Aspirations

Did you know that a student's aspirations is one of the strongest predictors of whether or not he or she will attend college?

Educational aspirations are strongly related to college enrollment, retention and GPA (Cooper, 2009; Richardson, Abraham & Bond, 201; Robbins, et al., 2004). Students who aspire to obtain college degrees are 28% more likely to apply to and attend college than students with no aspirations to attend college (Cabrera & La Nasa, 2001). Despite this connection between aspirations and educational attainment, studies indicate a persistent aspirations slump in American public schools. Eighty-eight percent of eighth grade students reported that they aspired to attend college on the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS, Venezia, Kirst, & Antonio, 2003). However, of students in the NELS dataset who had obtained college qualifications such as the requisite GPA, class rank, aptitude test scores, SAT and ACT scores, only 69% enrolled in college and only 9% of unqualified students enrolled (Cabrera & La Nasa, 2001).

Race influences the relationship between college aspirations and attendance (Bennett & Xie, 2000, Perna, 2000, Solozorano, 1991). A smaller proportion of African American students aspired to obtain a college degree than White students and, of the students who aspired to earn a BA, larger proportions of White students than African American students actually enrolled in college (Bennett & Xie, 2000). Aspiring to an advanced degree had a positive influence on college enrollment rates for Latino students and White students but was unrelated to enrollment for African American students (Perna, 2000). When controlling for SES, African American students had higher educational aspirations than students from other ethnic groups (Solozorano, 1991). Students from both ethnic groups valued education similarly, yet the likelihood of African American students attending college was 43% lower than White students (Solozorano, 1991). When controlling for gender, costs, benefits and financial resources, Latino students were less likely than White students to enroll in college, yet African American students were as likely as White students to enroll (Perna, 2000). These racial gaps are also reflected in remediation rates. More than one third (36%) of incoming four-year college students enrolled in remedial courses with 45% of African American students and 43% of Hispanic/Latino students enrolling (Aud et al., 2011).

College aspirations differ by the income levels of students as well: even controlling for access to financial aid, high-SES students are 55% more likely to apply to four-year colleges than their lowest-SES counterparts, and low-SES students are 15% less likely to apply than middle-upper SES students (Cabrera & La Nasa, 2001). In addition, 25% fewer students from low-income families were enrolled in college than students from high-income families in 2008, the same enrollment gap that has persisted since 1972 (Antonio & Bersola, 2004; Aud, et al., 2010; Bell, Rowan-Kenyon, Perna, 2009; Cabrera & La Nasa, 2001; Merchant, 2004).

The aspirations of students whose parents did not attend college tend to be lower than those of students whose parents had a bachelor’s degree (Choy, 2001). For example, in the class of 2010, 46% of students whose parents who had not attended college had definite plans to graduate from a four-year college, whereas 57% of students whose parents had attended college planned to graduate, 66% of students whose parents had earned a BA planned to graduate, and 78% of students whose parents had earned a graduate or professional degree planned to graduate from a four-year college (Aud et al., 2012). This difference by parents’ background has persisted since 1990, however the gaps have narrowed in that time: in 2011 the difference between students’ plans to graduate for students whose parents had not attended college versus students whose parents had earned graduate or professional degrees was 32% but in 1990 there was a 40% difference (Aud et al., 2012).

One potential explanation for these differences is that the information available to first-generation students may not come from their parents. These students will rely on teachers, guidance counselors, college recruiters, and their peers for information about enrolling and attending college. Further, this information must be made available in middle school because most students formulate their plans to attend college in eighth or ninth grade (Hossler & Schmit, 1995). As discussed, the majority of eighth grade students aspire to attend college, however most of these aspiring students will not attend and graduate (Venezia, Kirst, & Antonio, 2003). This may be due to a lack of academic preparation and first generation college students tend to be less academically prepared than their peers whose parents did attend college (Choy, 2001). However, the difference in college intentions made by parents’ education was evident for highly achieving students as well, in 1994 92% of highly achieving students whose parents had attended college planned to attend versus 76% of highly achieving first-generation students (Choy, 2001).

