Postsecondary Enrollment Research Articles

Measuring Geographic Opportunity for Higher Education in US Metropolitan Areas

AbstractResearch demonstrates that students who live closer to postsecondary institutions are more likely to attend college. Yet many communities offer few or no postsecondary options. In this study, we expand on prior research on the geographic distribution of postsecondary opportunity by developing a finer-grained measure that accounts for both the variety and density of college options in each metropolitan statistical area (MSA). Our estimates use several decay functions to measure the distance-weighted characteristics of institutions, allowing us to cross-validate different approaches and identify the most appropriate model to inform future analyses of geographic opportunity. The results of the cross-validation indicate that both the type of geographic measure used and the penalty in the inverse distance weighting function result in substantively different model fit. We find that each of the measures used in a spatial model—enrollment size, tuition, and net price—has a positive and statistically significant relationship with postsecondary enrollment at the MSA level, indicating the continuing importance of geographic opportunity for college attendance.

Cyber versus Brick and Mortar: Achievement, Attainment, and Postsecondary Outcomes in Pennsylvania Charter High Schools

Abstract The charter school sector has expanded beyond brick-and-mortar schools to cyber schools, where enrollment grew almost tenfold between 2015 and 2020. While a large literature documents the effects of charter schools on test scores, fewer studies explore impacts on attainment or postsecondary outcomes and there is almost no work exploring the consequences of cyber charter enrollment for these outcomes. In this paper, I examine the impacts of Pennsylvania's charter high schools on student attendance, achievement, graduation, and postsecondary enrollment, distinguishing the impacts of brick-and-mortar from cyber schools. I find that brick-and-mortar charters have no or positive effects across outcomes, and that effects are concentrated in urban districts and among Black and economically disadvantaged students. By contrast, attending a cyber charter is associated with almost universally worse outcomes, with little evidence of heterogeneity. Students who enroll in a cyber charter at the beginning of ninth grade are 9.5 percentage points (pp) less likely to graduate, 16.8 pp less likely to enroll in college, and 15.2 pp less likely to persist in a postsecondary institution beyond one semester. These results suggest that additional regulation and oversight of cyber charter schools is warranted and also bring into question the efficacy of online education.

How does a poor labour market affect inequalities in access to postsecondary education? Empirical evidence from 31 affluent countries

Abstract This study examines how macroeconomic conditions affect inequality of educational opportunity. Using longitudinal data from 30 European countries and the USA, we study the effect of changing unemployment rates on the extent of social inequality in postsecondary transitions in the period (2004–2016), which includes the Great Recession. The findings from multilevel models with country fixed effects show that rising unemployment rates tend to increase social inequalities in postsecondary transitions, as youth from low-educated families have increased risk for exclusion from both employment and education, while the likelihood of postsecondary enrolment slightly rises for youth from higher-educated families. Yet, economic downturns also incentivize youth whose parents have middle level of education to opt for postsecondary education, especially in contexts where it is more affordable. Our findings suggest that changing opportunity costs and economic insecurity are the relevant factors to explain changing inequalities in access to postsecondary education during a recession.

Factors Affecting Autistic Students’ School Motivation

Factors Affecting Autistic Students’ School Motivation

On the Cover: High School Coursetaking Sequence Clusters and Postsecondary Enrollment

On the Cover: High School Coursetaking Sequence Clusters and Postsecondary Enrollment

Becoming an Activist: Critical Action Among Black Youth During the Transition to Adulthood

Many Black young adults engage in their communities through critical action, or activism, as they transition into adulthood. However, knowledge about predictors of critical action remain sparse. The present longitudinal study addresses this gap by exploring links between critical action, ethnic-racial identity, and racial discrimination among 143 Black youth who were surveyed as adolescents ( Mage = 15; 66% female) and again as young adults ( Mage = 20). Using hierarchical logistic regression, we found that young adult experiences of racial discrimination were related to increased odds of critical action, accounting for adolescent racial discrimination, gender, caregiver education, and postsecondary enrollment. We also found that criminalizing discriminatory experiences (e.g., being stopped by the police) during young adulthood were related to increased odds of critical action. Our findings document changes in racial discrimination and ethnic-racial identity during the transition to adulthood and suggest that some marginalized youth may transform adverse experiences into critical action.

