TY - JOUR
T1 - Academic achievement in the first year of college
T2 - Evidence of the pervasive effects of the high school context
AU - Wolniak, Gregory C.
AU - Engberg, Mark E.
N1 - Funding Information:
Data collected through The National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen (NLSF), sponsored by the Office of Population Research at Princeton University, is the basis for this study. The NLSF survey was developed to provide extensive information on a cohort of first-time freshman attending selective colleges and universities. Specifically, the NLSF measured the academic and social progress of these college students at regular intervals and recorded evolving psychological processes and intellectual engagement, while controlling for such factors as social, economic, and demographic characteristics.
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - This study aims to improve our understanding of the postsecondary impacts of high schools by investigating whether or not exposure to different high school contexts may explain academic performance once in college. Drawing on a sample of 3,750 participants from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen, descriptive and multivariate analyses examine relationships between students' precollege characteristics, the high school context, and first year college grades. Results indicate that the quality of the high school infrastructure and exposure to violence at school-two operationalized dimensions of the high school context-affect first year college grades above and beyond precollege academic achievement and a variety of other background characteristics. Results also provide evidence of the conditional nature of these effects, where the high school context reinforces advantages of students with relatively greater economic resources prior to college. Implications for policy are discussed along with a call for a more holistic and interdependent perspective in examining the secondary-postsecondary nexus.
AB - This study aims to improve our understanding of the postsecondary impacts of high schools by investigating whether or not exposure to different high school contexts may explain academic performance once in college. Drawing on a sample of 3,750 participants from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen, descriptive and multivariate analyses examine relationships between students' precollege characteristics, the high school context, and first year college grades. Results indicate that the quality of the high school infrastructure and exposure to violence at school-two operationalized dimensions of the high school context-affect first year college grades above and beyond precollege academic achievement and a variety of other background characteristics. Results also provide evidence of the conditional nature of these effects, where the high school context reinforces advantages of students with relatively greater economic resources prior to college. Implications for policy are discussed along with a call for a more holistic and interdependent perspective in examining the secondary-postsecondary nexus.
KW - Academic achievement
KW - College grades
KW - First year of college
KW - High school contexts
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77954143682&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=77954143682&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11162-010-9165-4
DO - 10.1007/s11162-010-9165-4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77954143682
SN - 0361-0365
VL - 51
SP - 451
EP - 467
JO - Research in Higher Education
JF - Research in Higher Education
IS - 5
ER -