The Role of High Schools in Shaping Students' Postsecondary Outcomes: A New Approach to Systematically Measuring College-Going Culture in Schools

• In Event: 54.018 - Promising Scholarship in Education: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

The research on college-going culture has shown modest to null positive associations with students’ college application or enrollment patterns. One interpretation of this finding might be that common methodological approaches to quantify high school college-going culture do not go far enough in measuring and validating the concept of college-going culture. This study uses rich survey data from teachers, students, and parents from a large urban school district and investigates an approach to measuring college-going culture that more closely aligns with the concept. I conclude by investigating the extent to which this new measure college-going culture to predicts students’ post-secondary outcomes.

Author

• Vanessa Marie Coca, New York University