Selective High School Effects on College Readiness and Postsecondary Destinations (Poster 26)

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

Abstract

Among the various types of high schools within urban school districts are selective high schools. These are public high schools that select the students they enroll through competitive admissions processes that require student to demonstrate their academic abilities, typically through entrance exam scores or prior grades. Selective high school students typically enroll in four-year and selective colleges at higher rates than students at other schools within their districts. This study aims to estimate the extent to which these schools cause higher rates of college readiness and enrollment compared to other high schools. Data for this study are from administrative records for three cohorts of students in a large, urban school district as well as data from the National Student Clearinghouse (NCS), the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Survey (IPEDS), and the Civil Rights Data Set (CRDC). Logistic regressions and fuzzy regression discontinuity designs were used to estimate the causal effect of selective high schools’ effects on students’ college readiness and enrollment outcomes. Preliminary findings show no evidence of a causal impact of an offer of admission into a selective high school on college enrollment for students at the admissions threshold cutoff suggesting a need for further examination of the distribution of students and resources between schools within districts with high school choice.

Author

• Zyrashae N. Smith-Onyewu, University of Florida
  Presenting Author