Teacher Exit and Educational Opportunity: Lessons From Career and Technical Education

Ensuring a stable pool of teachers is critical to building a pipeline of future workers, especially in career and technical education (CTE), where programming can lead to immediate post-school employment or postsecondary enrollment. We use longitudinal state data with unemployment insurance records to document workforce dynamics among CTE teachers. We find that teachers in hard-to-staff CTE areas are more likely to leave teaching and are difficult to replace, creating net reductions in the number of students who can be served. We demonstrate that teachers with the greatest likelihood of leaving are also those who earn the most money in their post-teaching employment, suggesting actionable dimensions for policies to help retain or recruit teachers in these areas. Ensuring a steady and stable pool of high-quality teachers is critical to building a pipeline of future workers and professionals to support economic stability, especially in growing and high-wage fields. This is particularly true in career and technical education (CTE) where programming in high school can lead to immediate postschool employment or enrollment in aligned postsecondary programs. Increased policy focus on CTE has expanded program offerings over the last 15 years, and new federal requirements that programs align with in-demand occupations and industries have heightened potential tensions between the private and public employment opportunities for current or potential CTE teachers (Perkins V, 2018). Even before the new federal mandate, CTE teachers were a hard-to-staff group, with school administrators citing higher turnover and difficulty hiring (Hensley et al., 2017). Though the quantitative research on CTE teachers is limited, evidence does suggest that teachers who score higher on content-specific certification exams produce graduates who earn more money in their early years of post–high school employment, bolstering the claim that these teachers are important (Chen et al., 2023).

Supporting Positive Post-School Outcomes for Students With Disabilities in Rural Locations

Individuals with disabilities are less likely than their peers without disabilities to be employed or enrolled in postsecondary education. Even with federal legislation efforts designed to provide targeted supports to this population, the discrepancy persists. Students with disabilities who attend schools in rural settings may experience additional barriers to employment and postsecondary enrollment not faced by those in urban and suburban locales. This article reviews post-school outcomes and barriers that youth with disabilities in rural areas may encounter. These may include concerns related to transportation, limited opportunities, and varied perceptions on the value of higher education. In addition, special educators in rural schools may have limited training opportunities and a wide range of position responsibilities that require expertise in many areas. Then, to help address these discrepancies, strategies to support students and improve services are presented in four broad areas, including (a) augmenting teacher training and practice, (b) partnering with vocational rehabilitation, (c) improving public policy, and (d) leveraging the strengths of rural communities.

Virtual Charter Schools and Student Post-Secondary Enrollment

ABSTRACT Using student-level data, we analyze the post-secondary enrollment of high school graduates across 29 states from an online charter provider from 2017 to 2020. We estimate the association between virtual charter student characteristics and the likelihood of college enrollment. We find that students who enroll multiple years in the virtual school are more likely to enroll in college. Students who are Black as well as those who qualify for special education services are more likely to enroll in college. We also use parent survey data and summarize the reasons students enrolled in a virtual high school and their college enrollment aspirations.

Concurrent Enrollment Outcomes by Course Location

ABSTRACT In this paper, we compared the initial outcomes of students who took concurrent enrollment (CE) at their high school with those who did so at a local college. We use propensity score matching to produce like groups and compare grades and credit hours earned at three time points. At the end of high school, we compare CE credit hours and grade point average (GPA). After matriculation, we compare GPA and credit hours earned at the end of the first and second postsecondary semesters. Data come from the state of Colorado comprising a panel covering all concurrent enrollment students in the state between 2012 and 2016. Our results indicate that matched students do not have statistically significant differences in GPA or credit hours earned at any point. The results offer some support that CE grades that were awarded highly similar regardless of whether delivered in a high school or a college setting, and there are no statistically significant differences after postsecondary enrollment. The results support high schools offering CE in a format that best fits the local conditions. Institutions can use this information when considering transfer agreements and when entering into provider agreements with high schools.

Banking on Dual Credit: Broadening Opportunities to Earn College Credit in High School and the Transition to College

This article studies state-developed courses in career and technical education (CTE) that offer students the opportunity to earn college credit during high school. Using a regression-discontinuity approach, we examine the effects of passing the end-of-course exam necessary to secure college credit on postsecondary enrollment and choice. We find that barely passing a CTE dual-credit exam increases the likelihood of attending a public, in-state, 2-year institution, with at least part of that increased propensity stemming from a reduction in the likelihood of attending a private in-state institution. Furthermore, we find suggestive evidence that the boost in the likelihood of attending a public, in-state, 2-year college is relatively larger for male compared to female students.

