IDEAS - Iniciativas de desarrollo educativo y sociocomunitario

What do we really know about who’s going to college, who persists on the path toward a degree or credential, and what happens to students after they enroll? Colleges keep data on their students, of course, but these data can tell only discrete parts of the story. To help paint a national picture, the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) launched a series of longitudinal studies more than a decade ago to track students’ movements into and through the postsecondary education system. This report summarizes key findings of research conducted using these surveys (highlighted in the box). Detailed descriptions of the surveys and the full text of all NCES-sponsored studies can be downloaded from the NCES web site at http://nces.ed.gov. A complete reference list, as well as an annotated bibliography on some of the most important studies, is included at the end of this report. The findings described in this report focus on undergraduates at four-year colleges and universities, although they also reference bachelor’s degree seekers who start at community colleges. It is important to recognize, though, that students at four-year institutions accounted for slightly less than half of all undergraduates in 1999–2000 (47 percent).

Almost as many enrolled at community colleges (42 percent), with the rest enrolling at private technical schools or other types of less-than-four-year institutions. About three-quarters of those who began their postsecondary education at a community college in 1995–96 hoped to earn a bachelor’s or advanced degree sometime in the future (Kojaku and Nuñez 1998).

This report begins with a brief profile of students at four-year institutions to set a context for the exploration of issues related to access and persistence.