The State of Education for Young Parents

• In Event: In Their Own Words: Young Parents' Experiences With Education and a Call to Action for Education Stakeholders

Abstract

A surprisingly large percentage (22%) of all undergraduates in the United States are parents (Reichlin Cruse et al., 2019). Yet, we have very little information on young parents in postsecondary settings even though college access and attainment can be especially important for this population. College attainment is generally linked to financial stability (Torpey, 2018) and a higher likelihood that one’s children will also attend college (Koh et al., 2017). It is also—and most importantly—a space where one can access thinking, literature, and communities aimed at dismantling oppressive structures and systems.

In this symposium presentation, Kate Westaby, a doctoral student who was a teenage mother, will review the state of education for young parents. The content of this presentation will begin with a review of the literature focusing on young parents in college and high school educational settings. Secondly, Ms. Westaby will review findings from her analysis of the High School Longitudinal Study (HSLS) of 2009—a national dataset that tracks 9th graders through their college years. The main aim of that analysis is to understand educational outcomes for young parents. Finally, she will describe her work interpreting these data through a participatory action research (PAR) project with local teenage mothers.

The literature review centers on education for young parents, including peer-reviewed articles and books that focus on mixed methods research and lived experiences of young parents. Initial results of the literature review find that little information exists that situates young parents as a worthy population for education to serve (Pillow, 2004). Further, there are no quantitative studies that describe trends in education for young parents. This demonstrates the importance of the second part of the presentation—an analysis of the HSLS dataset, descriptively reporting outcomes and milestones for a national sample of young parents starting from 9th grade and on (see Table 1).

Initial results demonstrate that young parents are much less likely to apply to and attend college compared to childless peers. Of note, despite the likely challenging pathways to college, one out of every three young parents are able to attend college by age 23. While this is promising, young parents are more likely to be at a two-year than a four-year college and are much less likely to attend a four-year college than their childless counterparts. They are also more highly represented in private for-profit institutions, which can be predatory as graduate rates, employment rates, and student default rates are lower than non-parenting students (Deming et al., 2012).

Results demonstrate disparities in educational access in secondary and postsecondary education. While I provided some interpretation of these data, this project will also share power in the research process during data interpretation and in building recommendations. The PAR project will partner with local teen moms this fall to understand the current rates of college enrollment for young parents and how teen moms interpret these results. Interpretation of these results will be revealed in the symposium.

Author

• Kate Westaby, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author