so does the chance to develop college degree aspirations by the senior year in high school. The SES-based gap in degree aspirations is astounding. [emphasis added] Seventy percent of the Lowest-SES students who attended postsecondary education did not aspire for a college degree while a high school senior. This pattern is reversed among Highest-SES students, whereby 74% of them had developed college aspirations before entering postsecondary education. In other words, Lowest-SES students were 44% less likely to aspire to a four degree than Highest-SES students. (Alberto F. Cabrera, Kurt R. Burkum and Steven M. La Nasa, Pathways to a Four-Year Degree: Determinants of Degree Completion Among Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Students, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 2003, p. 21.) http://www.sheeo.org/access/On%20the%20Right%20Path.pdf
The authors of Reclaiming the American Dream offered a most important insight from their study, as they emphasized the importance of a belief the student had that a college degree was essential to achieving their career plans. As the researchers stated: Every variable we studied in the category of college expectations had a statistically significant effect on college completion. Nevertheless, one in particular stood out: the student‟s expectation that he or she would need a bachelor‟s degree to pursue the career he or she wished to have at age 30. [emphasis added] When this expectation was in place, a student had a 46 percentage point higher rate of obtaining a bachelor‘s degree. This number is astonishing and, in effect, binary: students who make the connection between college and career graduate at a rate of 55%; those who don‘t at a rate of 9%. In other words, even when academic preparation is held constant, high school graduates who subscribe to this belief are more than six times as likely to earn their bachelor‘s degrees. (William Bedsworth, Susan Colby, and Joe Doctor, Reclaiming the American Dream, The Bridgespan Group, October 2006, p. 11.) http://www.nhscholars.org/Documents/ReclaimingAmericanDream.pdf
15.4. Another correlate of at-risk students who beat the odds to access college and succeed is often the support they receive—from parents, high school staff, and friends. Alberto Cabrera and the Penn State researchers noted this in their 2003 study. As they explained: Development of degree aspirations as early as the 8th grade, securing high school academic qualifications, applying for college, and successful adjustment to college are related to the extent to which the student receives encouragement from parents, high school personal [sic], and important high school friends (e.g., Cabrera, Nora & Castaneda, 1992; Cabrera & La Nasa, 2001; Flint, 1992; Hossler, Schmitt & Vesper, 1999). This type of encouragement takes different forms, including from motivational support, saving for college, and being involved in school activities (Cabrera & La Nasa, 2001). Encouragement is key for 182