Postsecondary Education Outcomes Research Articles

Gender Stratification, Racial Disparities, and Student Debt Trajectories in the United States

In the United States, post-secondary educational outcomes are stratified by gender, with women attending college and completing their degrees at higher rates. At the same time, student loan debt has become an ubiquitous part of the college process for many pursuing higher education, increasing the financial risks associated with the pursuit of higher education while lessening the financial rewards. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) of young adults who ever attended a post-secondary institution and growth curve models, we estimate gender disparities in student debt trajectories throughout young adulthood. Building on work on the racialization of the student debt landscape (Houle & Addo 2022), we also investigate the intersection of race and gender, and include both within race gender analyses and within gender racial analyses. Gender differences in student debt at baseline, or at the age of first college enrollment, are large and the gender debt gap grows at 1.2% per year. We document evidence of a curvilinear relationship in student debt in young adulthood, with student debt accumulating at the beginning of the college enrollment period and the rate of increase declining over time as adults age. Women, who start the period with larger amounts of student debt, experience faster growth in their debt accumulation followed by lower declines relative to young adult men. These patterns are magnified among Black young adults, with the gender debt disparity between Black women and Black men growing 3.4% annually. We find no association between gender and student debt trajectories among Latinx and White young adults. Within-gender models highlight the prevalence of the student debt crisis among Black women and Black men. Additional analyses suggest gender differences in debt trajectories are a function of postsecondary and young adult socioeconomic characteristics, reflecting broader societal inequalities that stem from structural elements related to post-secondary schooling and economic status. These patterns may inhibit wealth-building among women and Black adults in the United States.

Post-Secondary Education Outcomes for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Self-Determination, Independent Living, Employment, and the Impact of COVID-19.

Post-secondary education (PSE) plays an important role in preparing individuals with an intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) to gain employment and independent living. Despite the recent increase in PSE programs, however, there is a lack of research examining outcomes of individuals with IDD who have attended a PSE program. This study examined three years of data from students who participated in one PSE program that focuses on the acquisition of skills regarding self-determination, employment, and independent living. We analyzed the outcome data of program graduates regarding their acquisition of skills in employment and self-determination, as well as follow-up data on employment. It was found that participation in the program increased self-determination and post-secondary readiness. Our findings also indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the self-determination scores of participants and their employment outcomes.

Pathways to Credentials: Does the Timing of Earning an Industry Certification in High School Influence Postsecondary Educational Outcomes?

Pathways to Credentials: Does the Timing of Earning an Industry Certification in High School Influence Postsecondary Educational Outcomes?

The Effect of Test Score Performance Labels on Post-Secondary Educational Outcomes: Evidence from Michigan

The Effect of Test Score Performance Labels on Post-Secondary Educational Outcomes: Evidence from Michigan

Postsecondary Education and Late-life Cognitive Outcomes Among Black and White Participants in the Project Talent Aging Study: Can Early-life Cognitive Skills Account for Educational Differences in Late-life Cognition?

Higher education consistently predicts improved late-life cognition. Racial differences in educational attainment likely contribute to inequities in dementia risk. However, few studies of education and cognition have controlled for prospectively measured early-life confounders or evaluated whether the education late-life cognition association is modified by race/ethnicity. Among 2343 Black and White Project Talent Aging Study participants who completed telephone cognitive assessments, we evaluated whether the association between years of education and cognition (verbal fluency, memory/recall, attention, and a composite cognitive measure) differed by race, and whether these differences persisted when adjusting for childhood factors, including the cognitive ability. In fully adjusted linear regression models, each additional year of education was associated with higher composite cognitive scores for Black [β=0.137; 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.068, 0.206] and White respondents (β=0.056; CI=0.034, 0.078) with an interaction with race ( P =0.03). Associations between education and memory/recall among Black adults (β=0.036; CI=-0.037, 0.109) and attention among White adults (β=0.022; CI=-0.002, 0.046) were nonsignificant. However, there were significant race-education interactions for the composite ( P =0.03) and attention measures ( P <0.001) but not verbal fluency ( P =0.61) or memory/recall ( P =0.95). Education predicted better overall cognition for both Black and White adults, even with stringent control for prospectively measured early-life confounders.