Interscholastic Policy Debate Promotes Critical Thinking and College-Going: Evidence From Boston Public Schools

Few interventions reduce inequality in reading achievement, let alone higher-order thinking skills, among adolescents. We study policy debate—an extracurricular activity focused on improving middle and high schoolers’ critical thinking, argumentation, and policy analysis skills—in Boston schools serving large concentrations of economically disadvantaged students of color. Student fixed effects estimates show debate had positive impacts on English Language Arts (ELA) test scores of 0.13 SD, equivalent to 68% of a full year of average ninth-grade learning. Gains were concentrated on analytical more than rote subskills. We find no harm to math, attendance, or disciplinary records, and evidence of positive effects on high school graduation and postsecondary enrollment. Impacts were largest among students who were lowest achieving prior to joining debate.

Leveraging Experimental and Observational Evidence to Assess the Generalizability of the Effects of Early Colleges in North Carolina

Abstract Early college high schools (ECHSs) in North Carolina are small public schools of choice on college campuses that seek to promote attaining postsecondary credits in high school, college readiness, and postsecondary enrollment for underrepresented groups. Evidence from randomized control trials (RCTs) has shown positive effects of the ECHS model on important high school and postsecondary outcomes but appear to be underpowered to detect moderation effects. Furthermore, RCTs rarely address the key question of primary policy interest: Is the program effective on average across the population? This leaves us uncertain about (1) whether the early college intervention is a good strategy for helping to close enrollment and attainment gaps between under- and overrepresented groups, and (2) whether the expansion of the ECHS model will lead to the positive results that the RCT studies suggest. This study uses administrative data on all ECHSs in North Carolina including those that were part of a lottery study. This allows us to generate RCT estimates for the ECHSs in the lottery sample and quasi-experimental estimates for both the lottery and non-lottery ECHSs. We leverage this unique circumstance to generate estimates of the effect of ECHS on postsecondary outcomes that simultaneously maximize both internal and external validity. Specifically, because generalization depends on both moderation and sample selection, we (1) investigate sample selection, (2) conduct a moderation analysis to determine whether the effects of the intervention vary by key factors that also predict sample selection, and (3) produce a pooled estimate by extending a method called cross-design synthesis to incorporate both RCT evidence and quasi-experimental evidence. We find strong evidence that the positive results of the RCTs generalize to the full sample of ECHSs, which provides stronger evidence of effectiveness.

Social and Emotional Skills Predict Postsecondary Enrollment and Retention.

Social and emotional (SE) skills are known to be linked to important life outcomes, many of which fall into the academic domain. For example, meta-analytic data show that the skill of Sustaining Effort is nearly or just as important for academic performance as intelligence. In a recent study with long-term tracking of high school students, those who came from schools with a strong emphasis on SE skill development were more likely to enroll in college within two years of high school graduation. Longitudinal studies like this one are rare, however. The focus of the present study is on the SE skills of 6662 students assessed during high school and their relationship with high school academic performance, standardized college admissions test performance, and ultimately postsecondary enrollment and retention. We examined mean-level differences in household income, high school GPA, ACT Composite scores, and SE skills by college enrollment and retention status and found several significant differences, often favoring the enrolled or retained group. Moreover, we found support for the incremental validity of SE skills as they predicted enrollment and retention above household income, high school GPA, and ACT scores. Understanding SE skills' effects on later academic outcomes is important to help inform early SE skill intervention and development efforts in secondary and postsecondary settings. Additional implications and future directions are discussed.

Helping Children Catch Up: Early Life Shocks and the PROGRESA Experiment

Abstract Children who face significant disadvantage early in life are often found to be worse off years or even decades later. Can conditional cash transfer programs mitigate the negative consequences and help these children catch up with their peers? We answer this question using data from rural Mexico, where rainfall shocks can have substantial effects on household income. We find that adverse rainfall in a child's year of birth decreases grade attainment, post-secondary enrolment and employment outcomes. But declines were much smaller for children whose families were randomised to receive the conditional cash transfer program, PROGRESA: each additional year of PROGRESA exposure during childhood mitigated almost 20% of the early disadvantage in grade attainment.

Long-term effects of integrated student support: the relation of an elementary school intervention with postsecondary enrollment and completion

This study examines the long-term relation between an Integrated Student Support (ISS) intervention and postsecondary enrollment and completion for predominantly low-income students of color. We use propensity score weighting to estimate the relation between receiving ISS during elementary school and postsecondary outcomes for 2009–2017 high school graduates from an urban district serving a large proportion of students experiencing poverty. We find that students who received ISS in elementary school had a higher probability of enrolling in postsecondary education. For enrolled students, those who received ISS in elementary school had a higher probability of completing postsecondary education than the comparison group. Together, results suggest ISS may be an effective intervention to reduce barriers to postsecondary education and, thereby, to potentially reduce income- and race-based disparities in postsecondary outcomes.

