Poster Paper:
Using College-Going Culture to Assess the Predictive Power of Postsecondary Success in Rural School Districts
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
This study is relevant to the field of education policy because it allows for researchers to quickly assess the extent schools maintain an environment that encourages student enrollment to post-secondary schooling. Determining school-wide success may be dependent on student outcomes such as graduation rates, achievement scores, and college enrollment rates, all of which are data points that could take months, even years, to retrieve. With an analysis of CGC, district and school administrators will be able to precisely identify the CGC components that are present and missing within their schools. From there, they can create relevant policy decisions that will bolster CGC and ultimately improve graduation and post-secondary enrollment rates.
Using evidence from prior research, we identified elements of CGC and developed a framework for identifying and measuring these elements using interviews and surveys. Within our 11 districts, we conducted interviews with district personnel (n= 11) and principals (n=17) and administered surveys to teachers (n=1245), and program personnel (n=19). We compiled survey and interview responses by school to calculate overall school-wide CGC scores and scores for each element of CGC. Then, we ranked schools based on their school-wide CGC scores.
Although schools appeared to be demographically similar, results from surveys and interviews revealed that participants within schools shared more commonalities amongst peers than across schools. In schools with the highest rankings of CGC, school personnel perceived their parents to be more engaged, and described their students as being more likely to have a positive perspective on their future, and have access to college resources and rigorous courses, compared to schools with lowest rankings of CGC. By the end of the 2016-17 school year, we will include survey results from students (n~1705) and parents (n~2125) to assess the extent both groups align with their school personnel’s perceptions of CGC, parent engagement, and student attitudes about their future.
Next, we combined CGC scores derived from the surveys and interviews with administrative outcome data on intermediate high school outcomes as well as college enrollment data. Regression analysis was used to determine whether students who attended schools with higher scores on specific elements of CGC were more likely to attend college and more likely to have better high school outcomes than students attending schools with lower levels of CGC. Overall, schools with generally better outcomes tended to have higher rankings regarding CGC.
