2013 - High School Economic Composition and College Persistence

Attribution: Niu, Sunny X., & Tienda, Marta
Researchers: Marta TiendaSunny X. Niu
University Affiliation: College Board; Princeton University
Email: sniu@collegeboard.org
Research Question:
The authors examine variation in college persistence according to the economic composition of high schools, which serves as a proxy for unmeasured high school attributes that are conductive to postsecondary success.
Published: Yes
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Research in Higher Education
Journal Entry: Vol. 54, Pp. 30-62
Year: 2013
Findings:
  1. Three-fourths of top decile graduates from poor schools enrolled in a 4-year institution compared with 89% of comparably ranked graduates from affluent schools. Furthermore, 11% of top decile graduates from affluent high schools enrolled in a 2-year institution compared to 25% of comparably ranked graduates from poor high schools.
  2. Graduates from affluent schools graduated from college on time 44% of the time versus 21% for graduates from poor high schools. High affluent school graduates abandonment rates were also much lower- 3% versus 13%.
  3. 1% of graduates from affluent high schools and 3% of their rank counterparts from average high schools withdrew from a 4-year college and did not re-enroll anywhere during the observation period. By comparison, roughly 12% of top-ranked students from poor high schools withdrew from college.
  4. Transfer rates from a 2-year college to a 4-year college vary directly with high school economic composition: nearly 40% of affluent school graduates transferred to degree-granting institutions compared with 37% of students from average high schools, only 21% of graduates from poor high schools.
  5. Graduates from poor high schools were only half as likely to graduate and .64 times as likely to persist in their pursuit of a baccalaureate degree versus withdrawing from college compared with students from average high schools.
  6. For students that enrolled in a 2-year institution within 6 months, compared with students who graduated from average Texas high schools, those who attended affluent high schools are 1.87 times more likely to transfer to a 4 year institution relative to withdrawing altogether, but graduates from poor high schools are only half as likely to do so.
  7. Students who graduated from affluent high schools have the highest persistence rates and those who attended poor high schools have the lowest rates.
  8. The advantages in persistence and on-time graduation from 4-year colleges enjoyed by graduates of affluent high schools cannot be fully explained by high school college orientation and academic rigor, family background, pre-college academic preparedness or the institutional characteristics.
  9. High school college orientation, family background and pre-college academic preparation largely explain why graduates from affluent high schools who first enroll in 2-year colleges have higher transfer rates to 4-year institutions; however, these factors and college characteristics do not explain the lower transfer rates for students from poor high schools.
Scholarship Types: Journal Article Reporting Empirical ResearchKeywords: CollegeCollege EnrollmentHigh School CompositionHigh School InfluencesPersistenceSESSES CompositionRegions: SouthwestMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: Secondary Survey DataAnalysis Methods: Descriptive StatisticsMultinomial Logistic Regression Sampling Frame:High school to college students
Sampling Types: Non-RandomPopulationPurposiveAnalysis Units: SchoolStudentData Types: Quantitative-Longitudinal
Data Description:
  • This study uses data from the Texas higher education opportunity project (THEOP). A representative sample of Texas public high school seniors was surveyed in spring 2002. A random sub-sample of the senior cohort was re-interviewed the following spring and again 4 years after high school graduation. After the 4 years after high school gradation, there were 4,114 individuals that had participated in all three surveys. The authors are confident that they are representative of 2002 Texas high school seniors in their college going behavior and subsequent post-secondary attainment.
  • The dependent variable was college persistence. The operational definition of persistence is bound by the 4-year observation window and restricted to the sample of 2,752 students who matriculated at a postsecondary institution in the fall 2002 (commonly designated as ”on-time” enrollees). Based on the 1st post-secondary institution attended, the authors derived five mutually exclusive outcomes: (a) On-time graduation: students graduated from the 1st college attended (or expected to do so by August 2006) four years after first matriculating; (b) Continuation: students remained enrolled at the 1st college attended; (c) Transfer to a 4-year institution: students enrolled at a degree-granting institution when interviewed at the wave 3; (d) Transfer to a 2-year/vocational institution: students transfer to a community college or vocational/technical school when interviewed at the wave 3; (e) Dropout: students withdrew from the 1st college attended and did not enroll at another postsecondary institution during the observation period.
  • The authors included variables capturing demographic and family attributes (race/ethnicity; sex; parental education; home ownership and region of residence) and academic preparation (class rank, standardized test scores; college intentions, completion of AP and pre-calculus classes). Schools with similar economic composition may differ in their college-going traditions; therefore, to control for variation in college-going traditions that is associated with both economic composition and collegiate persistence, the authors model the number of AP courses offered, as well as the school-specific shares of students with college plans, who pass algebra, and who pass AP exams.
  • College characteristics also influence students’ persistence outcomes. Therefore, the statistical models include several institutional characteristics, including competitiveness of admissions, private/public status, whether located in Texas, average annual cost and total undergraduate enrollment. Furthermore, to assess the adequacy of the student-institution match, the authors consider how a student’s standardized test score compares to the average of a college’s student body. The operational measure expresses a student’s SAT score as a deviation from the institutional spread. Two-year colleges do not report SAT scores, and these data are also missing for some 4-year institutions.
  • A handful of students who enrolled at a 4-year institution had graduated from the 1st attended institution at the last interview. For purposes of this study, they were treated as on-time graduates. Two-year college students who graduated and then enrolled at another institution are classified as transfers.
  • The authors used a typology that differentiates poor and affluent high schools from those that serve average shares of economically disadvantaged students. The Texas education agency (TEA) calculated the share of students who were ever economically disadvantaged (i.e. ever receive a free or reduced lunch), which the authors used to classify high schools into income poverty quartiles. Schools with the lowest quartile poor were designated affluent; those in the highest quartile poor were labeled poor; and the rest were classified as average.
  • The study is unable to ascertain how financial aid and early experiences influence withdrawal behavior. In particular, the authors cannot confirm whether the reduced-form estimates of school socioeconomic composition on persistence are truly direct effects or whether they operate indirectly through on-campus experiences and the availability of financial aid prior to enrollment.
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:High school composition and its impact on college enrollment.
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