Despite these grim statistics, parental education made no difference in attendance rates for students who took the steps to enroll in a four-year college or university (Choy, 2001). These steps include preparing academically, taking college admissions tests, and submitting application materials. Unfortunately, taking these steps is more difficult for first-generation students, these students tended to receive less parental assistance with the matriculation process than students whose parents attended college and first-generation students tend to have limited access to information about this process (Choy, 2001, Thayer, 2000). This lack of knowledge about what to do to be college eligible is a roadblock for all students who aspire to college but do not attend (Cabrera & La Nasa, 2001). First generation students, students from low-SES backgrounds, African American students, and Latino students tend to have limited access to information about financial aid and tend to overestimate tuition rates (Bell, Rowan-Kenyon, Perna, 2009). All students, but particularly students from these backgrounds, need information and support as they pursue their aspirations for after high school.

References

Antonio, A.L. & Bersola, S.H. (2004). Working toward K-16 coherence in California. In M.W. Kirst & A. Venezia (Eds.), From high school to college: Improving opportunities for success in postsecondary education (pp. 31-76). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Aud, S., Hussar, W., Planty, M., Snyder, T., Bianco, K., Fox, M., Frohlich, L., Kemp, J., Drake, L. (2010). The Condition of Education 2010 (NCES 2010-028). National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC.

Aud, S., Hussar, W., Kena, G., Bianco, K., Frohlich, L., Kemp, J., Tahan, K. (2011). The Condition of Education 2011 (NCES 2011-033). National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC.

Aud, S., Hussar, W., Johnson, F., Kena, G., Roth, E., Manning, E., Wang, X., and Zhang, J. (2012). The Condition of Education 2012 (NCES 2012-045). National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC.

Bell, A. D., Rowan-Kenyon, H. T., & Perna, L. (2009). College knowledge of 9th and 11th grade students: Variation by school and state context. The Journal of Higher Education, 80(6), 663-685.

Bennett, P.R. and Xie, Y. (2000). Explaining the black-white gap in college attendance: Racial differences versus socioeconomic determinants (Research Report No. 00-447). Ann Arbor, MI: Population Studies Center at the Institute for Social Research.

Cabrera, A. & La Nasa, S. (2001). On the path to college: Three critical tasks facing America’s disadvantaged. Research in Higher Education, 42(2), 119–149.

Choy, S. (2001). Students whose parents did not go to college: Postsecondary Access, persistence, and attainment (Report No. NCES 2001-126). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.

Cooper, M. A. (2009). Dreams deferred? The relationship between early and later postsecondary educational aspirations among racial/ethnic groups. Educational Policy, 23(4), 615–650.

Hossler, D. & Schmit, J. (1995). The Indiana postsecondary-encouragement experiment. New Directions in Higher Education, 89, 27-39.

Merchant, B. (2004). Roadblocks to effective K–16 reform in Illinois. In M. W. Kirst & A. Venezia (Eds.), From high school to college: Improving opportunities for success in postsecondary education (pp. 115–150). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Perna, L. W. (2000). Differences in the decision to attend college among African Americans, Hispanics, and Whites. The Journal of Higher Education, 71(2), 117-141.

Richardson, M., Abraham, C., & Bond, R. (2012). Psychological correlates of university students' academic performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 138, 353–387.

Robbins, S. B., Lauver, K., Le, H., Davis, D., Langley, R., & Carlstrom, A. (2004). Do psychosocial and study skill factors predict college outcomes? A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 261–288.

Solorzano, D. (1991). Mobility aspirations among racial minorities, controlling for SES. Sociology and Social Research, 75, 182-188.

Thayer, P. B. (2000). Retention of students from first generation and low income backgrounds. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, National TRIO Clearinghouse.

Venezia, A., Kirst, M.W. and Antonio, A.L. (2003). Betraying the college dream: How disconnected K-12 and postsecondary education systems undermine student aspirations. Palo Alto, CA: The Bridge Project.

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