Optimizing Strategies for Improving Mental Health in Victoria, Australia during the COVID-19 Era: A System Dynamics Modelling Study.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the mental health of populations and highlighted the limitations of mental health care systems. As the trajectory of the pandemic and the economic recovery are still uncertain, decision tools are needed to help evaluate the best interventions to improve mental health outcomes. We developed a system dynamics model that captures causal relationships among population, demographics, post-secondary education, health services, COVID-19 impact, and mental health outcomes. The study was conducted in the Australian state of Victoria. The model was calibrated using historical data and was stratified by age group and by geographic remoteness. Findings demonstrate that the most effective intervention combination includes economic, social, and health sector initiatives. Assertive post-suicide attempt care is the most impactful health sector intervention, but delaying implementation reduces the potency of its impact. Some evidence-based interventions, such as population-wide community awareness campaigns, are projected to worsen mental health outcomes when implemented on their own. Systems modelling offers a powerful decision-support tool to test alternative strategies for improving mental health outcomes in the Victorian context.

The effects of dual credit college algebra on postsecondary education outcomes

Using data from the Kentucky Center for Statistics, this study aimed to explore the impact of participation in dual credit college algebra on longitudinal postsecondary education outcomes of high school seniors in Kentucky. Seniors were divided into students who took dual credit college algebra in high school and those who did not. Each group was further divided into two subgroups using junior ACT (American College Testing) math score of 22 (the benchmark in Kentucky for college algebra readiness). Propensity score matching was used to match dual credit college algebra participants with their non-participating peers based on student and school characteristics. The comparisons showed statistically significant advantages in terms of postsecondary enrollment, first year GPA, time to degree, and completion of a bachelor's degree for students in the low ACT group who took dual credit college algebra. Students in the high ACT group who took dual credit college algebra showed statistically significant advantages in terms of postsecondary enrollment, time to degree, and completion of a postsecondary certificate.

Career and Technical Education Industry Credentials and Its Potential Impact on a State’s Economy

As America’s key industries offer high salaries in return for candidates with the necessary abilities and credentials to fill their vacancies, the knowledge, skills, and third-party industry credentials earned in secondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs seem a close match. Using a non￾experimental, quantitative study, this research shows in prospective dollars earned and tax revenues collected for five years of CTE industry credentials’ the economic value for students and Virginia’s treasury. The implications of this research enable policymakers, school leaders, and CTE advocates to reshape popular misperceptions of CTE and industry credentials, enhance high school students’ career and postsecondary education outcomes, and add to state treasuries.

The Broken Yellow Brick Road: A Narrative Exploration of the College-Going Decisions and Trajectory of a Low-Income Single Mother of Color

Communities frequently treated as ‘have-nots’ in higher education are a window into the condition of postsecondary education access, exclusion, inequities, and outcomes. This reality is no more evident than with the college-going trajectories of low-income single mothers of color. Evoking the possibilities of narrative inquiry in general, and life history method in particular, the author explores the college-going ecology, decisions, and trajectory of a 35-year-old low-income Filipina single mother. Through this empirical undertaking, particular attention is paid to the challenges present within the informant’s context of information, time, and opportunity—the three dimensions of the Iloh Model of College-Going Decisions and Trajectories. Findings of this narrative include prolonged and disjointed experiences; poor navigational structures and asymmetries of information; and institutional constraints, barriers, and disregard. In addition to insights that reflect decision-making challenges and buyer’s remorse of minoritized students; this study situates new directions for addressing concerning contexts of time, information, and opportunity for single mothers pursuing college.

Gender differences in the lifecycle benefits of compulsory schooling policies

We estimate the lifecycle benefits of policies that raise the minimum school leaving age (MSLA). Using a difference-in-differences method, we estimate the causal impact of two adjacent Australian state reforms that extended the MSLA from 14 to 15 in mid 1960. Important gender and state differences emerge in how the reforms affected secondary and postsecondary education outcomes. The biggest winners were women in Victoria, for whom the reform increased postsecondary education, while the reform lifted only minimum schooling qualifications in South Australia. As a consequence, the Victorian reform improved the lifecycle capital accumulation process especially for women, while few benefits were observed for South Australians. Victorian women entered higher-skilled occupations, were more likely to own homes, to be still married and satisfied with family life in pre-retirement age. Victorian men also gained, but the gains were limited to better cognitive and non-cognitive skills, health, and satisfaction with (family) life. Yet, all groups benefitted from delayed and reduced fertility, and a happier family life. We conclude that raising education levels for individuals at the lower end of the education spectrum produces lifecycle benefits that exceed market-return considerations, but major benefits occur only if the reform impacts education outcomes beyond minimum schooling.