The Cost of Public Higher Education and College Enrollment

ABSTRACT How have changes in the price of enrolling full time at public 2- and 4-year colleges affected student decisions about whether and where to enroll in college? Using local differences in the growth of tuition at community colleges and public 4-year colleges, we study the impact of public higher education tuition prices on the post-secondary enrollment decisions of high school graduates over three decades. We model prospective students’ decisions about whether to attend community college, a public four-year university in their state of residence, other colleges, or no college at all, as relative prices change. We identify enrollment impacts by instrumenting tuition prices using policy variation imposed by state appropriations and tuition caps. We estimate that in counties where local community college tuition doubled (about an average for the study period), the likelihood of post-secondary enrollment fell by about 0.05, on a mean of about 0.80. In addition to reducing college enrollment overall, rising tuition at community colleges diverted other students to four-year colleges. Rising relative prices of four-year public colleges similarly diverted some students toward community colleges but did not limit college attendance in the aggregate. We also find evidence of endogeneity in tuition-setting at the institution level.

Diving Into Students’ Transcripts: High School Course‐Taking Sequences and Postsecondary Enrollment

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to explore high school course‐taking sequences and their relationship to college enrollment. Specifically, we implemented sequence analysis to discover common course‐taking trajectories in math, science, and English language arts using high school transcript data from a recent nationally representative survey. Through sequence clustering, we reduced the complexity of the sequences and examined representative course‐taking sequences. Classification tree, random forests, and multinomial logistic regression analyses were used to explore the relationship between the course sequences students complete and their postsecondary outcomes. Results showed that distinct representative course‐taking sequences can be identified for all students as well as student subgroups. More advanced and complex course‐taking sequences were associated with postsecondary enrollment.

Public High School Music Education in Maryland: Issues of Equity in Access and Uptake

The purpose of this study was to investigate issues of equity in access, uptake, and outcomes of high school music education in the context of an individual state, Maryland. I explored equity through four angles: (a) representation among music students and teachers, (b) factors associated with access to music courses, (c) student and school characteristics associated with music enrollment, and (d) postsecondary enrollment outcomes of students who did and did not enroll in music. Sample members included all students enrolled in a public high school in Maryland belonging to the 2015 to 2016 ninth-grade cohort ( N = 55,500) and public high school teachers ( N = 17,250) during the 2015 to 2016 school year. Approximately 22% of all students were enrolled in a music course their ninth-grade year, and there were substantive differences in demographic representation in band, chorus, orchestra, piano, and guitar classes compared to the student body. Logistic regression results showed that school size was the most salient predictor of access to a music course. Multilevel modeling revealed student-, school-, and teacher-level characteristics were all associated with student enrollment in an ensemble music course. Finally, students who enrolled in music courses did not suffer an opportunity cost regarding college enrollment.

The timing of parental unemployment, insurance and children's education

ABSTRACT The timing of parental unemployment can impact children's educational transitions. Previous research has mostly examined transitions to higher education, proxying timing in relation to children's age and often focusing on selective populations. We study unemployment's intergenerational effects at multiple stages of the educational career, and define timing relative to important crossroads within and across school years for a broader population of children. Further, we build on suggestive patterns in prior studies and test if and how parental unemployment's effects vary depending on the availability, level, and combination of private insurance (parental wealth) and public insurance (unemployment benefits). We rely on Dutch administrative data on cohorts of students born between 1992 and 1998 and observed around the time of the Great Recession. With a negative-control design, we find that paternal unemployment in 6th grade decreases children's chances of enrolling in the general and academic secondary-school tracks, but only in families with lower wealth. Effects are moderate and partly flow from lower performance in a high-stakes test in 6th grade. These effects are reduced when households receive larger unemployment benefit amounts, particularly above median values. In addition, paternal unemployment in 6th grade has long-term negative effects on postsecondary enrolment for children with lower relative wealth. Differently, we do not find evidence of timing effects for spells of paternal unemployment occurring around high-school graduation, nor when examining the timing of maternal unemployment. These findings can inform remedial interventions aimed at mitigating the negative effects of disruptive events on children's education.