before enrolling in college algebra, as she lacked the necessary prerequisites from high school. Indeed, she was not even eligible for regular admission at our institution when she started. She told me that when she was in high school, her family discouraged her from pursuing more education and she did not think of herself as smart.

Nea Presidential Address, 1992: Policy Issues in the Postsecondary Education of African Americans

Few goods and services are as important to socioeconomic outcomes as education. Participation rates of African Americans in postsecondary education are much lower than those for whites. The disparities in college attendance and graduation rates have potentially grave consequences for African Americans and for the larger society. This article addresses some of the policy influences that determine educational outcomes for this population subgroup and raises some of the issues that should be addressed if proportionate participation rates are to be generated.

Secular Education and the Religious Profile of Contemporary Black and White Americans

This paper deals with the relationships among social status, race, and religion in the contemporary United States. The religious data came from the 1990 National Survey of Religious Identification and a sub-sample of 84,469 non-Hispanic white and 8,859 non-Hispanic black adult respondents distributed across 14 religious groups. Educational attainment, i.e., high school and college graduation rates, was used as a measure of social status. Three issues were examined. First, does the historical pattern of social ranking among religious groups still exist in the 1990s? Second, do African-Americans fit the dominant pattern? Third, do national white-black educational disparities occur across all religious groups?

The Continuing Significance of Racism

In the last few years we have seen a growing concern among academic administrators and educational researchers about Black student enrollment and attrition rates. A number of survey studies (Astin, 1977, 1982) have found that college enrollment and graduation rates for Black Americans have declined in many programs. In a recent major review of the literature, George Keller (19881989), professor at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education and recipient of the Casey Award in education planning, examined nine books, reports, and special journal issues devoted to assessing the problems of minority access and achievement in higher education. Keller's analysis (pp. 50-54), representative of much social science and policy analysis of minority problems, notes the extensive discussion of minority student attrition and suggests 10 reasons that are documented in the literature he reviewed:

Extrinsic and intrinsic factors in graduation and academic failure among LD college students

A group of 110 LD college students were compared to a random stratified sample (RSS) of 153 peers attending the same moderately selective college between 1980 and 1988. The LD students received comprehensive, highly coordinated support services for at least one semester. The groups were matched on gender, college experience, semester, and year of entry to the college. The LD and RSS groups were compared on high school preparation and performance, ACT and college performance, and graduation and academic failure rate. Although the LD students' high school records, ACT scores, and college performance were inferior to that of the RSS group, they graduated at the same rate and within the same time frame. Neither was there any significant difference in the academic failure rate. Closer examination of the LD graduates and academic failures' performance showed that in spite of the similarities in intellectual abilities, academic achievement, and aptitude-achievement discrepancy, two factors differentiated between the LD graduates and non-graduates: oral language abilities and motivation and attitude toward the teaching-learning process. These two factors accounted for 60 percent of the variance in graduation status.

Student and Institutional Characteristics as Determinants of the Prompt and Subsequent Four-Year College Graduation of Race and Sex Groups

Recent national data were used to examine the impact of individual and institutional level variables on the ability of race and sex groups to complete a four-year college promptly (i.e., within three to four consecutive years) versus six to seven years after having entered college in 1972 or 1973. The results showed that black students were less successful than whites in prompt and in subsequent four-year college completion. In addition, males were far less successful than females in completing college on schedule.Initial race and sex differences favoring whites and females remained when examining subsequent college graduation rates. The magnitude of the race and sex disparities was reduced, however, when taking these rates into consideration. In addition, the proportion of blacks and males completing their B.A. degree increased substantially when college re-entry rates were examined. This finding indicates the importance of including college re-entry rates when describing the educational attainment of students.College grade performance was a major determinant of prompt and subsequent college completion for all race and sex groups. In addition, high school rank was an important determinant of prompt graduation for white males and prompt and subsequent graduation for black females. Attending a private college had a significant positive effect on prompt college graduation for white and black males but no significant effect for females; however, attending a selective college did not have a significant effect on prompt or subsequent graduation for any of the four race/sex groups examined.