Preparation and Access: A Multi-level Analysis of State Policy Influences on the Academic Antecedents to College Enrollment.

Abstract

Does state policy influence how well students are prepared to attend college? For the past 25 years, state and federal policies have focused attention on the high school curriculum with concern about whether or not students would be adequately prepared to pursue postsecondary education by the time they finish high school. Increasingly, states have adopted high school graduation requirement policies and exit exam requirements and a range of strategies to improve student outcomes but few studies have assessed whether those policies have operated in anticipated ways. This study examines the relationship between high school graduation requirements, exit exams, average school funding per student and the cost of college and two student outcomes important to college access – high school completion and the number of courses completed in the core subjects – among public school students. I utilize the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS:2002) first follow up and transcript survey in combination with state policy indicators to examine these relationships. In an effort to account for the complex sampling design and to recognize that students are nested within schools, which operate within unique state policy environments, I employ a three-level hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). The findings demonstrate that policy matters in both anticipated and unexpected ways. Students in local control states are more likely to finish high school in four years than those in graduation requirement states and those in exit exam states are less likely to finish than in non-exam states. African American students in local control states are less likely to finish high school than their White and Asian peers; a gap that does not exist in other states. In terms of course taking, students complete more courses in the core subjects in states with graduation requirement policies. State adopted graduation requirements increase the number of core courses taken but a gap exists between those attend high and low SES schools. On balance, there appear to be greater benefits to adopting state graduation requirements, but greater attention must be paid to mediate the possible influence on high school completion.