High school and college

1. High school and college TTA

2. Overview • Since GI Bill in 1944, college part of American Dream • Close to 40% are enrolled in open-access community colleges, others working entirely online • Why college • Individuals with a BA earn 50% more • Higher job satisfaction, better health outcomes • Benefits to broader society • Problems • Cost (24% increased since 2001) • Student debt • Financial Aid

3. Overview of Postsecondary Ed • Support for expansion came from increased support from state and fed • 45% in 1960 to 70% 2009 • More poor, diverse female, low-income, older, minority, part-time • Colleges have to accommodate a wider range of preparation • Costs • Tuition rising, but also growth in grant aid • Declines in state support (44% in ‘80 to 22% in ‘09)

4. Is College Worth It? • Students underinvest in education • Opportunity costs • Unclear job prospects • Discomfort with loans • Inability to navigate financial aid system • Average returns are 50% higher for grads • Better social opportunities, creative, health • Depends on job

5. Financial Aid • Federal involvement began in 1965 with the Higher Education Act • Available through Pell Grants, Stafford Loans, and Work-Study • American Tax Credit—federal aid to bigger range • But completion of Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is daunting • Research suggests that awards tied to grades improves grades!

6. High School to College Transitions • Many students arrived unprepared for college-level work • Negative peer influences and expectations • Students who “under match” perform worse • Beyond the SAT • Non cognitive skills such as resilience and persistence • College readiness programs

7. For-Profit Colleges • Fasted-growing segment of postsecondary Education • Responsible for 1/3 of the growth • Enroll a disproportionate share of low-income students, minority, and those ill-prepared • Can be quick to adapt their curricula and programming to meet local labor market needs • Relatively successful in well-defined, short duration program but NOT in terms of • Completion • Student loan default rates • Labor market outcomes • Costs 15K more than community colleges

8. E-Learning and Postsecondary • More than 31% of today’s students have taken at least one online course • Though not well-defined (instruction delved through computer technology) • 3 key questions • Is it as effective as other methods • Yes, when conditions are held constant • Barriers to its adoption • Concerns about fraud/cheating • Uncertainties about cost • Unique challenges of low-income students • http://www.khanacademy.org/math/algebra/solving-linear-equations-and-inequalities/why-of-algebra/v/one-step-equation-intuition

9. broad access institutions • Cost-saving may reduce productivity • Using part-time instructors • Increasing student-faculty ratios • Programs like Upward Bound and improved services are not cost-effective • Policy incentives

11. Persistence Problem • Five year completion rates • 6% 4 year colleges • 32% community colleges • Rates UNCHANGED • Differ by race • Asians highest • Women higher (5%) • Two best predictors of persistence • Entering right after has. • Taking a has. curriculum that stresses reading at grade level and math beyond basic algebra • Higher SES • Traditional student

12. Access • Between 18-24 in college • 44% Whites • 32% Blacks • 25% Hispanics • Males particularly low

13. Boosting College Completion • Year Up • Financial dificulties • Prestige

15. Programs for Dropouts • Short-term effects matter • Deficit Focused • Strong programs focus on transition out of program

16. Highlights • Challenge participants who had long-lasting mentoring relationships had better long-term outcomes in areas including education, employment, criminal behavior, and civic engagement. • Youth who selected their own mentors had longer-lasting mentor relationships and more frequent contact with their mentors.

