ERIC Number: ED671188
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2020-Mar
Pages: 64
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Winners and Losers? The Effect of Gaining and Losing Access to Selective Colleges on Education and Labor Market Outcomes. EdWorkingPaper No. 20-211
Sandra E. Black; Jeffrey T. Denning; Jesse Rothstein
Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
Selective college admissions are fundamentally a question of tradeoffs: Given capacity, admitting one student means rejecting another. Research to date has generally estimated average effects of college selectivity, and has been unable to distinguish between the effects on students gaining access and on those losing access under alternative admissions policies. We use the introduction of the Top Ten Percent rule and administrative data from the State of Texas to estimate the effect of access to a selective college on student graduation and earnings outcomes. We estimate separate effects on two groups of students. The first--highly ranked students at schools which previously sent few students to the flagship university--gain access due to the policy; the second--students outside the top tier at traditional "feeder" high schools--tend to lose access. We find that students in the first group see increases in college enrollment and graduation with some evidence of positive earnings gains 7-9 years after college. In contrast, students in the second group attend less selective colleges but do not see declines in overall college enrollment, graduation, or earnings. The Top Ten Percent rule, introduced for equity reasons, thus also seems to have improved efficiency.
Descriptors: Selective Admission, Selection Criteria, Admission Criteria, College Admission, Equal Education, Enrollment Management, College Enrollment, Access to Education, Advantaged, Graduation Rate, Salary Wage Differentials, Class Rank, Efficiency
Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. Brown University Box 1985, Providence, RI 02912. Tel: 401-863-7990; Fax: 401-863-1290; e-mail: annenberg@brown.edu; Web site: https://annenberg.brown.edu/
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Research Council of Norway
Authoring Institution: Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
Identifiers - Location: Texas
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A