Unstack the Odds: Help All Kids Access College—and Graduate!
by
Joe Rottenborn
Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)
15. To Beat the Odds, Part 3
At-risk students who beat the odds have aspirations to access college and succeed. In short, they expect to matriculate and graduate. A study done in 2003 for The Brooking Institution noted as much; as its authors stated: “Students who expect to attend college are more likely to graduate from high school and enroll in postsecondary school than students with similar abilities and family background characteristics who expect to obtain only a high school diploma.” (Barbara Schneider, Michael Kirst, and Frederick M. Hess, “Strategies for Success: High School and Beyond,” Brookings Papers on Education Policy, No. 6, 2003, The Brookings Institution, p. 55.) http://www.jstor.org/pss/20067254
This aspiration to matriculate influences students in their selection of courses—which enhances their academic preparation for college. The 2006 report Reclaiming the American Dream indicated this expectation: “Our analysis found that when a student expects to take a college-prep curriculum, there is a significant beneficial effect.” (William Bedsworth, Susan Colby, and Joe Doctor, Reclaiming the American Dream, The Bridgespan Group, October 2006, p. 11.) http://www.nhscholars.org/Documents/ReclaimingAmericanDream.pdf
The researchers at Penn State University also summarized the effect on students in the 1988 high school sophomore cohort of aspirations to matriculate as well as the correlation of socioeconomic status (SES) with these aspirations. As they stated: “Aspiring for a 4-year college degree as early as the 8th grade enables middle school students, high school students, and their families to ready themselves for college (Cabrera & La Nasa, 2001). Students aspiring for at least a 4-year degree are predisposed to take the appropriate course curriculum, complete high school, apply to college, enroll, and eventually graduate (e.g., Adelman, 1999 and Cabrera & La Nasa, 2001). Some research indicates SES can moderate degree aspirations. While examining degree aspirations among 1988 middle school students, Terenzini, Cabrera, and Bernal (2001) found a difference of 29% between Lowest-SES and Highest-SES students’ aspirations for at least a college degree.” (Alberto F. Cabrera, Kurt R. Burkum and Steven M. La Nasa, Pathways to a Four-Year Degree: Determinants of Degree Completion Among Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Students, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 2003, p. 21.) http://www.sheeo.org/access/On%20the%20Right%20Path.pdf
Alberto Cabrera and the other Penn State researchers quantified their findings on students’ aspirations to access and success—specifically, underscoring its importance as a correlate; in addition, they indicated the moderating effect of SES. As they concluded: “Aspiring for a college degree is a good predictor of eventual college degree completion. Across all SES quartiles, students with college degree aspirations while still in high school were 26% more likely to do so, as compared with students without such aspirations. SES moderates the effect of collegiate aspirations. While all students benefit from this factor, Middle Low-SES students benefit the most. Lowest-SES students holding degree aspirations while in high school increase their chances of completing a degree by 17%. Middle Low-SES, Middle High-SES, and Highest-SES students increase their degree completion chances by 38%, 20%, and 28%, respectively (Alberto F. Cabrera, Kurt R. Burkum and Steven M. La Nasa, Pathways to a Four-Year Degree: Determinants of Degree Completion Among Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Students, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 2003, p. 30.) http://www.sheeo.org/access/On%20the%20Right%20Path.pdf
The PSU team further quantified these aspirations among students by SES, noting differences among them, in this way: “As is the case for the 1988 middle school student cohort, we find significant SES based differences in aspiring for a 4-year degree among 1982 High School graduates who entered post secondary education during the 1982-83 academic year (r=.335). As the SES level increases, so does the chance to develop college degree aspirations by the senior year in high school. The SES-based gap in degree aspirations is astounding. [emphasis added] Seventy percent of the Lowest-SES students who attended postsecondary education did not aspire for a college degree while a high school senior. This pattern is reversed among Highest-SES students, whereby 74% of them had developed college aspirations before entering postsecondary education. In other words, Lowest-SES students were 44% less likely to aspire to a four degree than Highest-SES students.” (Alberto F. Cabrera, Kurt R. Burkum and Steven M. La Nasa, Pathways to a Four-Year Degree: Determinants of Degree Completion Among Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Students, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 2003, p. 21.) http://www.sheeo.org/access/On%20the%20Right%20Path.pdf
The authors of Reclaiming the American Dream offered a most important insight from their study, as they emphasized the importance of a belief the student had that a college degree was essential to achieving their career plans. As the researchers stated: “Every variable we studied in the category of college expectations had a statistically significant effect on college completion. Nevertheless, one in particular stood out: the student’s expectation that he or she would need a bachelor’s degree to pursue the career he or she wished to have at age 30. [emphasis added] When this expectation was in place, a student had a 46 percentage point higher rate of obtaining a bachelor’s degree. This number is astonishing and, in effect, binary: students who make the connection between college and career graduate at a rate of 55%; those who don’t at a rate of 9%. In other words, even when academic preparation is held constant, high school graduates who subscribe to this belief are more than six times as likely to earn their bachelor’s degrees.” (William Bedsworth, Susan Colby, and Joe Doctor, Reclaiming the American Dream, The Bridgespan Group, October 2006, p. 11.) http://www.nhscholars.org/Documents/ReclaimingAmericanDream.pdf
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