The role of mentorship on social engagement among adolescents with autism spectrum disorders

BackgroundOne primary component of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is difficulty with social communication and interaction. These challenges may impede upon postsecondary education and/or employment outcomes of young adults with ASD. Prior to the postsecondary transition, programming for adolescents mainly focuses on social skills training, although there are limitations in the generalizability of skills. Emerging work is beginning to explore the use of peer and adult mentors in benefiting social functioning among adolescents with ASD. Despite the benefits of adult mentorship among other populations, limited work has been conducted with students with ASD. MethodThis study utilized National Survey of Children’s Health data on 27,417 adolescents with an assessed diagnosis of ASD. The data also accounted for the presence of adult mentorship, and the level of social engagement. The current study sought to examine the moderating role of adult mentorship in the association between ASD status and social engagement. ResultsAs expected, adolescents with ASD had significantly lower levels of social engagement compared to peers. Adult mentorship was found to moderate the association between ASD status and social engagement when controlling for the adolescent’s age, ASD severity, family income level, presence of intellectual disability, and sex. Importantly, adolescents with ASD who had an adult mentor demonstrated a level of social engagement higher than their non-mentored typically-developing peers. ConclusionsFindings support the implementation of formal adult mentors to facilitate improvements in social functioning prior to the postsecondary transition.

Educating the Next Generation of Remote Sensing Specialists: Skills and Industry Needs in a Changing World

The landscape of post-secondary education has experienced a dramatic change in student outcomes over the past 20 years. The expectation for students in advanced education was a career in research and toward gaining employment in either academia or in government science. From our survey of university students and early career professionals, it was clear that there is an expectation gap between desired and probable post-secondary education outcomes. Our survey indicated that the majority of trainees, regardless of level of education, undervalue the importance of written and oral communication skills and overvalue specific methodological understanding relative to those employed in the field. While some of these dichotomies can be explained by the relative lack of experience of students, it also points to the nature of the foci of our training. While we are concerned with the production of the next leaders in remote sensing science, most will have careers that are different from their training. There is an opportunity to optimize the post-secondary education experience (student and faculty) with the inclusion of a broader view toward career outcomes.

Review of Schooling of Learners With Disabilities and the Manifestation of the Hidden Curriculum of Time

Postsecondary outcomes remain difficult to attain despite their significance to learners with disabilities. This qualitative study investigated the impact of a hidden curriculum of time on the education of five undergraduate students with disabilities at a Carnegie Research One institution in the midwestern U.S. Participants in their quest for an education experienced a hidden curriculum of time in the form of physical impairments, educational costs of ill-health, and disability discrimination. The academic barriers participants encountered in reaching their educational goals suggest that addressing the hidden curriculum of time is essential for authentic inclusion and achievement of postsecondary education outcomes.

Problematizing Perceptions of STEM Potential: Differences by Cognitive Disability Status in High School and Postsecondary Educational Outcomes.

The STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) potential of youth with cognitive disabilities is often dismissed through problematic perceptions of STEM ability as natural and of youth with cognitive disabilities as unable. National data on more than 15,000 adolescents from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 first suggest that, among youth with disabilities, youth with medicated attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have the highest levels of STEM achievement, and youth with learning or intellectual disabilities typically have the lowest. Undergraduates with medicated ADHD or autism appear to be more likely to major in STEM than youth without cognitive disabilities, and youth with autism have the most positive STEM attitudes. Finally, results suggest that high school STEM achievement is more salient for college enrollment than STEM-positive attitudes across youth with most disability types, whereas attitudes are more salient than achievement for choosing a STEM major.

Chrono-curriculum and the miseducation of American disabled students

Although significantly influencing postsecondary school outcomes, high school education remains challenging to obtain for many disabled students. Then it is vital to know how chrono-curricula operates about disability. This qualitative study on the impact of school time on high school education examines the experiences of eight purposefully sampled US undergraduate disabled students. Their accounts reveal that conflicts between the school calendar and their disability caused a hidden curriculum of time that interfered with their quest to achieve postsecondary education outcomes. Therefore, addressing the hidden curriculum of time within the school time frame is essential in realizing the genuine inclusion of disabled students.

Gendering human capital development in Western Alaska

This article posits that conventional human capital development theory as applied to economic development lacks a consideration of cultural context. In developing regions of the world, life decisions at the postsecondary educational level are often less driven by individual choices and “rational” cost–benefit analyses and more by the continuing importance of family, community, and place‐based values. Results from an examination of postsecondary educational outcomes among rural, coastal peoples of Western Alaska demonstrate how human capital development stimulated through a regional economic development program is gendered: More women than men are pursuing higher education. They are often motivated by a desire to “give back” to both their families and their communities. The study also finds a lack of participation in formal vocational training programs despite the applicability of vocational skills to resource extraction–based industries in rural Alaska. Policy recommendations include economic development organizations creating value in postsecondary educational pathways that most benefit Bering Sea communities, such as those both in caring labor and in the skilled trades. This focus could help validate rural Alaskan commitments to family, community, and sense of place.

Effects of student composition in school on young adults’ educational pathways.

