Education and Work After High School: A First Look at the Class of 2006
Authors:Christopher T. King, Deanna Schexnayder, Greg Cumpton, Tara Carter Smith, Chandler Stolp
Date: November 2007
Publication Type: Report
Abstract: For Education and Work after High School: A First Look at the Class of 2006, Ray Marshall Center researchers used both descriptive statistics and more sophisticated multivariate techniques to determine the factors associated with initial postsecondary education and employment outcomes for 2006 Central Texas seniors. Data for this analysis were constructed from individual student high school records, a spring survey of Central Texas seniors prior to graduation, and subsequent postsecondary education and employment records through December 2006.
The researchers concluded that models linking information from individual school and employment records with additional student background information collected through the senior survey perform better than models that rely solely on administrative records. From the statistical models, researchers determined that education and student background factors are significantly related to overall 2-year and 4-year postsecondary education enrollments in different ways, and these factors work differently for seniors from different socioeconomic, race/ethnic, and family backgrounds. Factors most strongly related to employment after high school differed from those that affected college enrollments. Finally, some Central Texas results varied from the existing literature; among these, differences by race/ethnicity and gender are particularly notable.
This is the first in a series of reports analyzing administrative and survey data linked to their postsecondary outcomes for Central Texas seniors. Future reports will continue to fine-tune our models as longer-term student outcomes data are collected in coming years for the Class of 2006 as well as subsequent senior classes.
Availability:
Full Report (PDF). 90pp.
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