Date of Award

1-1-2010

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

Morgridge College of Education

First Advisor

Franklin A. Tuitt, Ed.D.

Second Advisor

Khawla Obeidat, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Toni Linder

Fourth Advisor

Frédérique Chevillot

Keywords

African Americans, College access, College-going process, Higher education, Information, K-12

Abstract

College access is a top educational priority in the United States as millions of federal and state dollars are funneled into programs to ensure college access for all students, minorities and low-income students in particular (U.S. Department of Education, 2009a; U.S. Department of Education, 2009b). Over 80% of high school students and their parents aspire to attain postsecondary education (Dounay, 2006; Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2007). Yet, minorities' and low-income students' ability to penetrate postsecondary doors remains relatively depressed in comparison to their non-minority high-income student peers (Freeman, 2005; Perna, 2007). Most of the research related to college access focuses on a student's predisposition to attend college (e.g., income, parental education levels and involvement, and academic achievement/rigor) or student college choice (Hossler, Schmit, & Vesper, 1999; Perna, 2005). Few researchers (Cabrera & LaNasa, 2000; Bell, Rowan-Kenyon, & Perna, 2009; De la Rosa, 2006) have investigated factors related to the stage in between college predisposition and college choice where students gather information regarding the college-going process, presenting a gap in the literature. For those recent studies that address how college knowledge impacts college entry, most of them place an emphasis on knowledge regarding financial aid and college tuition pricing (Bell, Rowan-Kenyon, & Perna, 2009; De la Rosa, 2006). To expand the higher education literature pertaining to college access and choice, this study examines cross-sectional data from ELS:2002 using Hierarchical Generalized Linear Modeling (HGLM) to explain how obtaining college knowledge regarding the college-going process (i.e., participating in a college preparation program or obtaining information from a high school counselor regarding college attendance) impacts college matriculation for African Americans in comparison to their counterparts.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Brandi Nicole Van Horn

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

126 p.

Discipline

Higher education, Education, African American studies

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