The headline “Fewer Low-Income Students Going to College” has popped up on our screens more times than we can count recently. The origin is a headline on—and the opening sentence in—a Wall Street Journal blog describing a recent report from the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance. Well, that headline is wrong. That’s not what has happened and that’s not what the report says has happened.
Why the confusion? The Advisory Committee reported that among those who had taken Algebra II, the proportion of low- and moderate-income students enrolling in four-year colleges immediately after high school was much lower in 2004 than in 1992. The percentages enrolling in two-year and other institutions were up, so the overall college enrollment rate was down only slightly. Census data reveal that the immediate enrollment rate for all high school graduates from the lowest-income quartile was 41% in 1992, 53% in 2003, 48% in 2004, 54% in 2005, and 56% in 2008. These figures include two-year colleges and other postsecondary institutions, and of course include students with lower levels of academic preparation. More recent data for the subgroup on which the Committee focuses are not available.
There is a good chance that this WSJ blog post will prove to have created a new “common wisdom” about college participation that will be cited over and over. And it’s just not true that fewer low-income students are going to college.
Of course it’s hard to write a brief blog about a detailed report on a complicated issue. And it’s even harder to write a short, accurate headline. But how about something like “Four-year colleges gain fewer qualified low-income students”? Not completely accurate, but a lot less likely to mislead. Also, of course, less likely to claim attention. But grabbing attention by misstating facts is usually thought to be the job of supermarket tabloids, not serious newspapers.
7 Responses to Fewer Low-Income Students Going to College?
arrive2__net - July 28, 2010 at 2:15 pm
So, the census data suggests that the students have just shifted to a different type of college, rather than just not going. Maybe they end up taking Algebra 2 in community, or other college, if it is required for their program. I think this article makes a good point about how some information can be absorbed out of context… especially on the internet, it is easy to remember the headline and not read the story.Bernard SchusterArrive2.net
sdblogger - July 29, 2010 at 9:11 am
It is definitely a complicated issue, and you concisely clarified the findings. Interesting that Algebra II is used as the variable. For more of my views on student development visit http://www.studentdevelopmentblog.com.
cheapscholar_org - July 29, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Definitley seems to be some inherent flaws to the approach provided by the Wall Street Journal. I think the information and results are probably accurate but the headline of the story is certainly misleading and doesn’t properly reflect the data.Dougwww.CheapScholar.org
11167997 - July 30, 2010 at 7:57 am
It’s the propaganda of numbers, again, and higher ed folks themselves will always glom onto a number that seems to tell a bad story. Folks should ask themselves why they so love bad stories, and whether repeating them ad nauseam does any good.
dank48 - July 30, 2010 at 8:23 am
On the other hand, merely by adding a question mark, the CHE headline writer got it exactly right. (Quotation marks would have been superfluous.) The power of proper punctuation can easily be overlooked.
mbelvadi - July 30, 2010 at 10:15 am
I find it’s a very common error in mainstream reporting to confuse the percent of a group to itself (what percent of low income hs grads go to college among all low income hs grads) with the percent relative to external groups (what percent of low income hs grads go to college among all hs grads who go to college). Statisticians, please give me the correct terms to use to describe these two kinds of comparisons! And then maybe try to teach reporters that they’re entirely different, and that they need to be clear which they’re talking about. Because it’s very often that one can be on an increasing trend while the other is on a decreasing trend, if other groups are making the same gains even faster than the group you’re looking at.I gather from the data provided in this article that the headline would have been correct if they’d just substituted the word “university” for “college”. If low-income students are at the very least failing to make the same gains that other income quartiles are making (and worst, falling behind in absolute terms) at the university level, that’s still worthy of note.
uteplib2 - July 30, 2010 at 12:09 pm
I think you mean “what percent of low income hs grads go to college?” for (what percent of low income hs grads go to college among all low income hs grads) and “what percent of college students are low income?” for (what percent of low income hs grads go to college among all hs grads who go to college). (what percent of low income hs grads go to college among all hs grads who go to college)does not make much sense as a question since the condition you give ( among all hs grads who go to college) guarantees the answer to (what percent of low income hs grads go to college) is 100%.