How the Organizational Mix of College-Access Supports in Urban Schools Affects Students’ College Application Experiences

• In Event: 3429 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 1. Access to Higher Education

Abstract

This paper examines the extent to which a mixture of college-going climate norms and supports in urban high schools are associated with twelfth graders’ reports of having received help with the college application process and their reports about whether and where they applied to college. The authors use longitudinal, administrative data on students from a large, urban school district and survey-based measures of the expectations of adults at the school, counseling resources at the school, teachers’ help with the college application process, and students’ participation in college-access programs, to examine whether students who were academically and demographically similar when they started high school were more likely to apply to college if they attended schools with stronger college-going climates. The authors find that students were more likely to apply to a four-year college when they attended high schools where teachers believe it is part of their job to provide college-related information and assistance, and in which teachers reported taking the time to provide that assistance to students. The authors also find that students who participated in a college-access program were more likely to apply to a four-year college than their peers who had similar academic profiles and demographic characteristics before they entered high school but did not participate in a college access program.

Authors

• Carrie Elizabeth Miller, University of California, Los Angeles

• Meredith Phillips, Univ. of California-Los Angeles

• Kyo Yamashiro, Claremont Graduate University