Which factors help young adults choose educational pathways leading to higher educational attainment? Academic self-concept (ASC), achievement, and socioeconomic background have all been found to be important predictors of postsecondary educational choices and success. Although research has shown that student composition in secondary school may affect some of these predictors, only a few studies (mostly from the United States) have investigated the effects of student composition on postsecondary educational outcomes. The results showed that students with similar individual achievement had lower postsecondary educational attainment if they graduated from secondary schools with higher mean achievement. It has been proposed that social comparison processes explain this negative context effect (big-fish-little-pond effect [BFLPE]). In contrast, students with the same individual socioeconomic status (SES) had higher postsecondary educational attainment if they graduated from secondary schools with a higher mean SES. In the present study, we investigated the effects of achievement-related and socioeconomic student composition on subsequent educational outcomes using data from a longitudinal study in Germany. Contrary to previous studies, our results showed that student composition had little relevance for later educational pathways. There was a small, long-lasting, indirect BFLPE of achievement-related composition in secondary school on postsecondary educational outcomes through students’ ASC. Furthermore, individual SES was strongly related to postsecondary educational outcomes, whereas being in an academic-track school with a higher or lower mean SES was not relevant for postsecondary educational pathways. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

A systematic review of factors related to employment in transition-age youth with visual impairments.

Individuals with visual impairments, including transition-age youth, have much lower employment rates than their peers without disabilities. We conducted a systematic review to examine the factors that predict employment in American youth with visual impairments. Research/Method: We used a three-pronged approach to identify articles via databases search, hand search, and ancestral search. We then coded all articles for study and sample characteristics, study outcomes, and study quality. Ten studies met inclusion criteria, nine of which reported secondary analysis of existing datasets. Previous work experience and postsecondary education were consistently significant positive predictors of employment across studies, with previous, self-initiated work experience being the strongest predictor. There is also some evidence for the importance of transportation and travel skills in obtaining employment. Conversely, demographic and disability characteristics generally were not significant predictors of employment. These results highlight the need to teach vocational skills, particularly job search skills, to youth with visual impairments and to support their completion of postsecondary education. Because most studies involved secondary analysis of older datasets, and five relied on the same dataset, additional research should be conducted using novel and current datasets in order to replicate and expand on these findings. Research is also needed to identify factors associated with completion of postsecondary education for youth with visual impairments as well as interventions that lead to positive postsecondary educational and employment outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A tale half told: State exclusionary and inclusionary regimes, incarceration of fathers, and the educational attainment of children

Paternal incarceration leads to educational disparities among children who are innocent of their fathers’ crimes. The scale and concentration of mass paternal incarceration thus harms millions of innocent American children. Current individuallevel analyses neglect the contribution of macro-level variation in responses of punitive state regimes to this social problem. We hypothesize that state as well as individual level investment in exclusionary paternal incarceration diminishes the educational attainment of children, although state inclusionary investment in welfare and education can offset some – and could potentially offset more - of this harm. Understanding intergenerational educational attainment therefore requires individual- and contextuallevel analyses. We use Hierarchical Generalized Linear Models to analyze the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent to Adult Health. Disparities in postsecondary educational outcomes are especially detrimental for children of incarcerated fathers located in state regimes with high levels of paternal incarceration and concentrated disadvantage. This has important implications for intergenerational occupational and status attainment.

The roles of Campus-Support Programs (CSPs) and Education and Training Vouchers (ETVs) on college persistence for youth with foster care histories

Education and Training Vouchers (ETVs) and campus support programs (CSPs) are two interventions designed to support postsecondary education persistence for college students with foster care backgrounds. The federal ETV program provides foster youth up to $5000 per year for college expenses, while CSPs provide an array of on-the-ground services to foster youth enrolled in a college. The ETV program and CSPs have existed for nearly two decades, yet little research has evaluated their impacts on postsecondary education outcomes. This study draws on data from the California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study (CalYOUTH) and the National Student Clearinghouse to examine the roles that ETVs and CSPs play in promoting college persistence for foster youth. The sample includes 401 CalYOUTH Study participants who had enrolled in college. We first examine predictors of ETV receipt and CSP involvement. Logistic regression is then used to assess the associations between these two interventions and the expected odds of persistence, controlling for a wide range of youth characteristics, educational background and foster care history characteristics, county services, and postsecondary institution characteristics. About 41% of youth received an ETV, half (52%) enrolled in a CSP, and less than half (45%) persisted through their first two semesters. ETV receipt and CSP involvement were both found to increase the expected odds of persistence. These early findings are encouraging and suggest that investments in higher education for foster youth pay off at least in the short run. However, the current analysis was not a formal intervention study, and more rigorous research is needed.