College Access and Opportunity: 50 Years After the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Higher Education Act of 1965

• In Event: Convergence: U.S. Education Policy 50 Years After the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Higher Education Act of 1965

Abstract

The panel presentation draws from a book chapter that examines fifty years of American college participation rates by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and sex. The purpose of the paper/presentation is to describe how two landmark 1965 federal education policies, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the Higher Education Act (HEA), have and continue to influence college access and opportunity. The presentation concludes by proposing modifications to ESEA and HEA to promote the alignment of K-12 with higher education in ways that might increase access and opportunity for all students.
ESEA and HEA helped to increase the number and diversity of high school graduates enrolling in college. ESEA improved economic support for schools in low-resource communities. HEA created grant and loan programs that made college reasonably priced for lower- and middle-income students. HEA also initiated talent search and academic preparation programs to expand opportunities to attend college for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Although HEA continues to appear successful because more students across all income groups and racial backgrounds have been increasingly enrolling in college, appearances can be deceiving.
While the number of college enrollees has increased from 6 million in 1965 to over 21 million, the proportion of high school graduates enrolling in college has plateaued since 1997. The percentage of high school completers enrolled in college was 52 percent in 1965, rose to 67 percent in 1997, and was still 67 percent in 2012.
While access remains in a decade-long holding pattern, opportunity appears to be in decline. Lower- and middle-income students are no longer finding four-year colleges attractive, that is affordable. Over the past decade, researchers have consistently shown that among students with similar academic abilities, low-income students are more likely than high-income students to attend two-year and for-profit institutions instead of four-year colleges. Since the inception of the Pell program in 1973, the proportion of Pell grant recipients enrolling in two-year and for-profit colleges has increased from 32 percent to 59 percent in 2011.
The paper/presentation begins with descriptive education statistics from federal sources that outline 50-year trends in access and opportunity. The presentation continues with a review of research on stratification and inequality in education that potentially explains these trends. For example, the presentation will discuss when and why college attendance broadly began to stagnate and college destinations became more segregated in the late 1990s. The paper/presentation uses these trends and explanations to revisit the goals, programs, and practices in ESEA and HEA and make recommendations for future reauthorizations that aim to increase higher education attendance (and success) for lower- and middle-income students and delivering on the promise of HEA to “encourage the full utilization of educational talent.”

Author

• Donnell James Butler, Franklin & Marshall College