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The Guarantor of Choice SM |
Edufacts™
May 2006
Got math? High school courses especially important for low-income, first-generation college students
Being able to take high-quality, high-intensity classes during high school can play a key role in the success of students whose parents have either lower incomes or lower educational levels. Though these students are less likely to enroll in college than students from more advantaged backgrounds, pursuit of rigorous classes in high school can help change that.
The relationship between high school math and college enrollment is particularly striking: just 27 percent of high school graduates in the U.S. whose parents did not go to college enroll in a four-year institution within two years. However, this rate jumps to 64 percent for students who take at least one math course beyond Algebra II.
The reason? Taking higher-level math most likely reflects a lifetime of high expectations, previous success with math, and a willingness to take challenging courses — attributes that are key to college enrollment and that students may have acquired from parents, teachers, other role models, or on their own. In fact, of all pre-college courses, the highest level of math taken in high school has the strongest influence on degree completion.
For tips on how to establish high expectations for students as early as middle school and for assistance in planning for higher education academically and financially, visit www.AIE.org. TG provides this Web site as a public service to help all families and students achieve their educational and career dreams.
Sources: State of Student Aid and Higher Education in Texas 2006; National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Students Whose Parents Did Not Go to College: Postsecondary Access, Persistence, and Attainment, by Susan Choy, 2001 (http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/2001126.pdf).
About TG
TG is a public, nonprofit corporation that helps create access to higher education for millions of families and students through its role as an administrator of the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP). As a public service, TG provides Edufacts, a publication containing current information about education issues, on a monthly basis. Edufacts is one of the many ways in which TG promotes awareness of education issues, advising the public on national and state trends in education and student aid, and serving as a premier source of information.
High resolution files suitable for publication are available as a free download from TG’s web site at www.tgslc.org/edufacts/index.cfm. For more information, please e-mail or call kristin.boyer@tgslc.org or (512) 219-4990.
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