Key Takeaways from Missouri Students' Postsecondary Success Report
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Missouri Sees Considerable Equity Gaps Along the College Success Pipeline
By: Misti Jeffers, Ph.D., Ashley Donaldson Burle, and Evan Rhinesmith, Ph.D.
This week, the PRiME Center released the Missouri Students’ Postsecondary Success Report, the second report in a series, describing trends in postsecondary success for students who graduate from a Missouri public high school and subsequently enroll as a first-time, full-time (FTFT) student at an in-state public postsecondary institution of higher education (IHEs). We use publicly available data to examine trends in college enrollment, early college academic performance (remediation rates and college GPA), early college persistence, and eventual college completion. We also examine trends by geographic region and high school characteristics (e.g., locale, racial composition, and income levels) using the class of 2015.
Similar to our first report on postsecondary access, in this report we amplify indicators on postsecondary success to authentically represent the performance of Missouri’s public high schools. With Missouri’s “Big Goal” of 60% of adults ages 24-65 to have a college credential completed by 2025, understanding the postsecondary success of Missouri’s students is critical for education and state policymakers.
This blog highlights 5 key findings related to college success in Missouri. We find:
1. About half of in-state FTFT college students complete any postsecondary credential at a Missouri public IHE within six-years.
In-State, Public FTFT Cohort Credential Completion, 2010-2015
Between 2010-2015, the postsecondary completion rate was between 48%–55%.
The percent increase year-to-year is largely a reflection of declining enrollment rates; as fewer students enroll as in-state, public FTFT students, roughly the same number obtain credentials each year.
2. Students encounter multiple steps during college on the pipeline to degree completion; our analyses reveal that students exit at each of these steps.
Missouri High School Class of 2015 Postsecondary Access and Success Pipeline: 6-years after enrolling, 11,600 of the 21,400 Missouri Students Who Enroll in Postsecondary Education Completed a Credential at a Public Missouri IHE
Nearly 65% (39,000 students) of the high school graduating class of 2015 enrolled in college, with 55% of college enrollees (21,400 students ) opting to stay in Missouri and enroll at a public IHE.
Approximately one in four students (16,507 of 21,400) are not persisting to their second year and nearly one in two students (11,600 of 21,400) are not completing a college credential within six years.
3. FTFT in-state student persistence varies substantially by the racial composition of the high school students attend, with students from high schools serving the highest percentages of Students of Color persisting at the lowest rates.
FTFT Persistence Rates Vary by High School Racial Composition
Students from high schools that serve a student body reflective of state demographics experience a second-year persistence rate of 82%, while students from schools that serve a student body that is more than 90% Students of Color have a second-year persistence rate of 64%.
4. Some of the largest disparities in FTFT in-state student postsecondary completion occur by the level of income of high schools with students from the lowest income high schools seeing the lowest rates of any degree completion.
FTFT Credential Completion Rates Vary by Income Level of High School
Students from the lowest income high schools see the lowest rates of bachelor’s degree completion and any degree completion.
For a set of 1,000 students who graduate from the lowest income high schools in Missouri, students graduating from the lowest income high schools have an 11% chance of completing a postsecondary credential from a Missouri IHE, while students graduating from highest income high schools have a 25% chance.
5. Remediation rates for FTFT in-state college students at Missouri public IHEs has improved from 2010-2019.
Remediation Rates for FTFT Students in Missouri, 2010-2019
The percentage of in-state, public FTFT students participating in any remedial coursework has dropped 16 percentage points over the last decade, with rates declining substantially in math and English.
At its worst, 1 in 10 Missouri in-state, public FTFT students enrolling in postsecondary education have done so after failing to show they are able to read at a college level.
These findings, and others covered in the report, point to the need for school leaders and policymakers to examine incremental steps along the pipeline to postsecondary success. The systematic disparities identified in our report indicate that many young adults, who presumably have goals of completion, are not reaching college attainment. This has implications for their future earnings and our state’s economic development. As the state works to meet the objectives outlined in the Big Goal, addressing persistent disparities along the college success pipeline needs to be at the center of the conversation.
