Summary: The Early College High School Model

The Hispanic/Latino community has been known to be underrepresented on college campuses, both at the community college and four-year university level. Factors such as low-income households, poor or harsh living conditions, under-educated parents, cultural and family commitments, and unfamiliarity with the college process, all serve as unfortunate barriers that keep Hispanic/Latino students from reaching the goal of attaining college degrees. Although these barriers keep many students from succeeding, many others overcome these obstacles and continue on their paths to creating a better future for themselves. They choose to look past the expectations that society has for them and break out of the stereotypical mold. However, Hispanic/Latino students face, yet, another challenge upon successfully making it on to a college campus... the challenge of graduating.

In analyzing the discrepancies of degree completion and post-secondary enrollment of individuals within the Rio Grande Valley, we must also account for factors that can deter these individuals from

Inspiring and encouraging Chicano students to attend college, especially first generation students, has been a movement lead by many clubs, organizations, and by teachers who are passionate about their careers. Thus, “first generation students” is a term that states that a student does not have a record of previous generations attending college. Usually, students classified as such come from low income families as well as from poor neighborhood communities. That is to say, many of these individuals are also minorities such as African Americans and Chicano students. Also, public schools in low income areas tend to have poorly taught material in school. Consequently, there exists a direct correlation between race and poverty that portrays a

First of all, the state wide definition of College and Career Readiness (CCR) is “level of preparation students’ needs to enroll and succeed in a credit-bearing, entry-level college courses (ACT, 2015).” The statics of Hispanics high school students passing math and reading is 22% (Moore, 2010). Hispanics students have a higher percentage when looking at the subjects individually with 37% in reading and 39% in math but this is not a true indicator demonstrating college completion (Moore, 2010). The overall degree attainment in Texas, was 32% of the total population of which only 16% were of Hispanic or Latino origin (Education, 2011). By no means was language a barrier nor performance deficits, leaving their white counter parts preforming at 53% in reading, 58% in math, and 40% overall in both subject areas (Moore, 2010). The downfall of this study is that the reporting system Texas uses is a multivariate in which factors cannot be separated individually in order to assess College Readiness standards (Moore, 2010). “Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006 (Public Law 109-270) and CCR agenda focus on ensuring students are prepared for college and beyond (Achieve, 2013).” Of the ten policies, that institution of higher education has not been able to align the transferability of coursework since each school is truly unique in the composition and excicution of coursework being taught. This change CCR standards has lead to the, revamping of the

The results from this study show that students from low income households have a significantly lower chance of receiving a bachelor degree than those coming from higher income households, which one could probably assume. Even the students that preformed at the top of their class in eighth grade, but lived in low income households had less than thirty-three percent chance of completing college (Roy). This astonishing fact proves that even the highest achieving students still do not have a guarantee of receiving a college education, if their parents have no way to afford it. Another study, conducted by the National Student Clearninghouse Research Center, tracked two million, three hundred thousand people from high school into college to track their performance while in college based on where they attended college. They found that low income students from lower income high schools tended to wait a couple years before enrolling in college while high income students attending higher income high schools enrolled in college the fall semester after graduating high school. Out of these participants, twenty-two thousand, one hundred eight students continued their education into college, and eighty-one percent of these college students successfully completed at least their second year of schooling (Sparks ).

The affect of low socioeconomic status is still influential among high achieving students, with the likelihood of achieving a bachelor’s degree increasing with socioeconomic status on students that scored in the upper quartile of an eighth grade math exam (Lee et all., 2008). Race is still an indicator of academic achievement, but its direct and indirect effects are less strong (Lee et all., 2008). Students of majority race (White and Asian) complete high school at a rate of 93%, while students of the non-asian minority complete high school at a rate of 85% (Lee et all., 2008). The gap between students of differing socioeconomic status was far wider, of 44 percentage points, as compared to the gap between races and high school completion rates, which is 8 percentage points. Differences in gender also shows discrepancies, with 31% of females receiving at least a bachelor’s degree and only 26% of males receiving at least a bachelor’s degree.

Kathleen Blanco, the 54th governor of the U.S. state of Louisiana, once pointed out that “ Every educated person is not rich, but almost every education person has a job and a way out of poverty. So education is a fundamental solution to poverty.” It is almost gratuitous to say that everyone desires a higher education. And why not? It is perhaps the best way to avoid a life of poverty; a life in which one must struggle to meet the basic necessities of life. Unfortunately, not everyone has the opportunity to receive a higher education, especially students living in poverty, who are often forced to live on a day-to-day basis, let alone even think about school. Poverty deprives these students the quality education they are entitled to, thus inhibiting their potential for future success. This predicament has contributed to a widening racial wealth gap that is not only a threat to the individual’s themselves and the economy, but also a significant threat to upward mobility, which is defined as the ability of an individual to climb up the socioeconomic ladder. One particular factor that has and continues to contribute to this widening racial wealth gap is the lack of a college education among these low-income students. More importantly, this lack of college education is the direct result of a poor-quality K-12 education, especially in poverty-stricken neighborhoods. To mitigate the prevalent racial wealth gap, each