17. Sources of Data • Four waves of quantitative data from MDRC longitudinal evaluation over the course of 3 years • Qualitative interviews with approximately 30 youth participants about the nature, meaning and quality of their mentoring relationships

18. Assessing Impacts at 3-Year Follow-Up Challenge participants who were still in monthly contact with mentors 3 years after entering the study (approximately one and a half years after the completion of the post-residential year) were significantly more likely than the control group to: • Have a GED/high school diploma (p<.001) • Have college credit (p<.001) • Be employed longer (p<.001) • Have higher wages (p<.05) • Spend fewer months idle (p<.001) • Have fewer arrests (p<.001) • Have greater self-reported civic engagement (p<.05)

19. Assessing Impacts at 3-Year Follow-Up Participants in Challenge who were still in contact with mentors 21 months after entering the study (approximately at the end of the post-residential year) were more significantly more likely than the control group to: • Have a GED/high school diploma(p<.05) • Spend fewer months idle (p<.05) • Have fewer arrests (p<.10) • Have greater self-reported civic engagement (p<.10)

20. Assessing Impacts at 3-Year Follow-Up Participants in Challenge who were no longer in contact with their mentor 21 months after entering the study (e.g. lost contact with mentors during or before post-residential year) were more significantly more likely than the control group to: • Have a GED/high school diploma (p<.10) • Have college credit (p<.05)

21. Impacts Based on Interview Data Interviews also revealed the impacts of close, enduring mentoring relationships: • “If I had felt like I had made mistakes, [my mentor] wanted to know if, you know, he could help with anything or if I was slipping’back into the old life, that kind of stuff.” • “We sit down, talk about life, what, what can be done to, you know, improve our, our life, and what are we goanna do to stay away from drugs and alcohol this time…[The relationship] makes me a stronger person.”

22. Impacts Based on Interview Data • “[My mentor] gave me the ability to trust [other people].” • "[My mentoring relationship] made me a better person. Because out of the respect I had for him, helped me to respect other people…And that was a big step for me, because I went through a lot, and everybody, it felt like everybody was stabbing’me in my back, and then he came along and he was, he was more than a mentor, he was a friend.” • “Because to me there was no future other than, you know, ‘I’m goanna have to take care of myself,’…and [my mentor] kind of was that person to prove that I wans’t here by myself.”

23. Mentor Selection The method of mentor selection predicted the length and frequency of contact: • Youth who selected their own mentors had the longest lasting relationships with the most frequent contact. • Youth whose parents helped them select their mentors also tended to have enduring relationships (although less than those who selected their own mentors), and had much less frequent contact with mentors. • Youth who chose their mentors through some other method (Challenge staff or another channel) had less enduring relationships with less frequent contact.

24. Mentor Selection Based on Interview Data Interviews suggested that youth believed similarities between themselves and their mentors were helpful in contributing to effective, enduring relationships: • “We were both raised in the church, both military raised… Everything that we believed in was just about the same, so there are a lotto similarities, and I think that’s why we got along so well whenever I first moved here, and it was one of the main reasons I highly considered him to be my mentor, and that’s why he’s still my mentor till this day.” • Well, been’a Latino…I felt like it does make a difference because cultures are different and it really did help, the fact that she was the same race as me…if she was a different race than I was, maybe she would’t understand why I was struggling so much, not getting along with my dad, or how important it was for me to get along with my dad.

25. Higher Education: Barriers and Breaththroughs • Santorum • Obama

26. Background • College grads have better financial prospects • Adults with BA degree will earn 2.1 million—roughly 1/3 more than an adult who starts but does not complete • Nearly twice as much as one who has only a high school diploma • Health • Access has increased but success has not improved at all

27. A little history • Before 1965 elite • Wasn’t necessary for decent wages • Limited fed. Role • Women discouraged • After 1950 demand for highly skilled increased • mid-to late 1960’s changes in fed policy • Higher Education Act of 1965 • Extended need based financial aid to general population • Facilities construction • Civil Rights (1964 Act) • Demographic trends, baby boomer reached college age

28. 1963-2005

29. Student Characteristics

30. Students

31. Students

32. Students • Vast majority enroll in publicly funded colleges and universities (3/4) • Online instruction • Two of the five largest higher edinstituions in 2005 rely on online University of Phoenix and Western International U. Diversity is mostly in non-selective instituoins • Ugrads who begin at 4 year colleges are 2X as likley to complete as those who begin at 2 year