As a student of the early College high school program is can say with confidence that the opportunities offered by this program are incomparable to any other. Not only have a gotten a head start in life and in my academics, i have had the chance to better myself as a person and even as a student. Early college high school presents amazing opportunities for everyone who is willing to work on their academics. Through this program i will be saving thousand of dollars in tuition money. When i graduate high school with an associate's degree i will have a huge head start in life. Also, in a college classroom setting there are so many more opportunities for individualism. Learning in a college setting grants so many more chances to grow as a student

Many high school student and young adults who dream of becoming well educated are unable to because they do not have access to higher education due to their economic status. Nearly 85 percent of middle school aged children in the US say they would like to earn a college degree yet only 44 percent of students from poor families are enrolled by October following high school graduation (Haveman, 2006). About 59 percent of students finish their

The background utilized within this research was how an enormous portion of the college student population have now become first- generation college students which typically means that they are at higher risk for lower graduation rates than their peers who nonfirst- generation. This study also takes into consideration how the residents of the Appalachian region were less likely to graduate and get into college than their peers. This study also defines first generation college students as students whose parents did not graduate from college, it was also found that these students tended to be older than the nonfirst generation peers and that the likelihood of them arriving “ from low- income families” (Bradbury &

In The NPR broadcast of “Why High School Students Need More Than College Prep”, Claudio Sanchez reveals how most students leave high school without any “soft skills” to help them obtain jobs in the workforce. Sanchez shows how Willamette High School prides itself on providing classes on what most would call trade school material. The school explains how employers expect students to already have these “soft skill” like “punctuality, customer service, managing people, and teamwork”. Willamette is involved with DECA which is an organization that provides students with real-world experiences. Students that participate have a better understanding of if college is the right place for them to be or if they would rather run the family business like

Students today are still inferior to White’s when measuring academic success by variables such as high school GPA, standardized testing, college acceptance, and college graduation. Other variables such as peer influence, parent expectations, and socioeconomic status has been seen as significant contributions to Latino and African American academic success (Davis ad Otto This is a real problem within the United States of America as there is still an academic gap. The educational pipeline has shown that 44% of Mexican students entering the educational pipeline did not complete their high school diploma. Twenty-seven percent of the high school graduates went on to college and only 10% completed their bachelor’s degree (Covarrubias,

In 2015, the U.S. Department of Education announced that the overall graduation rate peaked at eight-two percent during the 2013-2014 school year. (Kamenetz 2015:1). According to Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, graduation rates have been steadily improving since a tracking system was adopted to monitor it. This rate can also be attributed to the fact that initial warning systems have been adopted to ensure that students remain on track to graduation. Additional diploma tracks have also been offered to protect graduation rates. This can also be paralleled to the fact that the high school dropout rate among those aged sixteen to twenty-four has decreased from 10.9 percent in 2009 to 6.8 percent in 2013 (NCES 2015:4). Nonetheless, if more students are graduating from high school than in the past, it is important to examine where they are going afterward. In the fall of 2015, 20.2 million students enrolled in American colleges and universities. This data illustrates that there has been a 4.9 million increase in students attending American colleges and universities since 2000 (NCES 2015:5). Furthermore, 65.5 percent of students enrolled in a college or university immediately after graduating from high school in 2013. Thus, most students enrolled in public schools graduate and attend college, unlike in the past. These rates may be attributed to the fact that it is much more vital to possess a high school diploma and college degree than in the past, regardless of the state of public education. However, these rates still indicate the emergence of positive academic and social outcomes in public

Is it a left or a right at the stairwell? I should just go home. Did you actually think you could pull this off? Moron. Whatever I’m almost there. I don’t know what dad was fussing about. Going to the cafeteria isn’t nearly as bad as he had said. I am lost though, but they acted as if there were lions and tigers and bears. Oh my God! That smells amazing! Is that Cheerios? Wait, there’s a chickeny smell. Maybe, a chicken biscuit? Whatever, anything is better than that crap at home. Do I turn here? These damn walls look the same. Oh, there’s a light. Can’t wait to taste-- Ouch! Why is that duct so freaking high up? It smells like chlorine in here. Where am I? It’s hella bright in here. Is this a classroom? Oh god! That means some student will see me and they’ll call the janitor and--

This paper is an attempt to answer to the following research question, “Why do first-generation, underrepresented, college-bound, high school students undermatch their college choices when applying?” After a review of various articles related to academic undermatching, we found a variety of reasons. In what follows, we will explore—in relation to underrepresented students—the way different methods of conducting research may affect data, how access to information about financial aid affects college selection, the role of college-going culture in high schools, and issues related to student autonomy in choosing which college to attend. Ultimately, we find that academic undermatching is a complex issue that needs a definitive way to be measured so that it can be improved. Without a clear definition of undermatching, future researchers should a) create a foundational definition b) evaluate college enrollment versus college graduation attainment among ‘undermatch’ students and c) consider various factors among all students.